[Squawk 8888]

To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.

Canada Ping!

[faithhopecharity]

yeah, but he sure makes krappy hamburgers!

:)

[RitchieAprile]

We signed a treaty recognizing the border at 44.40 lat.

What were they afraid of? A few odd sourdoughs squatting in BC territory?

Unlike some countries the US is as good as it’s word when it comes to treaties.

[Ditto]

Interesting article. Thanks.

[canuck_conservative]

MacDonald was the first PM, and the first to view Canada as a potential coast-to-coast country.

He realized his dream three ways -

(1) He convinced the Colony of British Columbia to join Canada (1871), not the US (locking in the west coast), a major achievement given the geography and demographics there;

(2) He acquired the massive lands of the Hudsons Bay Co. for Canada (1870), thus getting all the land between Ontario and BC;

(3) He pushed vigorously for the only means, in the mid-1800s, of developing that vast area - a transcontinental railway, the CPR.

Give MacDonald his due, he was a transplanted thistle but he served his new country well.

[goldstategop]

John A. MacDonald was a man possessed of a national vision. To transform the British North American colonies peacefully into a nation.

And it was all done through mutual agreement, compromise and consensus. The Fathers Of Confederation led by him were empathetic they were creating a new country out of whole cloth, to take its place among the powers of the earth.

They united the French and English peoples, created a democratic government, secured Canada’s place in the British Empire and extended it from sea to sea and to the North Pole.

MacDonald realized those aspirations perfectly and was the greatest Canadian statesman of the 19th Century. He was and is Mr. Canada.

[Candor7]

MacDonald was the geatest PM we ever had , none can measure up to him since. He frank profusely, once pausing to vomit in mid debate and not missing a beat said, “The oppositions argument makes me just that sick.”

A wee Scot, and a giant of a man. He loved Canada so much he had to hit the Scotch like a patriotic hoser, beginning a prodigiouos tradition which has scarcely petered out in modern times.

I love that man.