And, Happy Canada Day (or, Peace, Order and Good Government)

Happy Canuckistan Day everyone!

It's that day where Canadians all over the world celebrate that which defines us as a nation.

Specifically; beer, hockey, and the fact that we are Not-Americans.

And come to think of it, we're quite happy that the Yanks took Celine Dion off our hands too. Thanx dudes; we owe you one for that.

In great measure, Canada became a nation to protect the remnants of the British North American colonies from American expansion, a definition of what it means to be 'Canadian' has always produced a great deal of hand-wringing up here, especially in media-circles. Not-American is just a negative value, it's not a positive.

The social (and socialism) experiments proposed and carried out under Pearson and Trudeau were in no small part an attempt to blend socialistic tendencies of academia and Europe with the liberal-capitalism of America. To what extent this has given rise to a Canadian 'identity' is debatable.

One thing even our most neo-fascist Canadians (in the States, they would be Democrats ;) can agree on; we're quite happy being Not-American, for the most part.

Other Generally Accepted Accoun... er, Canadianisms:

Universal Healthcare is seen as a social compact; it's not going to always be pretty, but it doesn't leave huge gaping wounds and open class-warfare in it's wake. If you have extra cash, or insurance, you can always make a run for the border if you need to short-stop the system. You can generally get access to good healthcare in a timely fashion, and not have to sell the house or bankrupt your children's future.

Guns are for the most part only for the Police and the Military. I personally do not hold to this view (I grew up very rural), however nor do I believe that the liberalization of gun-ownership to the extent that it is allowed in the US is the way to go. *Shrugs* I've seen too many morons up here that I wouldn't want to have easy access to firearms...

The Environment is Important™. But, nobody here wants to accept the reality that our ability to impact the world's environmental policies is negligible; get a grip peeps, we're only 30 million people... we're not going to dictate to China, India, US, et al. Do what you can locally, because you want to do it for yourself.

A good government is a Minority Government. :-) Don't let the Bastards have too much power... ;-)

Best Regards, and Go Drink a Beer,

Imp;)

PS, Given that my 'patch' is actually in the US, I'm working today... but taking the 4th off. Ah well.