On second thought, I’m not finished ranting.
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.
It's a good rant. Although I was hoping otherwise, Martin has unfortunately demonstrated himself to be Chretian-lite.
You've got some excellent posts on this thread.
saving to read later.
Actually... I don't usually read long posts. However, yours was excellent and well worth it.
"1 million troops in WWI from a nation of only 10 million"
Okay, if I'm going to use the bandwidth, I'll look into it and finish. ------------------------------------------------
Over 600,000 Canadians enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020106_e.html
Sorry 'bout that all :- /
Dude... that was some inspired stuff. Nicely done.
Unfortunately Mitch, much of what you say could apply to America as well. Especially whent he democrats are in office. I'm afraid the liberal fools will some day learn the errors of their ways but by then it will be too late.
Your lengthy post about your country took a lot of fortitude and I admire you for it.
I have been reading the Canadians' views on the popular forums (I assume the liberal ones), and they are quite adamant the PM made the right choice.
You stand a proud man among few and somehow I think the US understands and will never let Canada be without aid if it comes to that.
Re your #25: Don't despair, as long as Canada can still produce citizens like you all is not lost. Keep the faith...