OH! How impolite.
Posted on 10/29/2005 12:08:55 AM PDT by goldstategop
One of the many earnest intellectuals who write in Canada's national media shared with the country last week his perception of the liberal paradise that Canada is becoming. It's the only country in the world, he writes, "where women can live in real equality, where it's OK to be gay, and where people pick up after their dogs."
This was the vision of John Ibbitson, a columnist for Toronto's Globe and Mail, who ran in that newspaper a precis of his new book on the Canada that is to come. It's titled "The Polite Revolution," politeness being Canada's "secret recipe." It is "the core of what we are, the means by which we accommodate each other."
In effect, the Globe and Mail allowed him to review his own book, a favor it bestows on very few authors – none whatever in my memory – and an indication of how wholly the newspaper endorses his vision.
What made the article noteworthy, however, was not its fundamental absurdity – i.e., that what ostensibly distinguishes Canada can also be found in virtually every country in the Western world – but rather two curious aspects. One was the complete absence of religion in the social composite of the envisioned country. It is mentioned only as a detriment currently preventing the election of the Conservative party, and obviously something that must be abandoned.
The other is the assumption that the real builders of the New Canada will be the Asian and African immigrants, "the millions of new arrivals who have landed at our docks and airports," and are already "transforming us." In other words, the force that will fuel this ultra-polite utopia of serial marriage, gay pride parades, childless households and godless hedonism is the immigrant.
A couple of developments seem to have escaped Mr. Ibbitson's notice. One is the fact that church attendance in Canada, for the first time in four decades, is rising. The second is that the chief factor making it rise is the overwhelming devotion to Christianity of the immigrants, particularly those from Asia and Africa.
Canadians must learn to see themselves, writes Mr. Ibbitson, "through the eyes of a young woman arriving here from Manila." One wonders: Has he ever actually met any young women arriving here from Manila. I've known at least a dozen. They are, every last one of them, either devout Catholics, or Protestants with a strong Evangelical bent. At least half have married Caucasian Canadians and have been raising relatively large and delightful families, with all the children going to church.
To my knowledge, none has ever taken part in a gay pride parade – in fact, they regard such things as objects of horror – though several are active in the pro-life movement. A number are professional women who have raised families and regained a career, but I don't think any would comfortably describe herself as "a feminist."
Perhaps Mr. Ibbitson has not noticed other things – for instance, the fact that the downtown Catholic Cathedral in Vancouver is crowded every Sunday with "people of color," and I suspect the same thing is true of the cathedral in Toronto. But on the other hand, if he examines the faces at human-rights seminars, judicial conferences or academic colloquies, the groups that are advancing this mythical New Canada, he will observe one dominant skin color and that is white. For the truth is the immigrant, far from being the engine of their social revolution, is already becoming its biggest obstacle.
And here is the point. Don't think that the builders of New Canada won't try to overcome that obstacle. They will, of course, be subtle. They will never attack Christianity per se, but they will stress that in Canada religion is a "personal thing" and doesn't really have a role in shaping their country. They will offer courses on "becoming Canadian" whose central intent will be to divorce them from their faith and instead embrace "Canadianism," in which the religious element is as non-existent as it is in Mr. Ibbitson's article.
Above all, Canadians who have "made it" will be grandiloquently featured in the media. These will invariably be people who have "matured" beyond the antiquated simplicities of their former culture with its out-dated dogmas and taboos. They will have become thoroughly Canadian. That is, they will have three ex-wives, two sexual orientations and an unrestricted tolerance of every perversion known to man. But – most important – on all occasions they will be unfailingly polite.
("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")
Nam Vet
Canadians are the most servile people on the face of the earth.
Your servant is polite to you but not because he wishes you well.
OH! How impolite.
The same Canadians who's government official called Bush an "idiot" among other things?
Their delusions run deep I see.
Boring pussies who rely on the USA for national defense. Yeah, I wanna be just like that.
Ping!
In the manner of new thinking paradigm coined by George Orwell, most peoples are more equal than some others. For Canada, this means everyone except Americans, Australians, Japanese, Poles, Israelis, etc are worth respect.
no kidding. I've been to canada many times. Polite is not the term I would use. Maybe to each other out in the boonies, but in the cities, no way.
I find Vancouver to be a beautiful looking city, the same way you see San Francisco when you first look at the city, but when you get on the streets of the city, there is not a cop to be found, and you have teens sitting on street corners smoking pot, agressive panhandlers everywhere, and hookers everywhere at night.
Considering that the west side of that country in now HongCouver and the east side is filled with socialist assholic french wannabees who spend every moment trying to find new ways to bash the US, I would say they are not the sweet little innocent polite people that they are always trying to hype themselves as. 75% of the entire canadian population lives within 100 miles of the US border. For a country that has developed a culture of anti-americanism, they sure like to be close to us.
When it comes to polite factor, its the ol "they are legends in their own minds".
How come the Brits aren't included? They are part of the coalition of the willing? Perhaps Canadians are royalists at heart.
The Canucks decide to "forgive" Mother Britain, thinking that "it was deceived by the rebellious son - after all it is still our mother country. But there is hope - actually it seems they are fast coming to our side of understanding things and it will be dawn again for us when that Bush-poodle Blair goes because either their Tories or the socialists agree with our position!"
(The above description isn't entirely fictitious. I read a lot from sites like the Monarchist League of Canada. This is almost to the word of what the good ol' monarchists say - bemoaning why Mother Britain and Australia decide not to stand by them and oppose BushitlerTM together)
ping
Would you believe a Canadian once told an Aussie that the Aussies wouldn't know how to fight as they are descended from convicts. Seems they don't like Aussies any more than they like Americans.
In Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and especially the United States!!!!
What's happened to my beloved Anglosphere?
I would be quite surprised by this. The most common phrase I hears back at the beginning of 9/11 from bragging Canadians is that "Our Australian brothers can also fight like no others. British-cultured armies are second to none as history has proven, and the Yanks...they were just lucky that circumstances have pushed them to be the most powerful in the world!". Speaking in the manner like sneering British High Tories like Sir Max Hastings. But given that Canadians have since learned that at heart, Aussies are more like Americans, they might have now switched their tunes to the ones you heard.
I think Australia and Canada each has inherited one side of Britain's national characteristics. Britain is like a two-headed beast that has extreme opposing ideologies. Australia has inherited the side of Britain with individualist, and common sense beliefs while Canada has inherited the side of Britain with High Tory tendencies, fondness for social cohesion and "concerns for the needy". Looking at how the two countries' national characteristics diverged over the past 150 years, I would say Australians have got the better side of the deal.
I do believe that when dealing with their neighbours, the US could take a few lessons in Aussie satire.
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The Prairies Think: the Bible belt, but duller Populated by: shotgun-toting, rodeo-loving cowboys |
Judging from Canadian responses to our posts over the past two days, I would say the Yanks would be extremely lucky that WWIII did not break out in 5 hours if they learned the Aussie tricks to mock Canadians.
Heavens above that's an entire country just going to waste!
How much do they want for it?
(This is Eskimo language, and don't ask me what it means because I don't know what it is as well ;-D LOL.)
"...Inuktitut symbols have an unusual history. The Inuit had no written form of language until 1894, when Edmund Peck introduced a system of writing derived from the Pittman shorthand method. The new style of writing caught on, and is now used by both the Inuit and Cree peoples..."
http://www.halfmoon.org/inuit.html
The site lets you download the font. I suggest we learn the language, compose a letter to the Inuit and Cree and start an uprising to throw the froggy colonials out of their country. Are you with me?
COME ON CANADA, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT! (RUN LIKE HELL.)
"An armed society is a polite society." is true dispite whatever progressive mantra may be sung.
Speaking of Canada, I can't help thinking of it as the back yard of the USA. Sometimes I even forget that there's a "separate country" up there. And I only live about 200 miles from the border.
Female equality - HA - a guy can walk naked down a main street during the gay pride parade, but Miss Toronto is deemed a sexist symbol and not invited to mayoral functions.
Sakes, this joke of a Liberal government won't last. The scandals we have up here would sink you like a stone in a REAL democracy. Despite the fact that we're allegedly paying down our national debt, we still have a massive social net that we are crumbling under. Taxes are still out of control and our healthcare system is costing more and delivering less. Don't ask about education - per the Ontario description another has posted - I have them in private school. The influx of immigrants who actually built this country in the last hundred years and raised their children with values are now sunning in Florida and encouraging the kids to move down. The more recent wave aren't even immigrants - they are refugees who didn't want to wait - no language skills but a keen ability to tap the system, and an understanding they must vote Liberal to maintain the status quo. The large cities call the vote - Toronto is as liberal as it comes, but the burbs are solidly conservative and traditional. The average traditional family can't compete with the LibSpeak we are fed daily from the CBC which is an America-bashing whale that keeps washing up on the beach of bankruptcy that the feds pour money on to keep afloat.
Some day soon more and more of us will wake up and realize we have all these "nice" things courtesy of the neighbour gracious, generous and wise enough to invite us to dinner, pick up the bill and let us be arrogant gasbags. We live in the "cheap seats" and have a major inferiority complex.
We're polite, but don't mistake that for kindness.
We're tolerant, but don't mistake that for respect.
We're educated, but don't mistake that for intelligent.
Thanks for allowing the early rant.
Hosers!
You should invite Pauline Hanson to migrate to Canada and run for PM. What Canada needs is a woman Prime Minister. I am surprised that such a liberal and progressive country hasn't already had a woman PM. Pauline would be ideal.
We did have a female pm - Kim Campbell. She was conservative (following Mulroney) and lasted less than six months.
She lives in California now if I am not mistaken.
So, what would Howard Roarke do? (With Canada?!)
A babe eh? We do have great looking chicks up here, myself included (note the canuck arrogance!). Suffice to say our Liberal women are better looking than your Liberal women!
/sarc.
FACT: About the naked gay man. I misspoke. I meant to say MEN. Plural. Naked and in all stages of undress. It was a hot summer so a lot of butt-floss banana hammocks were sported. Miss Toronto was fully and beautifully clad when she was told she would not be invited to any city functions. Both events took place within a few weeks of each other this summer.
I can see why she would move to California. I suggest you do a google on Pauline.
The Inuits are wedded to government welfare gravy train, unfortunately. But they don't love Ottawa that much really. Given that happens in Canada today there is a fair chance we can persuade them to declare independence from Ottawa and form their own country and directly acknowledge the Queen as their head of state.
And Canada will be in panic because it has lots of unexplored resources in these frozen areas (in particular the Northwest Territories, but also quite a bit in Yukon and Nunavut) and if the US befriends this new nation it will have surrounced Canada on 3 sides (West via Alaska, South, and North). When we blackmail Canada it will make our job far easier LOL.
Wikipedia has the low down! All this and "Dancing with the Stars!". As a legal immigrant it would take her at least 10 years to become eligible in which case there would be so little left of the country to govern it wouldn't be worth her while. Fascinating those Aussies.
Where is it different?
You really do need Pauline. She will convince them that indepedence is all the go.
Pauline Hanson as the Canadian PM would be like Mars colliding with Earth. For one thing, Ontario won't even tolerate someone like Bob Carr policy wise - English Canada east of Manitoba is ALP Left while French Canada is, well, French Socialist. Pauline would be quickly arrested by the RCMP on charges of "inciting racial tensions", then thrown in jail.
Canada is fast becoming an ideological police state.
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~rocket/hanson/hanson1.htm
Pauline Hansen's maiden (first) speech in Parliament.
I Googled for proof in case you need evidence of how "far" (afield!) we've gotten:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/002377.html
"Activities which degrade men or women through sexual stereotyping, or exploit the bodies of men, women, boys or girls solely for the purpose of attracting attention, are not permitted on Nathan Phillips Square."
Double standard and again women come up short!
Polite Canada ceased to exist in the early 1980s but it was wonderful while it lasted.
The one thing I have noticed about the immigrants here in Toronto is that they are dirtying the public spaces like they think the whole world is a garbage can. The government is trying to force everyone into a one-man recycling centre, but the immigrants drop their 'recycling' from their hands when they are finished with it. Every inch of Toronto is littered with garbage, crowded with beggars, and breaking down under the lash of the unions and the communists who believe that it is possible for everyone to take money out of the common pot without putting anything back in. Right now the cops are handing out pamphlets detailing their grievances against the city, and Black gangs are holding shootouts during rush hour on main boulevards, pretty much unlet and unhindered. The government has pronounced that it is "really sad to be a Black 'kid' right now" and proposes to wade in with massive 'programs'. It's a ringside seat at a train wreck. Or even more apt, it's a grandstand seat at a NA$CAR race, as everyone waits in anticipation for the next 25 car pile-up and devoutly believes that nobody will (or can) get hurt in the flying debris... because the government tells us that this is so.
As for the prospect of throwing out the criminal thugs who rule us, don't hold your breath.
They are correct that the churches are being destroyed, though. I have attended five churches since I have been here, and all of them have turned into hotbeds of anti-Americanism and Gay Pride. One of them (Timothy Eaton Memorial United) doesn't even require that you subscribe to the entire Creed in order to be a member of their congregation, far less do they preach from the Bible. If there are Bible-believing, conservative Baptists in Toronto I have never heard of them, and the Catholic churches around me (St. Clair West and Bathurst) are flaming liberal and "modern". The large Presybetian church is anti-Israel and the Anglican Cathedral invites speakers in to denounce American foreign policy.
Hey, I knew I was on the right track! Unexplored resources you say? We better get cracking, there's bound to be oil there - no wonder the muzzies are flocking to Canada, they can smell oil, it attracts them like flies to a carcass.
Surrounded on three sides you say? Can I be dictator? You can be finance director. You'll be honest and I'll be benign, I promise...
Can you imagine what the reception will be if Joh were the boss in Queen's Park or Quebec? ;-p
I will leave this to Fred Nerks, who knows far more than I on Joh.
You forgot to mention the CityTV expose that showed how Jamaican gangs actually sell "franchises" up here. Naturally, we'll treat our Blacks the same way we treat the Inuit - throw money at them until they have absolutely no dignity left. It's the Canadian way.
I was just trying to be helpful. I see what you mean by an ideological police state. Do they relally believe that the rest of the world takes them seriously?
"Activities which degrade men or women through sexual stereotyping, or exploit the bodies of men, women, boys or girls solely for the purpose of attracting attention, are not permitted on Nathan Phillips Square."
What was the name of the mullah who wrote that fatwa?
Ping - classic stuff here! And no one's even mentioned that Parrish "woman" yet.
The politicos and the CBC believe the world takes them seriously. The rest of Canada, myself included, is pretty relieved this is not the case. We can look down on the US from the North American bleachers, but that doesn't change the fact that the view is still from the sh!tty seats.
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