The United Kingdom of Canada?

[Zoomerang96]

so, what do you think?

alberta has made it clear they want everything quebec is getting out of this newfound "nation" distinction, and obviously all other provinces and territories will follow suit.

are we going to have our own england, wales, scotland, and ireland?

the united kingdom of canada.

this isn't well written, but most of you know what i'm talking about.

what do you think will happen?

 

[Zoomerang96]

wake up you daft canadians.

i want opinions

 

[Angela Harlem]

when you look at it like that, seems you lot have real commonwealth-envy!

 

[Zoomerang96]

we're already in the commonwealth.

 

[bonoman]

Ireland is not part of the unitied kingdom...shame!

 

[Angela Harlem]

we're already in the commonwealth.

no part of the US is in the commonwealth, xoomeranger! hahah, nice try!

 

[Angela Harlem]

anyway, before you turn purple and flip your lid at this derailing; do you see it as a possibility for the future, that this is setting a precedent for independent states or nations?

also, how difficult would it be for this to go beyond a kind of token gesture to something more? is that even what the folk in quebec want?

 

[Canadiens1131]

It's just lip service. Provinces will still jockey and whine for more money for provincial budgets as they always do.

 

[blueyedpoet]

Differentiating between a state and a nation can be difficult...(if that wasn't already obvious)

 

[Zoomerang96]

no part of the US is in the commonwealth, xoomeranger! hahah, nice try!

i've never been more insulted in my life.

canada vs. america

canada wins EASILY 6 out of 8 times.

 

[lmjhitman]

alberta has made it clear they want everything quebec is getting out of this newfound "nation" distinction, and obviously all other provinces and territories will follow suit.

my guess is your referring to this quote (bold emphasis mine):

link

Stelmach said he had already had a "good long chat" with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and expects his relationship with Ottawa will be a "good one."

"As I said during the campaign I'm one that wants to build relationships," he said.

"As the leader of the province of Alberta I want to work with Stephen Harper and Ottawa to make sure we build even a stronger Canada."

Stelmach wants to create a supplementary Alberta pension plan, similar to Quebec's. He said Monday he'll be watching to ensure that any new powers given to that province are extended to Alberta as well.

"It was very clear during the campaign that I'm going to fight for the same rights and privileges being assigned to this 'nation within a nation.'"

When asked by an audience member about Liberals who "seemed to be plotting the economic raid of Alberta's resources," Stelmach said: "Well, they're going to be dealing with me."

as long as he doesn't ask for nation status--we'd be a nation of rednecks, i suppose, i don't think all provinces having the same rights and privileges is necessarily a bad thing.

in fact, i suspect that having one province set apart as a nation, and whatever else that comes along with that, would do more to fracture canadian unity.

we're ALL special!

 

[financeguy]

are we going to have our own england, wales, scotland, and ireland?

Oh dear.

 

[Slipstream]

Canada already is a united kingdom. It's a constitutional monarchy with a sovereign as it's head of state, HM the Queen. Originally Canada was going to be known as the Kingdom of Canada but to appease the USA, they went with the Dominion of Canada. Which by the way is still a techinical term for Canada, though certain past governments would let you believe otherwise. See British North America Act/Constitution Act 1982. But nevertheless it's still a kingdom.

Canada is also a federation of provinces(states) with those provinces having quite a bit of power relative to the federal gov't. The Provinces control their own healthcare, education, and welfare with also creating their own taxes. The federal gov't in Ottawa controls defence, federal tax, foreign affairs, transfer payments to each province, etc.

Provinces have their own parliament that is unicameral or has no upper house, it has a Premier that heads the Provincial Gov't and it also has a Lt. Governor that is the Queen's representative for that particular province.

So Canada really is quite similar to the UK in that it has mini-nations that run their own affairs and have a united(federal) gov't managing part of it's operations. And dare I say a couple of those Canadian mini-nations, Quebec and Newfoundland are very culturally different from the rest, like say Scotland or Wales.

 

[AliEnvy]

what do you think will happen?

I'm not really sure what Harper's "decentralized" Canada would look like but I would definitely be concerned about lower GDP provinces being able to provide adequate social service levels to their people without federal funding coming from richer provinces through transfer payments. Definitely goes againt basic Canadian values.

 

[AliEnvy]

Top 10 Reasons to Visit Canada

10. The Ice Hotel in Quebec City means you too can experience living in an igloo

9. Baby seals taste a lot like chicken – with half the fat!

8. One of our First Ladies used to hang out with the Rolling Stones and Jack Nicholson

7. That Maximum 120 road sign is in miles per hour …really

6 Four lovely seasons – Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter and Construction

5. Bigger, longer and uncut – and that’s just in football

4. Our corporate “Big 3” are Molson, Labatt and Moosehead Breweries

3. New taste sensation at McDonalds - McPoutine

2. See the multicultural diversity of Canadians in their natural habitat – Tim Hortons donut shops

And the Number One reason to visit Canada……










Three Words....


















1. MORE STREET HOCKEY!

 

[Zoomerang96]

Ireland is not part of the unitied kingdom...shame!

bah

whatever
NORTHERN

big DIF

...

i kid

my mistake for forgetting to add that important detail

 

[TheQuiet1]

The Provinces control their own healthcare, education, and welfare with also creating their own taxes.

Ahhhhhhhh but can representatives from one province, let's call it 'Scotland', go to the parliament of another province, let's call it 'England, Wales and Northern Ireland', and cause an Education Bill to be passed which although will be enforced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland won't be enforced in Scotland, had absolutely nothing to do with Scotland and yet somehow the Scots got to vote in a Bill that wouldn't have been passed without them? If not then I'm afraid you Canadians have got a long way to go before you resemble grand old British 'democracy'.


(What I'm basically saying is, if Canada wants to go down the United Kingdom route, there's got to be better role models to follow than the UK's very muddled system).

 

[angelordevil]

newfound "nation"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJOPb_HtTxE

 

[Slipstream]

Ahhhhhhhh but can representatives from one province, let's call it 'Scotland', go to the parliament of another province, let's call it 'England, Wales and Northern Ireland', and cause an Education Bill to be passed which although will be enforced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland won't be enforced in Scotland, had absolutely nothing to do with Scotland and yet somehow the Scots got to vote in a Bill that wouldn't have been passed without them?

Provincial MPs(correctly knows as MLA's in most of Canada and Australia) cannot effect bills in other provinces.

If not then I'm afraid you Canadians have got a long way to go before you resemble grand old British 'democracy'

Britain itself designed, created, and built Canada's entire governmental system and most institutions. This was done in the 1800s so I feel it was well thought out and the superior system to the muddled UK system as you put it. On the planet, for a federal system, I think Canada and Oz's system really is one of the best things going.

Interesting topic this is.

 

[Ormus]

7. That Maximum 120 road sign is in miles per hour …really

Are there really places with a 120 km/hr speed limit? I'd love it if the 401/403/QEW adopted that limit, because I find 100 km/hr to be completely maddening.

Of course, apparently all of Ontario agrees, because even if I'm going 130 km/hr, there's still plenty of cars and trucks thinking that I'm going too slow...heh.

 

[Kieran McConville]

130km is way too fast, regardless of posted limits. Anyone who thinks they are in control of anything even at 90 or 100km per hour is probably kidding themselves (and yes that includes myself). It should not matter on straight-ahead multi-lane motorways, but shit happens, doesn't it.

I have nothing substantive to add, sorry. Canada is part of the British Empire, just like Australia, and we can all be proud of our shared heritage. Right? I mean, that must be her sister, right?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Top 10 Reasons to Visit Canada

10. The Ice Hotel in Quebec City means you too can experience living in an igloo

9. Baby seals taste a lot like chicken – with half the fat!

8. One of our First Ladies used to hang out with the Rolling Stones and Jack Nicholson

7. That Maximum 120 road sign is in miles per hour …really

6 Four lovely seasons – Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter and Construction

5. Bigger, longer and uncut – and that’s just in football

4. Our corporate “Big 3” are Molson, Labatt and Moosehead Breweries

3. New taste sensation at McDonalds - McPoutine

2. See the multicultural diversity of Canadians in their natural habitat – Tim Hortons donut shops

And the Number One reason to visit Canada……










Three Words....


















1. MORE STREET HOCKEY!

for shame... how could you leave off cheap strip clubs?

 

[corianderstem]

I'd like to add "over the counter Tyenol with codeine" to that list.



<--just got home from Vancouver

(sorry, I have nothing remotely worthy to contribute to the thread)

 

[AliEnvy]

for shame... how could you leave off cheap strip clubs?

How can they be cheap when you have to stuff gstrings with 5 dollar bills instead of singles?



eh?

 

[Ormus]

130km is way too fast, regardless of posted limits. Anyone who thinks they are in control of anything even at 90 or 100km per hour is probably kidding themselves (and yes that includes myself).

130 km/hr (~80 mph) is considered to be rather fast, but in Michigan, where the posted speed limit is 70 mph (~110 km/hr), going 80 mph is fairly commonplace (even for myself).

However, 90 (~55 mph) or 100 km/hr (~60 mph) is dreadfully slow, particularly when it comes to highway driving. I'd probably go insane driving that slow for hundreds of miles.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Yeah Ormus, my point wasn't really about whether it feels fast enough or not, and clearly I don't relish long drives on motorways, they take, well, a long time.

But even leaving aside the real risk of incurring a speeding fine I cannot afford (via one of the sneaky police radars, and no, they don't always signal their presence), which admittedly most other drivers seem to not give a shit about... 100km really is plenty fast. At 100km, you or I really are fucked if anything unexpected appears that might require a stop or a swerve.

Long trips are always going to take too long, they just are.

Anyhow, that's my off-topic rant.

 

[snowbunny00774]

1/ Having been in a car accident that wrote off almost two years of my life - it doesn't matter if you are going 50 or 100 or 120 - you aren't safe at any speed really.

2/ Despite that, I think our 100km/hr on the 401 is ridiculous. A few yrs ago, a guy drove the speed limit beside his buddy and got a ticket - 100 is too slow on the 401.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/678348/posts

3/ Forget the cheap strip clubs - In Ontario it is legal to be topless in public whenever you like. Walking down the street? No problem. Driving on the highway - No problem.

 

[A_Wanderer]

At 100km, you or I really are fucked if anything unexpected appears that might require a stop or a swerve.

So why not have us being a little more fucked if something goes wrong? Of course for this I am referring to long stretches on highways in the middle of nowhere like on the Stuart Highway.

 

[Kieran McConville]

The other thing: as I am well aware most people treat the posted speed limit as a joke and routinely go 20 to 30km above it, it should be as low as possible. That's my view. A highway with a legal limit of 150km/h, would see the majority of drivers doing up to 180km/h.

I'm all for rule of law, but realise that for various reasons people treat the speed limit as a sort of rubber band. It's elastic, like U2's long suffering fans.

 

[Kieran McConville]

So why not have us being a little more fucked if something goes wrong? Of course for this I am referring to long stretches on highways in the middle of nowhere like on the Stuart Highway.

I don't even know what that means, but go ahead if you wanna die, just don't involve me. The point is this: if you think speed is more important than human life, then fuck off.