Exactly how much freedom does one have to be able to handle in order to download pornography?
Frankly, a country who’s most relevant national symbol is Homer Simpson hasn’t got a lot to answer for. Just ask the MacKenzie Bros.
Here’s to the citizens of Canada: a simple happy people of delightfully loose morals whose very existence is a spit in the eye of American sexual hypocricy. As far as I’m concerned they should be invited to annex New Hampshire as a symbol of our veneration no later than the end of next week. If you don’t agree, it’s only because you’re shallow.
Very true, and while I might get away with pointing out that the combined (British) populations of the three colonies was only about 15,000 (if my memory serves me), scattered along the coast in fishing families and across the back country as farmers, I was certainly remiss in forgetting that Nova Scotia actually sent a delegation to the Philadelphia convention in the summer of 1776. (I have no idea what their participation or decisions were, there. I just remember that they showed up.)
On the other hand, while a large number of New Englanders settled Nova Scotia at the time of the Acadian expulsion, around half of the British settlers had arrived in a block from England around 1750 and were still pretty much “British” in their sympathies. If the New England settlers followed the general trend of only 1/3 in favor of independence, then only 1/6 the population would have been willing to join the colonies to the south.
(Interesting side note: in the 1948 referendum on the status of Newfoundland, serious consideration was given to applying to the U.S. for statehood, but pressure from both the United Kingdom and the rest of Canada kept that option off the ballot. Had it been placed on the ballot, there is no indication that I have seen that it would have carried many votes.)
Well, we of Irish extraction can recall our own wooden shoes, but you’re right that we’re too diplomatic to be insufferable stubborn blockheads. One point for you.
RickJay From reading your OP, you wonder why parts of Canada didn’t go American around the time of the US Revolution. tomndebb gave, in his usual professional manner, a world-class answer.
But then you continue on with a litany of common traits which are relevant to this century: i.e. industrialized and baseball. They have little to do with your original question.
Zarathustra said
Wrong, I have always felt an affinity for my colder bretheren to the North. But this revelation has made me ill. Canadians are now on my *hit list.
hansel, on the otherhand, has convinced me to become a Prussian. Where do I sign up for the women with pendulous breasts?
First, let me apologize again. I was in a foul mood and should have known better than to press “submit”. Thank you.
Second, I guess a lot of my frustration has to do with things which are typified by government-enforced Canadian content. So, for example, even an “oldies” radio station is forced to devote a substantial amount of air play to Canadian tunes, despite the fact that there are precious few legitimate Canadian “oldies” to be played. This is cultural revisionism.
Along a similar vein, the Federal Government once stepped in to prevent a Canadian entry into the erstwhile World Football League. The rationale was that if there was a Canadian team in an American league, the endogenous Canadian Football League, the CFL, would not be viable. In other words, the CFL would be essentially legislated to survive - competetion be damned and who cares what the fans want.
Likewise, the Government doesn’t trust us to freely choose our cable TV channels. No, certain channels will be forbidden to Canadians.
And, TV commercials too. Can’t let us see the American ads. Who cares if we ‘steal’ the signals, we’ll simply insert a Canadian sponsor. Who cares if the sponsor didn’t put forth a nickle to actually sponsor. Hey, let’s substitute local used car ads for the showpiece ones during the Super Bowl.
It is this type of government-led manipulation and control that irks me so much. I can’t believe Americans would stand for it.
Most people pass the oral interview and written test but then everyone backs out at the last minute when they’re told they have to eat a plate of French fries with mayonnaise.
You don’t sign up, you silly bunt: you grab your pikestaff, invade some nation of women with pendulous breasts, and spit their babies. If the expected doesn’t follow, repeat next door.
Ever since I first tried friten met mayo nigh unto thirty years ago (in Belgium, not the Netherlands) I have refused to sully my fries with ketchup. (Pili-pili would be OK from time to time, but mayo is the way to go.)
I’ve heard this, too. Growing up in southeast Michigan, we got Channel 9 from Windsor. My impression is that the Maritimes are kind of the awkward step-children to the rest of English-speaking Canada. Any Canadians can correct me if my imressions are wrong, but it seems like they’ve been pretty much sidelined in the whole Quebec secession issue. Noone seems to care what they want.
i know this is becoming a habit, but it’s a related hijack:
The Canadian Football Act, which was a silly piece of legislation to begin with, need not to have existed. The World Football League (1974-1975, NOT the WLAF which is now NFL Europe) will go down in the annals of history as the worst managed, poorest organized professional sports league to have ever existed.
While it could be said that the Canadian Government is somewhat reactionary with regards to “Canadian Culture” (i.e. the Can-Con laws that dictate that two out of every 5 songs be Rush or Bare Naked Ladies), and the above example is no doubt an example of it, it should be remembered that the Candian People are no more well represented by their government than the American people. Canadians are just as varied in their political and social beliefs as their neighbors to the south.
Speaking to the viability of the CFL, it’s an 8 team sports league in a country of 25 million people. Football is an expensive sport to run, and it suffers the same problems that forces Canadian hockey teams to move to tropical U.S. climates: not enough money to survive. Hell, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers just held a benefit concert to help keep their team from going bankrupt. The four biggest U.S. metropolitan areas are larger in population than the whole country of Canada, and while it sucks (I happen to LIKE the CFL) there just isn’t enough people to keep the league afloat. There have been two attempts in the past three years by American business interests to keep the CFL afloat (one by the NFL and one by Vince McMahon) all of which were flatly (and somewhat justifiably, IMHO) refused in order to keep the game in Canadian hands.
Well, the things that you seem to resent so deeply, like Canadian commercials, etc, are the result of the government trying to step in and keep some cultural identity. Living next to the US can be overwhelming. American TV, magazines, and just general culture pretty much take over the media. I’ve seen little kids who watch a lot of TV that think that everyone is supposed to be American, and that American=Good.
I personally don’t see what’s wrong with trying to make sure that we still have Canadian content on our radio and television.
I also believe that Americans fight for individual rights often overtake common sense for things that should be for the good of everyone. I don’t personally believe in individual rights when they infinge on the rights of society as a whole.
I wonder… if you really feel this way, why are you still in the country? If you really feel that Canada should lose what little identity it has, why not just move to the States?
I don’t think this is quite true. McMahon’s bid was refused outright, but I believe the CFL accepted a mumble million dollar loan from the NFL. The conditions on the loan required cooperation between the two leagues, including allowing players under contract to the CFL to leave and join an NFL team. A joint NFL-CFL flag football promotion for kids has also been started. There was also talk of having a “World Championship” game played between the NFL Europe champion and the CFL Grey Cup Champion (BC Lions in 2000!).
This thread’s already covered a lot of ground (interesting, though), so a little more won’t hurt… Can Canadians not within range of U.S. broadcast stations, and without satellite dishes, see the major U.S. broadcast networks? (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX,…)
I always wondered if in the event of Quebec independence, the Maritimes might not seek some sort of Commonwealth status, becoming a collection of Puerto Ricos del Norte. That way their subsidies could continue, only from Washington instead of Ottawa.
And like Puerto Rico, each province could send its own team to the Olympics.
Yes, on cable. This is irritating though, because if a Canadian network and a US network are showing the same show, the same signal is broadcast on both channels (ie: the Canadian network’s signal is shown on top of the US signal). This means that we don’t get to see the Superbowl commercials if a Canadian network is showing the game (and it always is) - the cable company broadcasts the Canadian advertisements on both stations. And everybody knows the best part about the Superbowl is the ads.
Being English & having started all the mess in the first place (ok, my ancestors, probably, I’m not that old - or someone else’s ancestors 'cos all mine were poor & stayed put in England!), I can tell you that it is:
vinegar and salt and tomato ketchup…
or curry sauce…
or gravy…
or grated cheese…
but I’ve never tried mayo, I think tonight’s menu needs updating!
Fi.
I hope this was just idle speculation, and not serious talk because, aside from the similarity in uniforms and equipment, the two sports have some real differences to overcome. Now, the basics of each are still the same, but the CFL plays on a larger field, with more players, less downs, and a few more rules (motion towards line of scrimmage) which make the strategies of each sport considerably different. Would the game be played under CFL rules? American rules? SOme hybrid(which is bound to suck)? A two game series played under both sets?
