Oh Canada (Partial Transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor")

FoxNews.com ^ | September 12, 2005 | News Staff

[NorthOf45]

Oh Canada!

September 12, 2005
Fox News

JOHN GIBSON, GUEST HOST: In the second "Factor Follow-up" segment tonight, generous offers of hurricane aid have been pouring in from around the world, but the donation of one close neighbor piqued Bill's interest.

(VIDEO CLIP)

GIBSON: OK, well, we're going to find out what the situation is. Frank McKenna is the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. He joins us now from Washington.

So Mr. McKenna, welcome.

FRANK MCKENNA, CANADIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: Thank you.

GIBSON: Bill was looking for lots of cash. I suppose the very first thing you'd want to tell me is that Canada is exporting to the United States an extra 91,000 barrels of oil a day to help ease supply disruptions. And that sounds pretty good and thank you.

MCKENNA: Look, thanks for saying that.

And unfortunately, Bill was sent some wrong information here. And I appreciate the chance to correct the record.

Not only are we turning on the taps in terms of oil and natural gas, but we've had one of the most generous and one of the most rapid responses of any nation in the world.

We have four ships that are sailing down as we speak, filled with provisions. We've opened our own national emergency stockpiles. We have Red Cross workers there. Air Canada planes have been down there. We have a dive team, 45 divers, Army and Navy, that are down there. We've had search and rescue people down there. We've had donations from provinces of cash.

- snip -

[NorthOf45]

Another snippet from the interview ...

'GIBSON: You know, Ambassador McKenna, just let me have you address one thing. We know that there are lots of people in Canada on the left side of the political spectrum who don't like George Bush. Is there any, any part of this big Canadian help designed to maybe embarrass the president?

MCKENNA: The -- the president today was kind enough to single out the Canadian contribution, and we've received that kind of praise from legislators across the country.

This has got nothing to do with George Bush. It's got nothing to do with our relationship, which is excellent, by the way. This has got to do with the fact that we have been neighbors and friends for hundreds of years. You have come to our aid when we've been in trouble, and Canadians want to be with you when you're in trouble.

It's as simple as that. It transcends everything else. It is simply a case of uncompromising support at a time when a neighbor is in trouble.

GIBSON: All right. Now Ambassador McKenna, let me just list some of the other stuff that Canada is contributing.

Four military ships and helicopter detachments with four military divers; British Columbia's 45-man Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue Team; 20,000 beds and 20,000 blankets.

Air Canada provided rescue flights to evacuate New Orleans. A convoy of logistical support vehicles and health supply provisions was sent.

The Canadian Red Cross sending its disaster personnel to the area. Nova Scotia donated $100,000 to the Canadian Red Cross for use there. The Canadian embassy in D.C. is holding a fundraiser.

Transport Canada has arranged to waive the toll at the Canada-U.S. border, which is a big deal.

Several private banks donated one point -- $3.5 million to Katrina relief funds. And of course, Celine Dion is pledging $1 million in relief.' ___________________________________

While McKenna is a lib, I can agree that the US and Canada have been assisting eachother out in times of need for a very long time ... and it will continue.

[NorthOf45]

Ping

[mcg2000]

Canadians aren't all wimps, cowards, whiners, race baiters, discrimination mongers, liberals, lazy, ineffective, moochers, etc

Some only have a few of those characteristics.

[badpacifist]

They also sheltered our planes and citizens that were diverted during 911, and a couple of draft dodgers later. Then there is that gay marriage thing. They sent brave troops to help the coalition while Canadian government was insulting our president. It is quite a double edged sword isn't it? You may be a neighbor and I would help you if you were in trouble, but I will never look at Canada as a friend again. Then again thanks for what you have done. You would have done it without us asking, we know that.

[NorthOf45]

Canada is about much more than liberal politicians and their games. What should we think of the US if the democrats get in and start screwing things up?

[Candor7]

I am an ex pat Canadian living in Vermont. BTW I attended law school at UNB when Frank McKenna was a year ahead of me. He is a hard working pol but I can say that we have had a radical change in policy with the Bush Administration since Cretian left office and retired.

The Francophone factor in US/Canadian relations has been minimized and part of that was making Frank, the liberal ex-premier of New Brunswick, the ambassador to the USA.
The Canadian government wants very much to re-establish a friendly detent with the USA after enduring years of wing-nut liberal Cretian leadership. Canada really suffered when the discovery of tainted Beef prevented beef exports from Canada to the USA and there have been ongoing anti-dumping cases involving Christmas Trees, Lumber and potatos
for example. Canada wants to maintain open markets with the USA and Cretien had moved Canada toward closer ties with Europe , especially France. Now Frank is part of a new
initiative. What he says about neighborliness is true, but do not think that there is NO agenda. I know Frank too well for that, and he will expect closer communications and more timely trade negotiations to solve some of Canada's long term export problems with the USA.

I hope our President can deliver but as far as the wing nut Liberals who sometimes skew Canada from the straight and narrow of neighborliness, it is perhaps the biggest reason I no longer live there.

Canada is essentially a socialist country and we should not forget that, whatever aid is sent.

Thank you Frank, but we will use our own deck when we play cards with you! I'd like it a lot better if you helped to dismantle the arcane gun control laws that Canada now has!

All the best Frank!

[BluH2o]

Actually Canadians have ties to NO and LA. Way back, before Canada came into being in 1867 ... the British, who defeated the French decided to move Arcadian French from prime properties along the St. John's River valley (next to Maine & New Brunswick) to lesser territories far removed from their existing homes. They were herded on British ships and were transported to present day LA. The reason ... to give these prime properties to newly arrived British settlers from the motherland. Many LA Cajuns with names like LeBlanc, Boudreau, Tremblay, Cyr, Robichaud can trace their ancestry back to the present day Canadian Maritime provinces. In fact family reunions between the Cajuns and their Canadian brethren are common place.

[NorthOf45]

New Brunswicker here ... UNB alumni, 1992. Vermont, a beautiful State ... driven through there many times when I lived/worked in Toronto for two yrs. No way was I going to drive through Quebec. ; )

[Candor7]

Yes , I am from Fredericton New Brunswick, and the reason WHY the Acadians were shipped out and transported to the previous ly French CIty of New Orleans was because the Acadians were burning and pillaging the farms and settlements of newly arrived English and Scottish settlers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, at the urging of Roman
Catholic priests in many cases, post 1750. This is the other side of the " Evangeline" story that is not often told or acknowledged. The governor of Nova Scotia did not just wake up one morning and then arbitrarily decide to send all of the Acadians to New Orleans.

It is this continued culture which also supports the liberal democrats in Louiana and you saw how it failed to accept timely aid from the president by signing the Louisiana National Guard into the federal chain of command.They still think rather independently , and this time in NO, it was much to their disadvantage, just as it was in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick after the Treaty of Paris hundreds of years ago.

Hey, you'd think they'd be on some kind of learning curve?

[NorthOf45]

I may be splitting hairs here, but it's the Saint John river valley ... St John's is in NF. At any rate, the name "Cajun" is a derivative of "Acadian".

[-=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-]

"Canada is essentially a socialist country and we should not forget that, whatever aid is sent.
"


Riight. And the US is not?

[BluH2o]

I may be splitting hairs here, but it's the Saint John river valley ...

You are correct ... St. John, NB on the St. John River. Have driven most of its length, but several years ago. Haven't visited St. John's, NFLD but have flown over it many times.

[RJL]

Thank you Canada.

[Candor7]

If you lived in the USA , you would see that it vary's from state to state. For example in Vermont there is very little social engineering in the aspect of Gun Control, ( there is no gun control outside of hunting laws, I can carry a pistol anytime I feel like it, yet there are no shoot outs in the streets here!) the police to citizen ration is very low , and there is a very strong culture of self help.

Every Town has its own meetings every year in Vermont
called Town Meeting day, to configure the Town budgets and scholling. It is highly participatory.

Having lived in both countries I can say that socialism is far more advanced in Canada. If you tried to pass a "family allowance bill" in Congress , you would be laughed out of the House. Canadians are far more passive about their rights, and also far more accepting of government intervention in areas of private commerce.They are also very susceptable to government-skewed propaganda about the USA and its people through toungue in cheek CBC broadcasts, funded and controlled by the Canadian Government.Canadians are essentially easily moulded by a political correctness which defines them as NOT this or that,NOT British, not US American, not French. The fact is that Canadians outside of Quebec are truly more like Americans than anyone else, except in their form of government. I hope one day they can cast of the fetters of their present government system and evolve one that allows the country to realize its true economic potential. The Quiet Revolution of Trudeau actually put Canada years behind what it could have been by now in terms of economy.
This was extended by Chretien ( good to see HIM go!)

Quebec , for example passed the 50% mark in 1994 for jobs that are funded by the provincial government, federal government and crown corporations combined. This has not and never will happen in the USA.This is a mark of socialism, and control of the people.

The economy of Canada is falsely and artificially centralized in Ontario and Quebec. If the fetters invoked by the Canadain government were dissolved in terms of oil ( all Canadian oil East of the Ottawa River valley comes from abroad), for example, Canada could begin to reach its true potential as an economic engine. There is enough oil and gas in Canada so that Canadians could pay less than $1,00 per gallon for gasoline. All that is needed is for a pipeline to entend east of the Ottawa River Valley.But the country is divided up in a series of gas and oil monopolies, in socialist fashion.There is not a true free market for oil or gas in Canada.


The Canadian pols so far have not been willing to unleash the true economic power of ALberta and British Columbia. It is controlled by federal export tax and successive regimes of a Francophone controlled socialist liberal government since the days of Lester Pearson.

If that were attempted in the USA, pols would run directly into the Commerce Claus of the US constitution, not to mention riots in the streets.

THE USA is a democratic republic that tolerates some social programing, but there is a fairly active and vociferous movement against that, a form of balance that Canada does not have. One can see that in Freepers.
A Freeper movement in Canada would be investigated by the RCMP in short order and deemed to be a hate group.

No , the USA is not a Socialist Country and never will be.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Gibson correcting O'Reilly...heh heh heh!

[Exit148]

Add Girroir/Girrior/Girreaux or whatever spelling you like to that list. Some of my ancestors had ships and rode it out, but a lot ended up in NO.

[middie]

The Canadians are fine, loyal and reasonable people who treat others with consideration and the kindness one would expect from a good neighbor. To insist that they think like us in terms of national public policy is the height of xenophobia and arrogant pretense. For us to presume on their sovereign choice of how they govern themselves does nothing productive and only serves to enhance the cynical view of the U.S. that exists in continental Europe and the Norse countires.

They have fought side-by-side with us in two world wars and lent support in the era of Korea. They disagreed with our SEA policy circa 1964-72 and our current irrational continuation of what was once a sound policy regarding Cuba. Hell, I've got to go to my summer vacation house in Ontario to smoke a good Cuban cigar. That fact alone indicates the rationality of the Canadian populace and government. And, don't overlook the fact that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police troopers were the very first rescuers on the scene in St. Bernard Parish, they saved a bunch of folks and Canada was the first to offer several millions of dollars on the first day after the storm hit.

[Owl558]

"It is simply a case of uncompromising support at a time when a neighbor is in trouble."

I think this says it well for how I see it. Thank you Canadians for all the help. I hope that it never happens, but you can count on us in an emergency.

[185JHP]

BTTT

[Daaave]

"The Canadians are fine, loyal and reasonable people who treat others with consideration and the kindness one would expect from a good neighbor."-middie

March 17, 2003

"Damn Americans, I hate those bastards."--a quote from an al-Qaeda terrorist? Kim Jung-iL?"

"No, we can thank Canadian Member of Parliament, Carolyn Parrish for this useful contribution to international discourse."

Do you think of your "good neighbors" as bastards?

canadafreepress.com/