A day or so after Paul Martin ended his dithering on missile defense to settle on "flop", a pair of left-leaning local radio announcers were discussing the potential consequences to US - Canada relations. With the border opening to live cattle again in doubt, and other trade disputes still bogged down, one of them mused that the relationship had changed.
"I don't think the US is our best friend anymore"
The other agreed. I waited for the discussion to procede to the next logical step.
Well...?
And...?
Yet nothing more was said. The sentence left hanging as a conclusion, the topic changed and soon they were on to sports or something. The question I was waiting for was never asked.
Who is Canada's "next best friend"?
Uh...Uh.... let me guess..... uh.. North Korea... uh.. maybe... uh.... Iran... uh... oh.. I know ...Suddan ...
And they have the nerve to call people south of the border morons....
About a year ago the "Globe and Mail" ran a survey asking the question "Do you agree that the United States is Canada's best international friend?" The result was 58% for the negative.
So, I emailed the Globe suggesting they do a poll with your logical next question - "Then who is?" with a list of suggested countries.
Surprisingly, they ran the follow-up poll listing US, UK, China, and so on. As expected, the US polled by far the highest at about 42% with 58% being slit among the other five or so alternatives.
A somewhat more encouraging result but still you have to wonder where the other 58% have their heads!
Well, I was approaching the question from the perspective of "since the US is no more, than who has moved up to take their place?" Checking along our other "borders"....
Canada's next best friend is ... Quebec! ;-)
I assumed you meant border-wise but couldn't think of anybody but the polar bears.
Canada has friends? Well I could see the French, since both Paris and Quebec go to similar lengths to protect the French language from the marketplace of ideas, but then I doubt the French are happy since they don't really think French Canadians speak real French....
A lot of US citizens were pissed at Canada before the missle defense thing came up. Being a haven for deserters doesn't sit well with some of us.
"Well, I was approaching the question from the perspective Checking along our other "borders"...."
I suppose I'll have to either hone my mind-reading skills or just automatically assume your commentary to be facetious.
Funny, out here in the west, were all the oil is, the more Martin opens his mouth, the more pro American we become.
One can only hope that one day we snap....
Facetious sort of nails it.
I have to agree with the thing about a haven for deserters. Not participating in Iraq is one thing but taking those guys in is another. It's not like we have a draft or anything.
I read something earlier today (Canadian site) that said there was roughly the same number of people that went north during Viet Nam as came south to join our armed forces. I think we got a net gain as far as "quality of human" goes (of course I don't know how many stayed after their hitch). Anybody seen any numbers as to how many Canadians joined our forces for Iraq?
Canadians laugh when you point out Denmark has claimed half the Artic. The Danes aren't laughing and they have the EU to support them. Who is going to support Canada?
Our next best friend could be a country that is nice to everybody, (except the USA). A country full of kind, sharing and caring people. A country that never has harsh words for anybody (except the USA). A country that never interferes in the affairs of other states anymore, unless they are asked to come as school yard monitors.
What country could be all that, to us? It could only be Canada!
We are our own best friends.
Over the last 40 years we have evolved into a country of Self Love.
The British have an alternative expression for that. Using their vernacular: We have become a bunch of wankers.
A Yanks question here: if something catastophic occurs, who will Canada look to (first and hardest) for help. The answer to that question is the same as that to the best friend question.
If something catastrophic happens, Canada won't look anywhere for help much less look hard. It seems pretty obvious to me by the time Canada looked anywhere at all we'd already be helping.
Whatever we may say, Canada is like that brother who you've told a hundred times "when you get in trouble, don't look to me". But then you get a call from the cops and you go down to pay his bail anyway.
Not that we really want to.
I wouldn't blame the US if they turned down assistance if we were in trouble. You can't continually treat your relatives like crap, in a lot of our cases, and expect them to drop by for coffee.
Wouldn't mind if ya should up for the funeral though.
Who is our best friend? Some pictures of our PM with a certain world leader makes one country in particular come to mind. How about Libya?:)
"Canadians laugh when you point out Denmark has claimed half the Artic."
I've noticed that. And it worries me just a little bit. But I guess what other alternative do they have? Better to treat it like a joke than admit they are serious, because then you might have to do something...like what? It sounds like a nervous laugh to me, though.
I mentioned the Danish claim a few weeks ago to my Canadian husband, and his response was something like, well, that belongs to Canada already. I said, well, like yeah, it does now, or at least it did. But anyone who wanted any part of Canada could come in and take it over. I don't think they'd put up much of a fight.
But it's not the Danes I really worry about casting a roving eye on Canada's unprotected bounties, but China, which very much needs some room for expansion....
As I explained to my children when they were little, "you have lots of acquaintances but you count your friends on one hand....and only after the going gets tough and they are still standing by you."
So in the future the US may be Canada's friend...the question for me, as an American, is whether Canada will ever again be a friend to the US.
Canada's next best friend is. . . Greenland!