Neocon: Re: Quebec Separatism and Anti-American Sentiment
Well, there are a lot of folks in the Maritimes who are fed up with Quebec and Ontario, and a lot of folks out west who are fed up with Quebec and Ontario (gee, I think there is a pattern here).
In 1759, the English defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham, and the losers have never gotten over it.
Since Confederation in 1867, the political "power" has been concentrated in Ontario (what was at the time of Confederation "Upper Canada").
The separatist dissenters in Quebec have passed their attitudes down from generation to generation, but have never had the courage to actually leave. The Quebec economy is subsidized by Federal hand-outs more than any province in Canada. That is the Federal attempt to keep Quebec happy, but it hasn't worked.
And it has created regional disparities throughout Canada as tax dollars are siphoned off to feed Quebec.
Pierre Trudeau tried in his own way to appease the French separatists by taking money from military, education, transportation networks, etc. and throwing it into programs called "multiculturalism". These were another waste of taxpayers' dollars, and have succeeded in dividing Canada more than they have united it.
As for whom will join the United States, the Canadian Government has brainwashed Canadians into fearing American culture and infiltration. Although we have no real identity of our own, we know that WE ARE NOT AMERICANS. In this respect, we define ourselves more by what we aren't than what we ARE.
Even Canadians who move to the US to improve their economic status usually retain Canadian citizenship. I don't know if it is arrogance or fear, but there is an overall reluctance to "Americanize" ourselves.
But of course, that doesn't stop us from embracing anything American that we see as GOOD. Just like Quebec, we are selective in what we WANT. I suspect this tendency isn't really very Canadian, it's just plain human.
(Sort of like so many of the undecideds who want to take the good qualities of George Bush and combine then with the good qualities of Albert Gore. It's impossible.)
To answer your question, it will be a few years yet before Canadians are ready to entertain the idea of joining our neighbours to become one country. To me, it makes sense. But the "Anti-American" sentiments aren't just concentrated in one place - they are here and there throughout Canada.
(I have no idea if I answered your question or not...)
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