Doragon
Chieftain
Its difficult to say whether I'd want Canada to join the United
States. There are high points and low points, which i'll list
at the end of this post. There really is no reason for
our countries to merge. I wonder if Quebec would hold
another referendum if we did.
To the point brought up about the US spending more
in the way of aid to other nations, its true. But look at it
from this standpoint. Canada publicly spends 2.8 more
money on economic AID as expressed in % of GDP.
So we spend more of our GDP on aid than you guys do,
it doesn't equate to more money, but its a interesting point.
To the note that our government is becoming communist,
It already is to a degree. If you take a look at Chretien (who
actually voted for this guy?!?!) if any one of his MP's vote
against a bill, they are kicked out of the party. If members
of the party were to all stand up and reject something that
was wrong, he can't very well kick them all out, I know that
arguement. But if they were to do that, then there would
be a election and i'm quite sure that it would be viewed as
a unstable party and no matter who led them they would
likely lose another election or not win by a majority.
There was a time when MP's were voted in and they looked after
the people in their area's interest and vote any way they
thought was right. Now it seems they are only interested
in their own career. Being the liberals have a majority
government, that means whatever Chretien wants, he
gets. For example the Kyoto pact that will be passed by
the end of the year. The Canadian people don't want it,
it will devastate our economy. The potential fallout of
this pact could mean gas prices rising to $2.50 a litre.
Job losses could be in the half a million range, but Chretien
is putting it through anyway, even though i'm sure the
majority of the Canadian people (if they knew the details of it)
wouldn't want it. Back to the issue of MP's, it is not a democracy
to not be able to vote on something that you don't agree on.
The way around this is to adopt a new voting system like
the US system, where you can vote for your local MP AND
vote on the Prime Minister. That would make MP's a little more
apt to vote on what the people want or they'll lose their seat
because of the real boss, the people in their area as opposed
to someone who thinks he is the boss. Did you know that
when Pierre Trudeau died, he was a card carrying member
of the communist party? Its also a interesting coincidence that
Chretien was Trudeau's protege. Anyways, to the pros and cons
of joining the US.
Pro:
- Less taxes overall
- A government system that works ...most of the time
- Military power ie/ security
- Higher dollar value
- Less Government. Canada has representatives per
capita than the US. Total Canadian Reps per 1 million: 13.0
Total US reps per 1 million: 1.9
Cons:
- No more universal health care, for those with lesser
incomes or no health plans, enjoy spending say
$250 000 on heart surgery.
- No more unemployement insurance for everyone, some people
may never use this in their life, but its nice to have it
there if you ever do lose your job.
- No more Government Pension plan. While its a little bit
off your cheque every week, it doesn't add up to a whole lot
and the end result is the elderly who couldn't afford to
bank for their future will not go hungry.
- Economic fallout for some regions. A lot of business deal
with Canadian companies for several reasons. Either
because we aren't the US or because we have a weaker
dollar making it cheaper for them. There are many
American companies here for that exact reason, if
that reason is gone, there is no reason for them to
come here or to stay in certain regions. Believe it or not
Canada's economy is stronger than the US's right now.
A unrelated side note - if you remember when the Canadian
dollar dropped drastically, it was a direct result of Quebec
holding a referendum, people didn't want to invest in a
unstable country, we have never recovered.
- We would become a target to all those Anti-American nations
out there and would have more nuclear missles pointed
at us than we already do.
- We would undoubtably see a rise in population in some
already overpopulated cities, but adding population to
other area's is not a bad thing but who from the US would
want to move to say Barrie Ont.
- Post secondary education would cost more.
This are points that popped into my head real quick, feel
free to add or debate any points on the list. Maybe we
could start a thread in a different board. To sum it up,
while we are very much alike, we are very different in other
ways and there is no reason whatsoever for us to want
to join the USA, on the other hand, we have a ton of tapped
and untapped resources that i'm sure will look very
tempting to the USA in the future. In my opinion
neither of the two countries are better or worse than each
other as a whole. How about Canada rejoining with Britain?
Now there is a debate!
States. There are high points and low points, which i'll list
at the end of this post. There really is no reason for
our countries to merge. I wonder if Quebec would hold
another referendum if we did.
To the point brought up about the US spending more
in the way of aid to other nations, its true. But look at it
from this standpoint. Canada publicly spends 2.8 more
money on economic AID as expressed in % of GDP.
So we spend more of our GDP on aid than you guys do,
it doesn't equate to more money, but its a interesting point.
To the note that our government is becoming communist,
It already is to a degree. If you take a look at Chretien (who
actually voted for this guy?!?!) if any one of his MP's vote
against a bill, they are kicked out of the party. If members
of the party were to all stand up and reject something that
was wrong, he can't very well kick them all out, I know that
arguement. But if they were to do that, then there would
be a election and i'm quite sure that it would be viewed as
a unstable party and no matter who led them they would
likely lose another election or not win by a majority.
There was a time when MP's were voted in and they looked after
the people in their area's interest and vote any way they
thought was right. Now it seems they are only interested
in their own career. Being the liberals have a majority
government, that means whatever Chretien wants, he
gets. For example the Kyoto pact that will be passed by
the end of the year. The Canadian people don't want it,
it will devastate our economy. The potential fallout of
this pact could mean gas prices rising to $2.50 a litre.
Job losses could be in the half a million range, but Chretien
is putting it through anyway, even though i'm sure the
majority of the Canadian people (if they knew the details of it)
wouldn't want it. Back to the issue of MP's, it is not a democracy
to not be able to vote on something that you don't agree on.
The way around this is to adopt a new voting system like
the US system, where you can vote for your local MP AND
vote on the Prime Minister. That would make MP's a little more
apt to vote on what the people want or they'll lose their seat
because of the real boss, the people in their area as opposed
to someone who thinks he is the boss. Did you know that
when Pierre Trudeau died, he was a card carrying member
of the communist party? Its also a interesting coincidence that
Chretien was Trudeau's protege. Anyways, to the pros and cons
of joining the US.
Pro:
- Less taxes overall
- A government system that works ...most of the time
- Military power ie/ security
- Higher dollar value
- Less Government. Canada has representatives per
capita than the US. Total Canadian Reps per 1 million: 13.0
Total US reps per 1 million: 1.9
Cons:
- No more universal health care, for those with lesser
incomes or no health plans, enjoy spending say
$250 000 on heart surgery.
- No more unemployement insurance for everyone, some people
may never use this in their life, but its nice to have it
there if you ever do lose your job.
- No more Government Pension plan. While its a little bit
off your cheque every week, it doesn't add up to a whole lot
and the end result is the elderly who couldn't afford to
bank for their future will not go hungry.
- Economic fallout for some regions. A lot of business deal
with Canadian companies for several reasons. Either
because we aren't the US or because we have a weaker
dollar making it cheaper for them. There are many
American companies here for that exact reason, if
that reason is gone, there is no reason for them to
come here or to stay in certain regions. Believe it or not
Canada's economy is stronger than the US's right now.
A unrelated side note - if you remember when the Canadian
dollar dropped drastically, it was a direct result of Quebec
holding a referendum, people didn't want to invest in a
unstable country, we have never recovered.
- We would become a target to all those Anti-American nations
out there and would have more nuclear missles pointed
at us than we already do.
- We would undoubtably see a rise in population in some
already overpopulated cities, but adding population to
other area's is not a bad thing but who from the US would
want to move to say Barrie Ont.
- Post secondary education would cost more.
This are points that popped into my head real quick, feel
free to add or debate any points on the list. Maybe we
could start a thread in a different board. To sum it up,
while we are very much alike, we are very different in other
ways and there is no reason whatsoever for us to want
to join the USA, on the other hand, we have a ton of tapped
and untapped resources that i'm sure will look very
tempting to the USA in the future. In my opinion
neither of the two countries are better or worse than each
other as a whole. How about Canada rejoining with Britain?
Now there is a debate!
, everyone came even, Swede's . . .
Besides I cant think of the u.s, and another nation more alike, than Canada. As for the u.s government. My old man used to work for them, (first at the V.O.A. then at the E.P.A) after 15 years he made 65,000 a year. And a generous Pension plan, vacation\sick days. I remember thinking that was one hell of a good job.
