peace, order and good government...

 I am Canadian but in college was a student of American history and culture and this blog is dedicated to same but occasionally I must comment on Canadian affairs. I do so today because we are in the grips of a constructional crisis There is nothing that angers a Canadian more than an Americans perplexed question: Is there really any difference between us? What is even worse is coming up with an answer. Other than our obsession with hockey and beer, and Medicare we are hard pressed to find values and institutions that differentiate us. There are fundamental ones however that most don’t even think about going right back to the roots of both nations. Simplistically we were loyalists to the throne during the Revolutionary Wars. What most American’s don’t realize is that we still are. We are not loyal to Britain as we have had our own constitution since 1923, but we are loyal to the crown. The Queen is our head of state and the Governor-General her emmisary serves a symbolic role 99% of the time and signs into law all of the legislation put before her but when there is a constitutional crisis she must assume executive powers and make a ruling, which should make most Americans shudder. Today she shut down parliament with a bill on the floor that could have brought down the government. American’s must feel we are still stuck in 1775, but the process works and to be smug, we have never had a Civil War. To delineate the core differences between our two points of view: Most American’s cling to the self-evident rights of the Declaration of Independence, but may of us subscribe to a radically different set of values. They are Peace, order and good government and are not self-evident. Now can you see that there may be a little bit more than a slight difference between our political ideologies?

photo from photocat62