[lbo-talk] Re: chomsky ipse loquitur

[Marvin Gandall]

>From earliest childhood, as soon as the parents sit their kids down in front
of the television to watch Sesame Street and take them on day trips across
the border, Canadians spend the rest of their lives -- without much
success -- trying to somehow distinguish themselves from Americans,
rationalizing the country's separate existence. We're already a pretty much
a single economic unit, especially since NAFTA, and our exporters would love
to go the next step to a common currency. The Canadian military is similarly
integrated through NORAD. Politically, Canada is allowed a little
independence, as in case of Iraq, the better to serve as a pacifist running
dog of US imperialism when the White House decides a mediator or
peacekeeping force is needed somewhere. If it weren't for medicare and pride
in Team Canada (hockey) and the ubiquitous use of eh?, there'd be little to
justify the country's continued existence -- Quebec excluded, of course,
since it does have a distinctive language and culture.

The real geographic, economic, and cultural fault lines in North America run
north-south rather than east-west. So the Maritimes are like New England,
Ontario like the industrial northeast, the Prairie provinces like the
Midwest, and BC like the US northwest. Oil-rich Alberta is not continguous
to Texas, but otherwise has more in common with it than with the other
provinces. The only reason Canada exists, as I'm sure you all know from your
history, is because the reactionary loyalists fled to it for refuge and the
powerful Montreal merchant class wanted to retain the British connection in
order to extend their so-called Empire of the St Lawrence westward into the
great heart of the continent, against the New York- and Boston- based
bourgeoisie to the south. They did move progressively westward with the
development of the fur, timber, wheat, and minerals trade, but were held
above the 49th parallel, and political union followed in 1967. The Montreal
merchants actually dominated the growing trade west of the Alleghanies and d
own the Mississippi until 1783 and were poised to move into the US Midwest
and beyond, when the British,so they felt, sold them out by ceding control
of the West to the Americans after the War of Independence. Had that not
happened, the New York Yankees would have become the small-market farm team
of the Montreal Expos rather than vice-versa.

I've always felt it would make good political sense for the Democrats to
call for an invasion of Canada. Not only would it prove their bona fides as
muscular imperialists to doubting swing voters, but it would result in a
permanent Democratic dictatorship in the US (although not the kind
envisioned by Lenin) since the more politically liberal Canadians
overwhelmingly favour the DP. A 2000 survey of Canadians showed even a
slight majority of the right-wing Reform party (now again called the
Conservative party) favoured Gore over Bush. Alternatively, the liberal
northern states could turn the tables this time and secede from the south,
and together we could form a more perfect union. Think about it.

MG

----- Original Message -----
From: "paul childs" <npchilds at shaw.ca>
To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 3:32 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Re: chomsky ipse loquitur


> > slightly): "Well yeah, but I'm Canadian, so I don't really care about
> > those."
> -------------------------
> >In fairness to NK, she may not be aware of the close economic ties
between
> >the two countries.
>
> Mebbe, but that would make her one of the few Canadians unaware of the
ties (it's usually the other way 'round, Americans thinking their biggest
trading partner is Japan, China or Mexico), and frankly it would mark her as
sort of a dunce in the punditry classes.
>
> That trade relationship is usually the a given and the point of departure
in discussion of our trade policies.
>
> I'm puzzled by what she meant, I'll have to take a look-see.
>
> PC
>
>
>
> N P Childs
>
> 'I'm Mister Bad Example, the stranger in the dirt,
> I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt'.
>
> -Mr. Bad Example, W Zevon
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>