Consider the fact that the Brits have said that about every not content group they had fighting for them: Australians/Kiwis, Highland regiments, Irish, and Sikhs. Besides those groups there was only two colonies sending many troops during the wars: South Africa and Rhodesia, both of which considered themselves more British than the British and primarily contributed fairly recent British colonists rather than natives. It's not as if the Brits were unique in that: the US praised Filipino troops up and down and promised them citizenship, only to avoid doing that until the 90s. Native Americans were also extolled, especially the code-talkers (who well deserved it).
While that is true, foreign troops are praised more than any others, Canadians have more merit to the claim than any other. During the 100 days offensive the CEF (Canadian expeditionary force) were put on the front lines the most, leading the way. The CEF took 45k casualties during that time which was quite a lot considering the small number of total CEF men. They wouldn't have been put on the front lines if they weren't really special compared to other divisions.
Come to think of it, perhaps my view (that the Aussies were ultimate stud fighters but the Cannucks not necessarily anything special) stems from the fact that the Americans (of whom I am one) got to see the Aussies in action up close and personal in the jungles of the South Pacific. I understand that the Amis had a lot of respect for the fighting (especially "jungle fighting") abilities of the Aussies! The Canadians, on the other hand, didn't really fight cheek-by-jowl with the Amis very much and probably had much more to do with the Brits which would explain the Brit's appreciation of their qualities.
Terry Fox? The story of a man raising awareness of cancer research by running across the nation. Shows human spirit, and tragedy by succumbing to the illness. Or maybe House hippos.
I don't know if you know this but most Canadians go to Canadian universities, proximity to American universities is in the most literally sense not an issue. Something like 15% of students study abroad and their top destination is France not America.
This whole thing is dependent on the scenario that Canada ends up with an aggressive neighbour like Germany. The situation of Russia today is due to outside forces, the Germans started the Russian revolution which led to 70 years of communism and communism is why Russia is the way it is today.
I have no idea what you mean by that. If you're talking about the economy then you have no idea what you're talking about because you're economically illiterate. It's hard not to look down on Americans if this is the best you've got
Who cares about Canda's attitude toward America or anything else? It's Canda--again, who cares?
bro, do you actually think this?
I think you need to take a hard look at the political reality
and LOL at the idea of Russia jumping at the chance to defend Canada, or anyone for that matter. the world would grumble just like they did when Russia took Crimea, despite all of the allies they had too
... Money alone can't win wars, South Vietnam was annexed despite the NVA being up against a force with a technological superiority.
It works both ways so I don't believe any particular country benefits unless there's evidence that Canada disproportionately benefits from that.
Sure, but this doesn't make Canada dependent on America. Eastern Europe is experiencing a brain drain but those countries aren't particularly reliant on western Europe. This point just strengthens the protectionist position (I don't know if you're for or against protectionism but I believe free trade has done more harm to Canada than immigration), if Canada brought back base industries then the brain drain would stop. This whole topic was covered extensively in the book the vanishing country, but to sum it up, Canadian lawyers and engineers are leaving Canada because there's nothing for them in Canada, but if we brought back the head offices of these companies then the people working in America would come back.
Ever since the Breton Woods agreement America has been the protector of all the world. Proximity doesn't matter because America has a zero tolerance policy on warmongers. They'd protect Kuwait from an Iraqi invasion the same they'd protect Canada from Russian invasion. And, no doubt America is a warmongering nation, they expanded all across the American continent and across the Pacific into the Philippines, they have no need for formal conquest, but if the formal international treaties expired then they would turn to conquest once again and Canada would be first in their imperialist wars. But the poor Americans haven't read their Mahan, once they recede they won't come back.
I don't disagree, however both America and Canada have the capability to essentially be self sustaining countries. If an international blockade were placed on Canada then we would recover due time, probably stronger than ever. For example, once the Entente blockade was placed on Germany German industry started booming despite having no international trade, the same thing would happen to Canada. So, however dependent on America we are now can be cured with protectionism.
International trade is supposed to be fair, so when a country puts forward policies to further their own economic interests the United Nations throws a fit. America was mad because we weren't playing fair by "the laws of international trade" that were dictated by the UN. But I am in favour of the dairy cartels and other government subsidies if it means that Canadian industry survives, and if that means cutting off trade relations with the US then so be it
most Canadians are pompous assholes when they talk about the United States and I hate it just as much as you do. From my own experience most Canadians have no idea what their even talking about when they talk about America. They talk about it as if it's one monolithic entity when the reality could be farther from the truth. I literally had to explain to one of my friends that not all Americans are gun toting Bible loving conservatives, I had to point out that there political differences between different parts of America.
The priority of the state is to perpetuate itself, as a citizen of this country I must see it through that this country exists in the future whether for good or ill, "culture" and "history" are just side effects of existing
Calm down, we don't want Canada that bad, the last thing we need is to add the people who elected Trudeau to our voter population.
I doubt very much anyone would want to go to a country where you have to pay 45k for a broken arm. And by the way, the conservatives won the popular vote last election so adding Canada to the united states would help Dro ompf f
