Posted on 03/09/2005 6:12:10 PM PST by mitchbert
What you see when you gaze north in my direction, My Friends, is the continual emasculation of a once proud and dynamic nation and its' people. I honestly wonder what the future holds for Canada, but at this point I can think of little more than an economically hobbled backwater completely bereft of any identity and willingness to stand up for itself; a slow decline into regionalism and eventually a national implosion. Years ago, up until the late 1950's, Canada was a nation that believed it could do anything despite its' small population. Our aerospace industry was the envy of the world. Avro built and flew a multi-engine passenger jet years before Boeing launched the 707 generating interest from airlines worldwide and keen attention from the U.S. Military, not to mention building the Arrow, a fighter jet far better than anything in the sky at the time. All of that came to naught. Our telecommunications expertise was second to none, we patrolled the skies over Europe and had a seat at the international table far in excess of what one would expect from a nation of our size. A nation that sends soldiers far beyond proportion to its' population gets that kind of respect (1 million troops in WWI from a nation of only 10 million). No more. I could go on but I'll spare the bytes. Now we don't even know who or what we are, if anything.
It's tempting to lay the blame for this at the feet of Trudeau, but that's too simplistic. The truth is far deeper. Socialist, and yes Communist, infiltration of our unions and media in the 60's and 70's allowed individuals intent on weakening the country by destroying its' identity to rise and control these organizations, and the meek "lie back and take it quietly" attitude of many Canadians compounded the problem. Canadians by and large have a "subject" mentality as opposed to feeling like citizens who actually own our own country. An over powerful government took more and more taxes to support more and more socialist programs that employ so many people that they become voting blocs and special interests unto themselves, with the result being politicians too meek to confront them. Ordinary Canadians gradually realized they had no real voice in the halls of power so they took the defensive route and put their heads down and just focused on keeping a roof over their heads in the atmosphere of ever rising tax burdens. Feeling no one in Ottawa would listen the people stopped talking, and gradually the national identity, very similar to the pioneering identity of Americans, was lost. We now have no identity, and when you can't define yourself what reason is there to protect anything?
Ask most Canadians what defines Canada and you'll hear the Liberal mantra: Multiculturalism and National Health Care (soon to add National Child care after yesterday's budget). Think about that for a minute. Our identity is that we don't really have one and we're all so afraid of the future that we need the government to look after our needs. Paranoid, self absorbed and bereft of anything of substance we can grasp onto as a nation. In search of anything to define ourselves some (by all means not all or probably not even a true majority) substituted "we're not Americans" as a way of defining ourselves. How mature. Since that is no definition of anything it lead to the knee jerk anti-Americanism found in much of our media and cultural institutions. This decision on missile defense is another example. If we're not Americans we have to be different from them simply to prove our independence, even if the position flies in the face of the national interest. Martin is sooooo determined to look strong (in fact even Liberal supporters are shocked at how incompetent he has shown himself to be) that he apparently feels the only way to do this is to oppose the U.S. for opposition sake. This isn't leadership, it's cowardice.
Canada stood to benefit mightily from open participation in the Missile Defense Program, and at basically no cost. We have technology industries that would have benefited, both from a technical and economic perspective. Forget that now, I suspect. Much of the damage wrought by the fool Chretien would have been put aside, now it will be compounded many times over. Decisions have consequences and there will be big ones here. The destruction of our aerospace industry in the 50's drove our best and brightest engineers to flee to the U.S. where NASA and defense companies were happy to scoop them up. Our socialized medicine has driven scores of doctors and nurses south of the border to the point that our health care system is in slow collapse. The growing navel gazing and self righteous U.S. bashing will eventually result in more and more freedom loving Canadians who actually see what's going on in the world to abandon Canada as lost and relocate to the land liberty calls home.
I've been furious at our governors many many times, and this Federal Government in particular, but today along with my anger I feel deeply embarrassed to call myself Canadian. We're a nation that has lost it's soul, lost it's way, and it increasingly seems that we've lost our collective mind. The future is grim, I'm afraid. It's a shame, we held out such promise once, but that I suppose was a long time ago in a very different Canada. Pity.
The piece posted started life as a FR reply. Over the past several days Adler has read it many times, invited callers (who in the vast majority agree with the post) and today ran an online poll that delivered a better than 80% positive count.
Blew my mind, frankly. I just thought a few folks over here might care about the thoughts. Seems a button's been hit, eh :-)
Worth a quick read.
My apologies for the few typos and misspells. I decided to post the piece as it was originally written. Hope that's okay with everyone.
Thanks. FWIW it was a quick write :-)
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Thanks for posting it. There are ways -- maybe they'll be one of the new democracies thanks to Bush/what has happened in Iraq. The Middle East, Canada, the UK. Could happen.
This poor guy, and those poor Canadians who are stuck in the midst of the Socialists up there.
When I look at Canada today, I think of the "People's States" in "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.
How sad.
LOL.
I didn't realize you wrote this, mitchbert. Good job!
This is probably how US conservatives felt in the dark days of the mid- to late-70's. Everything seemed to be going against them and all seemed irretrievably lost. However, they knuckled down and eventually developed the idea set that proved that conservatives beat liberals at governing every time.
For all you Canadians out there - don't give up. Keep up the good fight and keep pointing out the lunacy all around you. You can retake your country from the Lefty idiots with some real hard work (we'll be cheering loudly from the sidelines).
Thanks for the ping. Of course concerning the ongoing Canadian cattle ban the title should well be "The Embarassed (and extremely foolish) Americans". But I digress.
Within the last couple of weeks I read a piece somewhere, where another Canadian author made similar points. The author talked about how the Canadians had foughts so admirably in certain WWII battles (some battles mentioned specifically by name) how Canada used to be a leader for freedom on the international stage etc. and how the author wished that Canadians could remember that history and get back to it.
I've wished many times since reading it that I'd saved it. This article is good too.
There is a lesson to be learned there
I knew you'd be interested because of the wrong-headed cattle ban that was recently passed.
In the end, the voters get exactly what they deserve.
In Canada, they wanted secular socialism and they got it.
The toilet has swirled and flushed, and now all that's left for Canada is the long ride down the soil pipe.
Oddly enough, it gleaned some attention up here, and thanks to a fellow freeper I found out about it. Charles Adler, a well known and widely listened to radio guy who is unabashidly conservative, read it on air last week and then did it again on Monday. Someone sent it to him. He posted it on his site and ran an on line poll today asking whether or not people agreed. I won big - around 80% :-).
Hey, anything I can do for the greater cause of liberty, eh!
Good article.
Many of us felt like exiles in the United States during the clinton years. But it looks as if Canada's problems are much more deeply ingrained and longer lasting.
Canada includes a lot of beautiful country and is rich in natural resources. I especially like the west and the Maritime provinces. I don't know what the future will bring, but it's hard to see how Canada can survive unless it somehow changes direction.
Good luck.
He sounds like the Red Ensign Cananians we all knew and admired.
It's a good rant, content solid A, for the rant factor only a B-.
But it is all so annoying, the lefties continue to try and destroy our entire civilization.
Rant on, I say, and be prepared to take action at any moment.
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Canadians should show some balls and demand their liberty and self-determination at the price of their lives, if necessary.
Governments are inherently possessed of momentum to tear freedom away from the people. The people must resist that tyranny. It's a disgrace the people of Canada allowed their government to require gun registration. I'll have no respect for Canadians until they force a repeal of that tyranny.
Yeah, well, stupid is as stupid does, eh?
Never give up, never surrender, die on your feet not your knees.
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