What does it really mean to have each-other’s backs?
I think one thing would be making some agreements in advance when it comes to refugees. Make it easier for Canadians to escape to the EU if the US does something stupid, and make it easier for Europeans to move to Canada if Russia does something crazy.
Other than that, I don’t know what immediate steps could really be done. I’d love it if Canada would adopt some of the European privacy regulations, ditching the American-style laws currently in effect. But, a lot of things wouldn’t be easy to change. Our cars, appliances, construction techniques, electricity voltages, plug designs, etc. are all very American-style, and those kinds of things have a lot of momentum.
But, I don’t really see a downside to making the movement of people a little easier. I think plenty of Canadians would love to live and work in Europe. I think a fair number of Europeans would love to live and work in Canada – at least once Canada finally adopts proper vacation lengths, parental leave laws, etc.
Canada would be happy with most if not all of Europe’s privacy laws once we choose to ignore US interest.
Quebec has some decent parental leave and the current federal government (Liberal-NDP) wants a nationwide implementation.
Electricity could stay different just like UK didn’t use the Euro when they where member. Most other laws should be Europe inspired even if we ‘compete’ with the US deregulation. I would love agriculture related laws to be harmonized to the high standard in Europe.
A different electrical system would mean that all safety laws about electricity wouldn’t apply, there are probably work-arounds for that, but you’d lose the benefit of harmonized rules for hundreds of millions of people.
And while actual Canadians would like Europe’s privacy laws, the Canadian oligarchs (the Weston family, the Irvings, etc.) probably wouldn’t. Same with parental leave, vacation time, etc. And governments don’t have a good track record of listening to Canadian citizens instead of the oligarchs / business interests.
Personally, I’d love for Canada to become more European, but I know there would be a lot of resistance.
I’m an American who lives in the UK and I’ll go to war for you guys before I ever go for the US military.
Hell, a lot of Americans still have your
banksbacks.I hope that is a typo.
Most Americans have your back too…it’s just our messed up voting and education systems that let the lunatic fringe gain all the power. For a representative democracy, it really doesn’t represent the people.
According the most recent elections, most Americans don’t.
There has to be a point where Americans who don’t support chaos stop saying “this isn’t who we really are” and start admitting “huh, I guess we’re assholes now.”
Elections tell you, semi-accurately, what THE VOTING POPULOUS WANTED OR WAS FOOLED INTO BACKING. So you got data on less than 40% of the population and half were against this.
So, the American populace are fools. That doesn’t really help matters. This isn’t some minority thing, it’s half or nearly half of the population.
