US and Canada (Great Allies?)

[Calgaryborn]

I think Canada is also a great ally for the States. That unprotected border is a huge advantage to their domestic defence. If you ever played Risk you might have an idea of how difficult Canada would be to control or move across to get to our neigbours to the south. Geography, weather, and size makes Canada difficult to occupy with any speed. That time factor makes America much more secure.

Also our continued relationship with the British Crown and service to Europe during the last two World wars probably would quickly draw most of the western world into such a conflict. That might be true in any case because of NATO but, again the fight wouldn't be starting on US soil.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Bouw N Arrow

That or trying too hard to not be like America (3 down football)

The Americans took the game as it was being played in Canada and changed the rules, not the other way around.

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by getbak

The Americans took the game as it was being played in Canada and changed the rules, not the other way around.

I have been served!

[Devils'Advocate]

Bah.

A few younger Canadians dislike Americans as part of the "hate the superpower" type of thing the way they dismiss the popular TV shows, authority figures, etc.. It's cool to dis those with power, even those on your side. I'd put no stock in it, and not consider a few naive youth opinions as a statement on whether the two countries are true allies.

Most Americans dismiss Canada as irrelevant, and a few of those who consider us at all think we are weak, useless, pitiful nation. I put no stock in those few either.

[Vulcan]

I believe for the last hundred years or so our aims and the Americans have been pretty much the same. We've disagreed on how to achieve those aims such as in Viet Nam and Iraq but that's not a huge problem in our relationship. Where the problems in the future can come from is protecting our natural resources and the North West passage. I see our future aims as not being in lock step with the Americans and even the British anymore. It's time for Canada to set it's own future but making the Chinese and or Russians our closest allies, is a joke. I think they are more our rivals and it's time for Canada to build our armed forces to protect our sovereignty.

[Hemi-Cuda]

so they hate American arrogance and foreign policy, then choose to side with 2 countries with even worse foreign relations history and far more corruption and human rights violations?

god i hate hipsters. were you having this conversation in a starbucks as they were sipping lattes, while they were listing to indy rock on their ipods?

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Bouw N Arrow

Living in either country is more or less the same, except the U.S. isn't trying to copy Canada in everything it does.. OH I WENT THERE

That's not us, just our damned politicians. We don't want your stupid marijuana/copyright/marriage laws!

[peter12]

Bunch of maroons, if you ask me.

[narbeZ]

Damn, Hemi-Cuda just hit on the head basically.

[narbeZ]

I knew I wasn't in the minority last night, and this thread has re-affirmed this. These friends just are out of their element I think.

[CaptainCrunch]

Or populist b$gs

[SeeBass]

can somebody explain which 4 wars that the US has lost in a row?

PS: your friends are truly morons

the americans know that a strong Canada is a strong neighbour. If the US wanted they could crash our economy within a week and they would never have to fire a shot. They could buy up about 100 billion in CDN $ on the open market and dump it at half off in a couple of days and destroy us, creating cheap labour,resources,power.

[Sluggo]

Have you considered that your friends might be bribed/threatened by the Chinese and Russian governments to disseminate favorable opinions about future annexations err I mean alliances.

[Temporary_User]

I see ignorant people

...they're everywhere!

[MJM]

Originally Posted by Bouw N Arrow

Being a dual citizen, I think it's hilarious that your friends think they are much different than Americans.

Living in either country is more or less the same, except the U.S. isn't trying to copy Canada in everything it does.. OH I WENT THERE That or trying too hard to not be like America (3 down football)

I find a big part of the problem, in my opinion, is the most vocal people about politics/foreign relations in general always seems to me the most friggen uneducate.

I look at my facebook for example, the people who generally have their Status set about something political (Oil slick in the gulf, oil sands, US, war in Afghanistan, etc.) are 99% of the time the dumbest on my list (I generally delete them after reading their comments.

Most of them have nothing more than high school, and are just spewing whatever Michael Moore movie they watched that day.

My wife's sister for example. A true moron. A secretary who flunked out of the education program, who feel the need to educate myself and anyone around here about politics and foreign policy.

I personally don't talk about politics, because it's just a recipe for disaster. You are invetably going to end up an argument that will never end. The only person who knows my true political views is my wife. No educated person in the business world are going to put their political beliefs completely out in the open. It's career suicide.

[MJM]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

can somebody explain which 4 wars that the US has lost in a row?

PS: your friends are truly morons

the americans know that a strong Canada is a strong neighbour. If the US wanted they could crash our economy within a week and they would never have to fire a shot. They could buy up about 100 billion in CDN $ on the open market and dump it at half off in a couple of days and destroy us, creating cheap labour,resources,power.

All I have to say about this is

With 2 million barrels of oil a day going from Canada to the US a day, the only one of the two who could LITERALLY shut one down, is Canada.

And if the US doesn't want that oil, China certainly does.

None of this will ever happen, but don't think for a second the US could do anything monetarily against us that couldn't easily be counteracted by Canada.

[tjinaz]

None of this will ever happen, but don't think for a second the US could do anything monetarily against us that couldn't easily be counteracted by Canada.

Something ... something... softwood lumber....

[GGG]

As far as global military conflict goes we don't have much choice. Either we keep supplying them with oil or they come in and secure as much pipeline and refining capacity as they can.

Our options would be to blow up pipelines and burn down refineries or to submit. Really regardless of whether the US is right in this hypothetical future world war we should side with them for our own benefit. The US can much more easily blow up our cities and resources then any other enemy ergo no matter what we side with the US. This is besides the fact that culturally we are similar and don't really have any issues between us.

Economically however we definately should continue to have our own policy especially on the enviromental front. In these cases we should lay the hammer down and tell the US if you don't want our oil China will gladly take it. It is important for us to remain independant in this regard while being competive.

[jayswin]

Whenever I have any negative feelings towards the States, or hate something they've done lately that negatively affects Canada, I just think about how big and awesome Canada is, and how we are able to have all this great land because of our neighbours.

When you think of how small our population is, and all of our resources and land, you'd have to think, if we were away from the States and closer to some other countrie in the world, we could be in a lot of trouble, and wouldn't be able to be the peaceful nation that we are.

BTW, me and my friends talked about this while we're were baked and drunk in a remote area of northen BC. Of course our thoughts were aided by some fine canadian weed. But we just sat there one night going. "Man, how are we as vulnarable a nation as we are (if the US wasn't there), and under almost zero threat to any of it, and we're just here a million miles from anywhere, enjoying this beautiful land to ourselves, with literally no people for miles around?"

[jayswin]

The sheer size of Canada is truley something a lot of us take for granted. You'll often hear canadians travel to other countries and give you the whole "Bah, Canada sucks, you don't know culture until you visit (insert place here)".

But what people don't take into account is just the shear size of our country, and how many people there are in comparison to awesome places. I mean, there's places in BC that are just insane, but because of how far away they are from big cities, you can have huge amounts of land to yourself.

I'm just rambling because I'm hammered, but man this country is awesome.