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Why Canada Should Join the EU

economist.com

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Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#691

Post by rayiner »

esperent wrote: post #690
rayiner wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s odd to call Travelers “indigenous” because they don’t predate the settlement of Ireland by the current majority group. They’re Irish people who culturally diverged around 1600. It’s like calling Appalachian Americans Indigenous.

I don't think the semantics of the word indigenous are the important thing here, although I will say that officially, according to the Irish government, Irish travellers are an indigenous minority and attempts to discredit this are usually a thinly disguised attempt to discredit the credibility of the Irish travellers as a distinct ethnic minority - or, to put it another way, it's one of the more common ways that Iri…

Calling them “indigenous” is a tactic to give greater moral weight to their political positions. While those positions may be meritorious, that doesn’t justify false characterizations in their service. Irish Travelers are ethnically no different than other Irish, nor does their presence in the country predate that of other Irish.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#692

Post by n4r9 »

adammarples wrote: post #666
rayiner wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Labour won the election, but Starmer’s approval rating is already down to 27% after just six months. https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/dissatisfaction-starmer-reaches-... . That’s not surprising given that Labour got half a million fewer votes than it did in 2019, when it lost in a landslide, but won anyway because of infighting among the right wing. That’s what I meant when I said nationalists have rendered ruling parties…

This is nonsense. Labour have a huge majority, there is no coalition, and their fall from popularity is 100% their own making and largely down to their own left wing policies (increased taxation, lying about it, bungs to unions, increased workers rights) and perceived corruption due to freebies (clothes, glasses). Labour basically ignore the right wing as irrelevant, Reform are only currently a problem for the Conser…

From a left-wing perspective it does not feel correct to describe Labour policies as enacting "left wing policies". The Winter fuel payments are the biggest example, whilst the two-child cap and the stance on Israel are right up there.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#693

Post by gwbas1c »

bombcar wrote: post #521
gwbas1c wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The point" of Canada is that it's a separate country that doesn't have US politics. That being said, the general lockdown of the boarder after 9-11 has driven a lot of people who live close to the boarder nuts. Crossing the boarder used to be like crossing a state/province boarder. If you look at satellite photos of the boarder around Maine, NH, and VT, it's full of little country roads where you could cross unimped…

Maybe it’s only the online ones, but Canadians seem to have more fun discussing American politics than they do their own. Perhaps because it’s like the weather; something massive and powerful that could crush you at any time but you can’t change it.

I'm American.

It's harder to cross into the US, than Canada, for reasons I don't want to discuss here.

I'll just leave it at this: It's really frustrating to have a long wait into your own country than any other country I've traveled to.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#694

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

pseudolus wrote: post #283

Another potential union that gets the occasional mention is CANZUK - a union of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. [0] Practically, and legally, they all share the same head of state and similar cultures (although culturally Quebec is the outlier) so perhaps it would be an easier fit. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANZUK

In practice, our head of state here in Australia is the governor-general.[1] That role is largely ceremonial too.

Anyway, I tend to agree with the sentiment that, in ascending order of silly accents, Canadians, English, Irish, Australian, and Kiwis, share a common culture and work ethic.

I dunno how anyone can take New Zealanders seriously, if you’ve ever heard one speak you’d surely agree.[2] I’m gonna blame the Dutch, the silly bastards.

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Australia

2. https://youtu.be/V4E1cfOE7P4?si=54xm1gttEG-AGLJ1

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#695

Post by mmmmmbop »

bombcar wrote: post #532
mmmmmbop wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EU should have a pre-memeber clearing state that countries stay in and then vote every year or n years to be "in" or "out" of the EU. But part of being in the EU should be to maintain non-in versions of all policies so that members can actually negotiate and easily leave without having huge bureaucratic cost. Do the United States have a system like that?

Down here we had a minor discussion in the 1800s about how the states and federal government should be run. General consensus since then has been that states can’t leave, but who knows! Things could change.

I see. Arguably Brexit was less painful than that discussion.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#696

Post by fzeroracer »

remarkEon wrote: post #631
roncesvalles wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Immigration is largely a symptom of declining birth rates. If the birth rate is above replacement, guess what, no immigrants needed!

You don't need immigrants either way. The idea that a country must import more immigrants because birthrates are not increasing or are below replacement is just "number go up" economics. It's the same trite and annoying arguments that some Bitcoin boosters make (the ones who don't actually understand the underlying technology, there's a parallel there). Japan, for one example, isn't going to collapse. Or should they…

Japan has been going through multiple smaller crisis's as a result of their population problems. Because (and this might surprise you): the elderly need specialized care and that specialized care needs to come from somewhere.

That's why Japan has been bringing in nurses and caretakers from abroad en masse. Unless you want to make the argument that past a certain point they should just be left to die, but given that often the people that vote the most were elderly, well...

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#697

Post by bobxmax »

bombcar wrote: post #533
bobxmax wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well aside from 30 million angry Canadians ready to burn down the white house again.

Let’s meet at the border, we’ll give you everyone who always threatens to move to Canada, and you can give us everyone threatening to move to the USA. Sort of an amnesty deal.

This is an excellent plan.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#698

Post by dzogchen »

philwelch wrote: post #544
dzogchen wrote: post #158

With Trump already threatening Canada without this ridiculous plan, no thanks. > The Monroe Doctrine is a United States foreign policy position that opposes European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It holds that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers is a potentially hostile act against the United States. The doctrine was central to American grand strategy in the 20th centu…

Exactly what I was going to say. It was only in the 1980’s that Canada fully freed itself of British domination; there’s no justification for Europe to regain any political control over any independent country in the Western Hemisphere.

To be fair there is very little centralized control of EU member states. But the US will not be happy regardless.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#699

Post by sneak »

yhg56fgniyfv wrote: post #343
sneak wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hijacking deprives someone else of their rights. Living differently than your neighbor doesn’t change anything for your neighbor. Nothing is “hijacked”.

If all your neighbors no longer spoke English, you don't think that would affect you? Obviously that's an extreme example, but other cultural differences will affect you as well.

No, I don’t. This is already the case in many neighborhoods in the USA and the sky isn’t falling in those places.

Also, I live in Germany half of the year, and there most of my neighbors don’t speak any English, and my neighborhood is fine. I don’t see the problem you are describing with your example.

If that’s your “extreme” example, I am curious what your day-to-day ones would be.

Perhaps it’s uncharitable but I am having a hard time seeing how this doesn’t alias to simple racism.

Re: Why Canada Should Join the EU

#700

Post by rayiner »

jingonameo wrote: post #616
rayiner wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Who is a Canadian?

Glad you asked. My cousin grew up in Toronto. He was joking the other day about it Canadians. “You can just shove them! Try it! They’ll probably apologize to you.” Those are Canadians. They’re people socialized according to customs that, among other things, prioritize public civility and turning the other cheek. (Might have something to do with the fact that founding Canadians were virtually all Christian, and that percolated into secular Canadian culture.)

My cousin is not Canadian. He’s an immigrant from a Muslim country. He’s “assimilated,” professionally successful, etc. Now, I don’t think he actually goes around shoving people. But we’re from an honor based society, so we are socialized to view that sort of passive behavior as weakness.

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