Please join me at this event: Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country http://t.co/zGCJrRsALc
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) October 30, 2013
It’s here. Opportunity for FATCA protest?
Diane FrancisAuthor, Editor at Large, National Post, Distinguished Professor, Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Managment
Merger Of The Century: Why Canada And America Should Become One Country
November 20, 2013
11:45 am – 1:30 pm
InterContinental Hotel
225 Front Street West, Toronto
Map Location
No two nations in the world are as integrated, economically and socially, as are the United States and Canada. Diane Francis builds both a strong political argument and a compelling business case, treating our two countries not only as sovereign entities but as merging companies.
@Mister Magoo,
Well the neighbour keeps borrowing stuff, and returning nothing; I don’t like him much anymore.
@ Wilton Tidwell
My family which fled the USA in the 1770’s had an excellent work ethic. How condescending of you to suggest otherwise. It was not the ideology of the Americans they were fleeing from, it was their intolerance and the persecution they were inflicting on those who disagreed with them. Your “drones” would be welcome here (Canada is a big country with a small population) but not those diabolical oh-so-American drones equipped with spy cameras and bombs. Also, the USA can takes its latest act of worldwide hegemony and shove it up its FATCASS.
Such a merge would merge Canadians into US debt!
@Mr Magoo
I like that and agree completely.Can you be a dear and tell me what Canadian Journalist said that to who.
You piqued my curiosity.
@WhiteKat
so true.
And
@EM
I could not have said it better . I tried to be polite to Mr.. Tidwell . I think he is a Tea Party member. You think? The ones who don’t like immigrants. and don’t like non profit health care. My grandparents came from Europe. Nothing shameful about that. and they were good workers.
I hope no one shows up to see Diane.
People actually will pay to listen to Diane Francis? Who are these people?
Good one. And, darn, Em. I already have my sign made.
@swiss pinoy
Very good point.
@Calgary411
It would be wild to have a table of Brockers….There may be a question and answer period after she speaks…Oh, the questions we would ask..eh?
You have a good point, northernstar.
@All
I know it is steep but I can swing a ticket , part of a table of 10,,anyone else? Especially those who are far more aware of what questions to ask.
@northernstar
I wish I could oblige you with names, but I have forgotten them now. It is the quote that has stayed with me all these years. It says much that defines us as Canadians.
Canada should tie it’s boat to the Titanic? Diane Francis should be laughed out of town.
@bubblebustin
That’s good. I laughed so hard.
No, Canada has all the cash why do Canada wants to join USA, which is a sinking ship. This Fatca thing is just another hole in the sinking ship.
IMHO: Diane Francis is one of those people who aspire to fame by making outrageous but utterly unfeasible suggestions. Like someone walking down the middle of the street raving and banging pots together.
Generally speaking, unless there is conquest by war, established sovereign states don’t “merge”.
And although we share a common border, I don’t think Canada and the US have ever been further apart – financially and ideologically and in terms of governance – in recent history.
What should Canada be seeking in a business and life partner.? Should we marry or launch a business partnership with them just because they live next door?
Here are some issues on the US agenda that Canada would likely want no part of:
– About 48 million Americans – more than the ENTIRE population of Canada – rely on “food stamps” (SNAP program) for basic nutrition. This program will be cut back significantly November 1, 2013. More cutbacks are inevitable.
– After a two week shutdown regarding funding the US government budget and extending the debt ceiling, an TEMPORARY agreement was reached. The complex deal expires in Jan and Feb 2014, and expect a new round of bitter dysfunctional partisan conflict.
– Despite the resolution of the US government shutdown, the US is still $17 trillion in debt, and the US Government, Federal Reserve Band and State pension funds are the majority holder of that debt. In terms of issuing debt, they are their own best customer.
– The US has an epidemic of firearm violence due to its bizarre gun entitlement culture. In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans. Additionally, 73,505 Americans were treated in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds in 2010.
– Even if Obama approves the Keystone pipeline (a major Conservative initiative and trophy project) more than 70,000 Americans have pledged to personally stop it through civil disobedience.
– The signature accomplishment of the Obama administration “Obamacare” is – by any measure – in serious distress. And this is BEFORE it is actually operational.
– The world is angered by revelations of US NSA wiretapping and information gathering. In the US there are large lawsuits being launched to challenge the NSA as well.
– The elephant in the room of any discussion of US finances and the future of the US is the US military. The US spends more on defense than the next 13 nations combined. The military and the civilian defense industry basically drives much of the US economy: employment, opportunity, social mobility, markets, power and influence. At current spending levels it is utterly unsustainable
What happens next? Merger seems unlikely.
Forget Diane Francis (except to heckle her harebrained schemes).
Chris Hedges has a good take on what happens next:
http://thewalrus.ca/a-metaphor-for-america/
@Wondering
I think you are right…Diane Francis is our Anne Coulter…
I will read that Chris Hedges link, at a glance it looks good.
I am familiar with Eastern Ohio and Western Penn…..very, very poor. I was shocked..and there are a lot of people who never complete high school. I saw this starting from 2002 to 2008 when I was dating a Ohio man. The state is so poor they were fixing the holes in the road with just dirt.
I shall read the link.
@Wilton Tidwell
Too funny.
For a different perspective on the third of “1776 Homelanders” who
“ran North”, I suggest you read a slightly different version of history.- “Liberty’s Exiles by Myra Jasonoff”.
You will find it here:
http://renounceuscitizenship.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/loyalists-in-the-american-revolution/
But you do hit the “nail on the head” when you talk about 100 million of your countrymen (but actually includes more – about half of the U.S. population). The problem is that they simply don’t pay their fair share of taxes. That’s right, they are not paying their fair share. Which is of course why your government needs to come after the residents of other countries to “pay tribute to the U.S.”.
Here is a simple question for you:
Do you think that Americans abroad should pay to support Homelanders in a general sense?
Do you think that Americans Abroad should pay the Obama care surtax?
@UScitizenAbroad.
I will have to get that book. I loved my US history class in high school.
Do you think it coincides with Howard Zinn’s A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES?
@ Just Me
I know some Americans like to argue that those in the lower income brackets don’t pay any taxes (not true because there are taxes that everyone pays — sales, property and many hidden taxes too) BUT why do they come down so hard on them? They don’t make enough income to exceed the standard deductions. That is not their fault. They didn’t dictate what those standard deductions should be. They may even have to take advantage of so-called “entitlements” (including food stamps) but those are offered to them so why should they not take them?
At the other end of the spectrum, people lucky enough to be in the very high income brackets take advantage of many legal tax “loopholes” to sometimes reduce their taxes to almost zero. Those loopholes may have been “engineered” by special interest groups but they are are still there. Again, why should they not avail themselves of what is offered? I guess we all know the whole tax code in the USA needs to be thrown out and a new tax code needs to have a strictly enforced page limit — 72,000 pages is beyond ridiculous.
@Em and UsCitizen Abroad..
I just finished a good article…A Metaphor for America.
Ms Diane Francis should read it. Is this what we want to be like and to merge with.
http://thewalrus.ca/a-metaphor-for-america/
last paragraph is a stunner.
“And the contagion will spread. Destabilized by the collapse of the American dollar, rising prices, and declining exports, Canada will also suffer, although yours will be a less virulent strain than the one that infects us. But what is happening to us will happen to you, because there is no way out. The corporate forces that doomed us will doom you, too. Canada will become to a disintegrating America what Hungary was to Nazi Germany. But for us, the fall will be swifter, harder, more terrifying, and far more violent, because we retain the capacity, like a wounded animal, to lash out irrationally, to use our bloated military in reckless endeavours. We are not psychologically, emotionally, or intellectually prepared. We lack the self-reflective mechanisms to understand. Our national identity and sense of omnipotence will be inexplicably taken from us. The tragedy, however, is not that the American empire is dying. It is that we will bring so many people like you down with us.”
@ northernstar
Yes, Chris Hedges doing what he does best — good journalism, good writing. The imagery in that piece is haunting — both in Mr. Hedges words and Mr. Chin’s photos.
[blockquote]Those who stayed here in 1776 had the hard work ethic and take nothing from government idea. We are still supporting the third we’d love to give you.[/blockquote]
~hysterical laughter~ Last I heard, the ones who don’t want to sit on the “dole” were the ones wanting to escape the Excited States of Delusion.
@Em, I too don’t think it is right to villify those US residents of low income and no means who pay no US taxes. A complex situation with many threads, that cannot and should not be reduced to a scornful and inaccurate dismissal of people as unworthy.
Much of what distinguishes those who have and those who have not is luck, inheritance, and other advantages. We come into the world already with advantages or disadvantages – and we cannot take credit for privilege that we are merely born into. Is a race fair when one competitor is shackled to a weight from the starter line, and the other is not?
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