Remember the old joke?

Fatty and Skinny went to bed. Fatty rolled over and Skinny was dead.

Too many commentators and politicians in Canada make the mistake we are equal in our dealings with the Americans but most Canadians know we have to stand to-gether to keep our country.

Too many also believe the interests of the U.S. are the same as ours.

Yes, let's wish "Happy Birthdays" to both countries and let's be able to do the same in 100 years, 200...

Maybe our historic divergences are more subtle than the taming of respective Wests by "cowpokes" and "Mounties" might seem. In Atlantic Canada didn't we just witness a marriage of two male Mounties before a host of colleagues in full dress uniform - even as "Brokeback Mountain" won kudos for depicting the Wild West as a sensitive, new-age territory, not at all what we expect from the Marlboro Man.

Lantzvillain said,

So goes the saying, the Mounties always get their man.

Garry, I've got news for you. In spite of Canada regularily being screwed, we aren't married to the Americans.

As for the beaver analogy...after their introduction on Tierra Del Fuego they wreaked havoc on the environment since they have no natural predators, lots of fresh water and plenty of bite size deciduous trees. Kind of like a single male Canadian tourist in Cuba drunk on rum while he rests on the bosom of a fawning teenage girl.

We're not married, we two. We're neighbours.

And our neighbours are in some trouble. The old man has become more and more abusive and seems to be addicted to something. He's keeping increasingly bad company, and selling off the family's assets to pay the sharks. I think it's some kind of pyramid scheme.

Sooner or later the women and children of our neighbour will be showing up on our doorsteps again. Out of everything and scared of Dad.

We should try to stay sane and out of this Amway existence ourselves if we can, so we can have some help to offer when they come.

I spent almost twenty years developing projects in the U.S., and bringing multi-million dollar profits back to Canada.

A favorite story I often relate is of the quest for a large gold nugget. It sits glistening on a podium in the middle of a small room built on the Canadian/American border.

There are eleven doors in the room. One door leads to Canada and the other ten to the United States.

A per capita proportionate amount of Canadians and Americans are milling around in the room - in other words, 1 Canadian and 10 Americans. At the sound of the starter's pistol the goal is to grab the gold nugget and take it back to your country.

It's not hard to envision that if the Canadian expects to win he or she will not only need fast reflexes, but also strong negotiating skills in an effort to convince a sizable portion of the Americans that he or she should keep the nugget.

Grabbing the nugget is a feat in itself, while getting it through the door is an exercise in cunning and creativity.

Thanks to the "Great American Dream," Americans grow up with a feeling of entitlement (it's a good thing), while Canadians have to constantly figure out how to trick and wrestle the candy from their big brother's grasp.

When Canadians grow a little older and wiser we'll have more strength and confidence too.

Considering our age and experience, we're doing quite well.

Happy birthday everyone -- Yanks and Canucks alike!!

What exactly should we celebrate?
The final draft of the lumber treaty?
The list is endless, of deals where we get the short end of the stick.
Chances are that we as individuals will be better off, when US finally annexes our country! (and they will)
How could we get screwed more than under the present system where President Harper follow Mulroney in handing over everything and get nothing in return.

True. This country is just a streetwalking slut/gigolo It'll sell its body to any rich State what can afford to pay off our pimp ruling class. It's the "kaching" at the till that is the real measure of the value we put on who we spread our leg$ or butt cheek$ for.

Nice Birthday present!

Mr. Emerson's announcement this morning of a 'final' draft of the lumber payoff agreement. Along with the news the corporate signatories must - in order to collect (in some months) their share of the swill - sign off from all legal efforts they had been, both collectively and individually, been pursuing against various targets in the States.

One wonders if any of the government's “business partners” will have the jam to reject the deal and continue litigation?

The military hardware purchase more than offsets any extra cash made by canadian lumber companies. As corporate and dividend tax rates are lower than the taxes paid by the citizenry who actually cut and process the trees, the planes being purchased will be paid for by those workers. America's closing of the border for people without passports is but another example of this protectionism that lives on through NAFTA. I think NAFTA may be newspeak code for cheap Canadian resources and cheap Mexican labour for America. I wonder if the percentage of US holdings in Canadian businesses (particularly Resource-based Industries) has increased more than Canadian holdings in American businesses since the ratification of NAFTA?

Which required (and requires still) infinite expansionism.

"Give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Don't fence me in........."

As such, the "individualism" espoused by Amerika is doomed to failure as boundaries are reached, and the system begins to back up, become constipated.

ripponfalls:

However, our governments and business leaders are whores, everyone of them.....

Did anyone notice that Mr. Harper gave a birthday present and then took one away? For all the dollars saved by the 1% GST refund (great if you're buying a house or a Ferrari) he also raised the income tax of anyone making less than $36,000 a year. So, in reality, it's just another tax credit for the rich - taken from the poorest. That's a very American kind of present. I think I know who's butt cheeks are spread, and who's gettin' the pleasure. This beaver is slappin the tail, folks. It's time to eat an eagle...

I was hoping this article wouldn't inspire some kind of cheap anti-Americanism, but alas, some just can't resist to insert a dagger into the country that brought us the American Constitution, The Bill of Rights, Benjamin Franklin, Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, jazz, rock, blues, Broadway, the PC, Viagra, the EPA, The Declaration of Independence, television, radio, Internet, Ed Sullivan, Thomas Jefferson, the abolition of slavery, the victory in WW2, Woody Guthrie, On The Road by Kerouac, airplanes, automobiles, flat screen monitors, buggy whips, nuclear energy...
I buy a cup of coffee everyday from the same shop, the price is always $1.71. I make it a point to bring a penny with me every time. On Saturday morning the price was $1.70, no penny required. Now I buy 350 coffees a year. So i will save $3.50 a year, or two free coffees. This is just on one thing I buy regularly. It will result in $400.00 t0 $500.00 a year in savings to the average Canadian. It will be further reduced by another 1% to 5%. That will be $1,000.00 a year savings. Whats wrong with that ?

I AM Clueless, you forgot: slavery; institutionalized prejudice; traffic congestion; increasing earnings inequality; a civil war that was the deadliest conflict of the 19th century; a world-wide depression; skipping out of both WW I and II until the last minute; organized crime; institutionalized prejudice; a civil rights nightmare that still causes enormous inequalities; 11 million second class illegal immigrant workers; 41 million people with no health insurance; Mutual Assured Destruction; the only Atomic weapons actually used on people; the Vietnam War; an unnecessary war with Iraq; incredible pollution and an aggressively overweight and wasteful culture; enormous agricultural subsidies that cripple 3rd world development; Viagra; rampant use of illegal drugs; the War on Drugs; overuse of prescription drugs; George Bush; ‘Reality’ TV; a crippling debt and an out of control deficit - I could go on - etc, etc, etc.

By the way, I’d suggest most of the artists you seem to like would probably say they created their own success.
If you make a salary that puts you in the bottom tax bracket you will pay far more in extra tax than you'll ever save from a phony 1c roll-back in GST which savings many companies are not even obligated to pass on to their customers.

They rejected slavery, nobody else did. It was symbolic. That was a main frame of the civil war. Not that banning slavery, was a bad idea, no, it was because the idea came from the Yankee North.
The Yankee North, then as they are now, tend to be liberal, while the south is conservative.
The US deficit is diminished into nothing, yes it's true.
41 million people without health insurance in the USA. How many even want it? You can pay as you go down there if you want to, so why pay an insurance company ? The rest get taken care of. Do you see thousands of Americans dying in the streets ? Of course not. They are the richest nation in the world and still lead with R&D and results.

IAMC

You really think the US deficit is diminishing into nothing? God man you're stupider than you appear. The US accumulated debt is now approaching 9 trillion dollars; net savings in the US is now negative - Bush has borrowed more money since he became president than all other US presidents in history combined. You, further, know nothing about the US civil war.

If you want some more info on US indebtedness, you can find it here clueless:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

You'll see whatever you want to see. Canada and the US are like Shia and Sunni, Sweden and Finland, Mary Kate and Ashley. Those directly involved will exclaim over their many differences and perhaps aspire to a separate destiny. Stepping back only a moderate way obscures the very very minor variations.

Dear IAMC; I feel a need to ask about some interesting assertions you make in your post above.

-The British abolished slavery in the 1820s. Peaceably. The whole world had concluded that slavery was a great crime. The Americans waited 40 odd years then had to forced with the bloodiest war in history.

Are you trying to maintain that these people choose to avoid medical insurance because they find it more cost effective to just die young? Or are you claiming that they are in fact investing the money they save by not having insurance, because American health care is so affordable they can make more on their investments than their care would cost them?

In fact, thousands of Americans, and Canadians for that matter do live on the streets. Where exactly do you think they die?

Are you by any chance a product of the American educational system, sir?

IAMC says

What you stated is factual, any body with half a brain would agree, except the two twots, G West and Bailey, you realize that in their world all things revolve around them.

If 1000$ = 2% you would have to spend 50,000$ a year to realise this savings. I don't know many people who spend this kind of money year after year. Only 10% of the people in Canada earn over 50,000$/yr let alone spend this.
Hence this is a tax break for big spenders while those at the low end of the economic food chain can enjoy higher income tax.

If Stephen Harper's plan is to increase the gap between rich and poor he is off to a good start.

Can't remember where I heard this, or if I even coined it; the beaver is Canada's national animal because it's a fat little creature that's only concerned with cutting down trees and building dams in order to make a snug home for its family to survive the winter. And then foreigners come and skin it alive.

A bit glib, but to the point, huh?

Short and to the point...I would rather file for divorce.

Mel from Calgary if you’re unhappy and do not agree with your 1% GST saving, simply send it back, no one is holding you hostage to keep it, better yet, send it to me.

I'll need that 1% to help pay the increase in my income tax.

If the male Beaver chews his nuts off, what then does the female chew off, her beaver?

Mel from Calgary who you trying to bull sh!t you guys in Alberta don,t pay any tax, instead you get royalty checks sent to.

Albertans want all the benefits of government without actually having to pay for them. I don't know how they figure the world would be a better place without governments, but that seems to be the agenda doesn't it? Because no taxes means, really, ultimately no government other than a rule-making body. And of course they're against regulation, too, which leaves you with what? Robber barons....

Albera must be full of JWs, they don't beleive in or support governments.

In Alberta they just don't call them taxes. They are "premiums", "recycling", "tire" "fees"... Because people want to believe they don't question the myth. One thing we do have the lowest royalties (the price paid for resources owned by the people)in the world, literaly giving our resources away and in the case of trees we are actually paying the companies to cut them down.
Ralph is a generous guy...unless you wash dishes for a living or are handicapped.

Albertans don't even have time to participate in this discussion. I ran into a women tonight, who was visiting from Calgary.
She was saying that the city has heated up double, in the last year alone. She was an owner of a company that cleaned commercial office space.
She can't keep up with the opportunities.
This whole equalization program will be over hauled, to where Prov. will have increased taxation power to administer their programs in a manner that addresses their local needs.
This Federal thinking will appease Quebec and neuter separatists.

IAMC, that is right your friend does't have time to keep up with the commertial real-estate. Good for them, they support only the healhy, strong and well educated; let's pretend all the others don't exist.

Since 1867 the provinces always had the taxing power you were talking about but they wanted the federal government to be the "bad guy".

Stephan Harper is a man who does not like Canada but has found himself in charge of us, now what? How do you turn us into a colony while pretending you want independence?

Woody agrees with IAMC:

He makes no attempt to counter the factual inaccuracies pointed out in IAMCs posts. But he agrees.

I guess he feels he meets the qualifications he sets.

Married to the Mob! Hey, we never even went steady. Besides, Canada is a young hot-blooded resourceful chick, why would she even want to date such an old, worn-out warmongering dude who doesn't have any friends and is trillions of dollars in debt?

As for your cheap shots and especially the "hypochondriac Canadians overuse and abuse" of the medical care system it sounds like you know Garry, so I'm presuming you're speaking for and about yourself.

The beaver was not chosen as a national symbol because of the money to be garnered from its pelt. It was chosen because it is smart, industrious and hard-working contrary to your denigrating opinion. And, the maple leaf is an extraordinary leaf I'll have you know! Gather it up, put it in the the compost and next year you've got dirt...how valuable is that compared to a distant star?

Garry, are you a transplanted Yankee by chance? Either way, you sound like a Conservation. Yeatch.

Baling Bailey, this what I said to IAMC,

You proved me right, you’re a day late and 40 acres short.

Garry Gaudet...

I don't think you can get a bigger event in U.S. tabloids than a happening of British Royalty. I represent a big percentage of Canadians who wouldn't travel to the end of a block to see them.

IMAC..

Hold on now - It's a well-known fact of history that the British banned the transportation of slaves when this lucrative business was in full swing on the high seas. And, they were the first to do so.

The Americans still haven't rejected slavery. The US federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour - set in 1997. Since that time average purchasing power has been degraded by 20%. The effective value of the minimum wage is $4.12/hour today. Anyone working for that princely sum, and many illegals don't do that well, is effectively still a slave. As to what's happened to executive compensation in the same period; well, anyone with half a brian can draw the appropriate conclusion. Land of the Brave and home of the free, my ass!

Very good point by G West.

Slavery is back as an institution in the world, both in the West and in the Orient. In most cases though, even though the slaves are bought outright and prevented by armed guards from leaving, they are paid. The pattern adopted for their slavery is known as wage slavery.

This pattern was adopted during the first industrial revolution by mine and mill owners who paid their workers but then charged them more than they were paid for their room and board.

In the Thai shoe factories that were exposed in the 90s to Kathy Gifford and Walmart's embarrassment, the workers were bought for between $300 and $800, then paid $1.75 per day. They were charged $2.50 per day for their room and board, and the factories were fenced and guarded by soldiers and dogs.

There are two advantages to this pattern:

As long as the workers are paid anything, their owners can claim they
are not slaves technically.

And if the slaves are not technically property, the owners are not responsible for upkeep. Medical, nutrition, continuing care and so forth. The workers can be discarded when they become pregnant, sick or too old to work, and the owners don't feel any need to look after them.

The markets for the products of these slaves are typically America and Western Europe, where the hard currencies are.

These comparisons overlook the first hundred years of our history, in which we were the warlike imperialists and the Americans tended toward isolationism.

Steve P

Quick point of clarification. Are you talking pre or post 1867? If post, I'd like some evidence of our expansionism and territorial acquisitions. Unless you're referring to the job we did on the First Nations people of the northern half of the continent I think you have a problem with the above post. If you include American and its relations with Spain and Mexico during its formative years (and including what they did to first nations down there) I think that's an argument which is pretty hard to sustain.

I suppose you're talking about the fact that the US was isolationist prior to the two major European wars of the 20th century and Canada wasn't. Even so, I don't think it is a particularly accurate analysis of the history of the two nations.