Posted on 11/19/2011 8:16:43 PM PST by Tainan
You are absolutely correct. Some fun Canadian facts, please keep them quiet:
Ontario manufactures more motor vehicles than Michigan.
RCAF fighters have recently (this century) taken over air defense duties in Alaska when USAF aircraft were grounded because of maintenance issues.
Canada has petroleum reserves equal to Saudi Arabia.
Canada, not China, is America's largest trading partner.
Canada is the second largest country in the world.
Canada has absorbed three waves of political refugees from the USA since the 1770's. No political refugees have fled south from Canada to the USA.
Canada and the US have enjoyed peaceful relations for almost 200 years, an unofficial world record?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMzHlkB-Yg&list=FLwiu1oOtdySEQnRRavS4NPg&index=9&feature=plpp_video
Canada is actually America’s worst enemy. We’ve fought six wars with Canada—more than we have with any other country. However, in four of those wars, we were English and they were French.
The author briefly mentions Canada in WW I, but glosses over it..assuming that 50% of the then population was male, and maybe half of those were too young or too old to serve, then Canada's 600k represented about 35% of eligible males in service. There was literally almost nobody left at home to keep the country running..producing things..
The CEF was committed at the Somme ( Passchendale) and the vast majority of the 60,000 KIA occurred over a week. They gained about 3 miles of ground, and next spring, when the Germans launched their offensive, the Germans regained all the ground lost the peviosu year.
Amazing fact: At the end of WW II..Canada had the THIRD largest NAVY in the world..
Over here me lad
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
I’m no expert, but since they keep having official Queen’s visits, put the Queen on their coins and generally through all these wars even as “independent” have been at the beck & call of UK, you’re darn right I view them as never truly independent. (That goes for Australia and NZ too, which is why I made that qualifying comment before.)
Canada was not a “country” in any of them.
Coalition deaths in Afghanistan by country
USA: 1,765*
UK: 388
Canada: 157*
France: 76
Germany: 56
Italy: 44
Denmark: 42
Spain: 34*
Australia: 32
Poland: 31
Netherlands: 25
Romania: 19
Georgia: 10
Norway: 10
Estonia: 9
Hungary: 7
Sweden: 5
Czech Republic: 5
New Zealand: 4
Latvia: 3
Finland: 2
Jordan: 2
Portugal: 2
South Korea: 2
Turkey: 2
Belgium: 1
Lithuania: 1
TOTAL: 2,734
Another amazing fact. After VE day the RCAF was planning to re-equip Bomber Command and shift to the Pacific theatre. The atom bomb ended the war before they did.
Another amazing fact. Canadian engineers and scientists worked in New Mexico with UK and American scientists to develop the bomb. Uranium from Canada was used in the experiments. Rumours have circulated to the effect that post war Canadian nuclear engineers, in the course of their research, got to the point where they could assemble a bomb independently. They asked their political masters what they should do. They were told to forget about it.
And “O Canada” is by far the most stirring national anthem..
Canadians did some of the dirty work during WWII. They were assigned the hopeless task of defending Hong Kong in 1941, and they lost a lot of men during the failed attack on Dieppe in 1942.
Thanks for the ping, alfa6.
You wrote:
“No political refugees have fled south from Canada to the USA.”
What do you call the Cajuns?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expulsion
Granted, the USA was not an independent nation yet.
It was an interesting episode. I’m somewhat familiar with it as I’m Acadien. The short story is that the English governor was fed up with a few troublemakers and decreed that any resident who refused to take a loyalty oath would have to leave. Roughly half of them (including my branch of the family) took the oath and the rest set out for Louisiana. None of them considered returning to France; they came here because Bourbon France was a decrepit hell-hole.
You should read up on what is called "Canada's hundred Days".
"During this time, the Canadian Corps fought at Amiens, Arras, the Hindenburg Line, the Canal du Nord, Bourlon Wood, Cambrai, Denain, Valenciennes and finally at Mons, on the final day of the First World War.
In terms of numbers, during those 96 days the Canadian Corps' four over-strength or 'heavy' divisions of roughly 100 000 men, engaged and defeated or put to flight elements of forty seven German divisions, which represented one quarter of the German forces fighting on the Western Front".
true enough.
A Candiian once told me there was no such thing as a Canadian patriot. I found that hard to bellieve, but he swore it was true.
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