Hey now, lets not forget the contributions Canada has made to the finer things in life.

I have some coworkers from both France and Canada who I consider to be true friends. One drunken night, we decided to throw all prejudice and political spin aside, and try to agree on some of the good things each society (French, US, and Canadian) has contributed to the world.

After a couple hours, we had two pages (standard 8.5 X 11 notebook paper) for both France and America.

But only two lines on a single page for Canada:

Rush, and back bacon.

Even the Italians don't have a gov't yet. I still don't think they've completed 1 post-WWII gov't tho Bertolesconi (sp) might pull it off.

Torque the Euros w/that, you want US to listen to you????

Let's see, still on 1st Republic v.........

The Italians don't have a government yet?

Well good for them.

They seem to be doing quite well without one.

k I just want to say that we apologize for rush. libertarian as i am, my god those guys suck.

We also gave the world some other great things: Pamela Anderson, Shania Twain, Daniel Lanois (record producer, he's awesome)...

Plus, if everything goes right over the next few months, we'll be on our way to an Irish economy, a Hong Kong (pre '97) government, and an american culture. Don't know about you, but between the success of American restaurants, and the state of French cars, I'd much rather have an American culture. I know I'm selfish, but I'd rather have my car unburnt and my muslim friends being ridiculously entrepreneurial (along with my hindu, sikh, jain, chinese, korean, philippino, ismaili, japanese, etc friends).

A relatively untapped resource in the country is the legal concept that native governments are sovereign. Some of them are taking advantage of this to create reduced tax and regulation zones, while also introducing private freehold ownership of reserve lands, rather than communal. Not enough have done this, and the low regulation zones are only really beneficial for reserves in or near prospering communities (which tend to be a small minority, just like in the US), but is growing.

Anyways, things are looking up. With the right results and a few years, we'll have the economy, government, foreign policy, and the military back on track. New ports, lots of new ships, planes, helos, vehicles, and many more snipers. Lookout world.

We're also a great resource for the WOT as we have a very large Ismaili population. They're westernised (take a look at the Aga Khan... he looks Swedish), economically successful, integrated, South Asian in appearance, most speak Arabic and either Urdu or Punjabi, know Islam (while following a schismatic sect), and DO NOT LIKE Islamists (they're treated as heathen... much worse than Shia), especially the Sunnis. Great potential recruits, though you have to pay them very well, as they come from successful families (they were the merchant class of Uganda before they were expelled and most have bounced even higher than where they were in Uganda).

hey:

> Plus, if everything goes right over the
> next few months, we'll be on our way
> to an Irish economy, a Hong Kong
> (pre '97) government, and an american
> culture.

As you said, "if everything goes right". I suspect you mean if the Conservatives win. I am afraid that this won't happen. It seems to me, that on the federal scene here in Canada, the Conservatives are not elected into power. The Liberals, when people are fed up with them, are voted out. And when the voters forget why they sent the Liberals to the opposition, then they vote them back. The Convervatives are just placeholders. So the question is reduced "were the Liberals bad enough"? I suspect the answer is unfortunately no. Gomery didn't make quite the fireworks it deserved. People are not fed up enough to send the Natural Governing Party pack. Unfortunately.

Vilmos

What most people don't realize is that this is all Tom Green and Celine Dion's fault.

Karma.

I heard a similar joke however it went:

With Canada’s historical influences, they could have had French cuisine, British culture and American technology; what they opted for was British cuisine, French technology and American culture.

Every time I go up to Canuck - land, everyone is quite fond of listing all the things in their country that are not like the US. After a few years of this line of dialogue, I've started asking them to please illustrate just what Canada stands for, and not just what it isn't, per se.

You either get twenty minutes of incredibly obtuse reasoning, or a blank stare. After all these years, they're still really just a bunch of Tories, so their we're - the - opposite - of -what - you - are is likely to continue. Really quite pathetic when you think about it, and all the more reason for them to chuck it all and break the damn thing up and start over.

When I lived in Toronto thirty years ago I heard the joke as:

American technology, British government and French culture, which had been transmogrified into

French government, British technology and American culture.

My prinicpal memories of Canada in the Seventies consist of butter tarts (Canada's other contribution to world cuisine) and twice-a-year postal strikes.

I think Rodney Dangerfield had one...

Canada, what if someone threw a country and nobody came?

Where is Canada?