point 1): the Confederation does NOT give any "leeway" to the Cantons. It is the Cantons who formed the Union and give some "leeway" to the Federal institutions

point 4): the "sense of nationhood" basically is that everybody is united by the wish NOT to be Germans, NOT to be French (Savoyard, Burgundish, Parisian), NOT to be Italian

point 5): the three central Cantons Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden did NOT "join" but formed the early "union", while Luzern, Zürich, Schaffhausen, Bern, Basel, Geneva on their wish joined that federation gradually over many centuries.

Queen's "guy," eh?



Michaëlle Jean

this may be true of the language, but the fact is that the Quebec economy continues to lag the rest of Canada and that has only become worse since the early 1960's. I have always loved Montreal (my dad was raised there), but it is unfortunately much like my beloved hometown of Detroit - horrible government in the 60's and 70's and shortsighted "separatist" movements put both cities on the path to extinction.

Thanks for agreeing with the essential parts of my post though.

I suppose that as a Greek I can consider myself quite well informed on Canada if I know of the 2008-2009 Coup d'Etat, regardless of ignoring if it was a guy or a lady the one who followed her majesty's orders.

The problem is people living in Quebec make no effort to speak English. They pretend like they don't know it. Same thing happens in France unfortunately. I visited Canada, including Quebec, and can say that the English speaking children attend French classes in school every day. aside from the language, I would say just go ahead and have a referendum. Separate if you wish but I don't think you will be living better off without Canada. Just look at Former Yugoslavia(with exception of Slovenia) all the countries are worse off now than they were before they separated and created their own countries.

I compare the Quebec and somewhat Mexican(American) situation in the US similar to what happened in Former Yugoslavia and especially Kosovo. I don't think a war will break out, but there are close similarities.

I'm sorry if I gave the impression I was agreeing with you. I was only restricting myself to correcting the most glaring error in your post. Kudos to you for being interested in Canadian politics. However, you have been misinformed.

The Governor General of Canada does not actually follow the orders of the Queen. The GG is chosen by the Prime Minister of Canada at the time. She then has one real power. The Prime Minister must ask her permission when he wants to dissolve or prorogue parliament. In practice, she always does what the Prime Minister requests. The last time a Governor General said no was 1926.

So, in this case, PM Harper requested the proroguement and, while she could have said no--forcing an election four months after the previous one--she instead chose to follow 80 years of parliamentary tradition. Not the orders of the Queen.

You also imply that this was some kind of monarchist plot to keep the Bloc Quebecois and French-speaking Canada out of the reach of power.

This is ridiculous. Working in a newsroom at the time of the crisis exposed me to many opinions about it, but that was never one of them. Governor General Michaëlle Jean, born in Haiti, reknowned Quebec journalist and native French speaker, is probably not party to a monarchist plot. And by keeping the coalition from taking over, she also kept the Liberals from power. She was appointed by a Liberal PM, Paul Martin.

I agree with this,

[QUOTE=makeitrain;1474282]The problem is people living in Quebec make no effort to speak English. They pretend like they don't know it. Same thing happens in France unfortunately. I visited Canada, including Quebec, and can say that the English speaking children attend French classes in school every day. aside from the language, I would say just go ahead and have a referendum. Separate if you wish but I don't think you will be living better off without Canada. Just look at Former Yugoslavia(with exception of Slovenia) all the countries are worse off now than they were before they separated and created their own countries.

QUOTE]
disagree with that.

I forgot to reply to this (I read it on the phone when you posted) .
I suppose my sources are way too left-wing then, as I didn't know anything about the GG's French-speaking background. It looks like you are right, so my bad.
Now I know a few more things about Canada.

However, I am wondering if Harper would still be running the country today had she not done as he requested...