Oh, Canada.
At some point, i will try to make a more in-depth post about some of the things I have learned about Canadian government since being here. For now I will limit my commentary to this:
I am realising how adolescent/20-something Canada is, as a country. The most recent province added was Newfoundland, in 1949. The official constitution dates from... 1982 (with some revisions in '87).
Bryan and I were discussing this because of some very silly campaign promises recently made by Paul Martin, which led us to this little gem. It's not so much a constitution as an amalgam of previous bits of official paper that document Canada's slow progress towards independence. It has a frigging table in it. And footnotes.
Canadian independence is quite recent, and is not in fact tracable to any one event. It is just an incremental separation from English control. If a historian were pressed, he might give the battles of Paschendale or Vimy Ridge (in which a lot of Canadian soldiers died) during WWI as turning points, but there is no one defining moment, no Declaration of Independence. They are like kids who have moved out of their parents' house (mutha England), but are not really fully supporting themselves. They still havent really come into their own, or made their own identity. so far the best they have is "we're multicultural", which though laudable, is not really a national identity as such.
Of course I'm simplifying, and this is certainly not criticism, just trying to find reasons for certain patterns of behavior. The US is young too: maybe late 20's (gone wrong), as opposed to early 20's, and has its own ways of sublimating any feelings of inadequacy. But Canadians are still trying to please the parents (and everyone else, too), even when they disagree with them. They just want to be loved.
I am realising how adolescent/20-something Canada is, as a country. The most recent province added was Newfoundland, in 1949. The official constitution dates from... 1982 (with some revisions in '87).
Bryan and I were discussing this because of some very silly campaign promises recently made by Paul Martin, which led us to this little gem. It's not so much a constitution as an amalgam of previous bits of official paper that document Canada's slow progress towards independence. It has a frigging table in it. And footnotes.
Canadian independence is quite recent, and is not in fact tracable to any one event. It is just an incremental separation from English control. If a historian were pressed, he might give the battles of Paschendale or Vimy Ridge (in which a lot of Canadian soldiers died) during WWI as turning points, but there is no one defining moment, no Declaration of Independence. They are like kids who have moved out of their parents' house (mutha England), but are not really fully supporting themselves. They still havent really come into their own, or made their own identity. so far the best they have is "we're multicultural", which though laudable, is not really a national identity as such.
Of course I'm simplifying, and this is certainly not criticism, just trying to find reasons for certain patterns of behavior. The US is young too: maybe late 20's (gone wrong), as opposed to early 20's, and has its own ways of sublimating any feelings of inadequacy. But Canadians are still trying to please the parents (and everyone else, too), even when they disagree with them. They just want to be loved.