i was todays as i pondered canada over my maple latte.

everyone talks about how Canadas world image,influence and status is being tarnished or being upheld . Of course it depends on who you ask.

well i think its all a crock of shit. no one gives a rats ass about our opinion or what we think. we have got 37 million people . how big can our economy be? so we cant command respect like that .


ok how about military?

hmm.. that wont work either.
sure we have got great troops, but we just get our asses kicked by the raw salami factor numbers by the rest of the worlds armies.so that wont work


maybe we could be a champion of diplomatic protocol and use the UN??

screwed again...... we don't sit on the security council so our opinion means somewhere between jack and shit.

i can hear the folks crying now "were canada we champion human rights and countries look up to us !!"

i say to that bullshit!! (well of course if you are a 3rd world country and have problems getting clean water then maybe we look good)

our so called "peers" pay us lip service and humour us , like you pat the retarded kid on the head and say "up up and away" while he runs past you wearing his grandmother's red knited shawl as a cape


lets take a look at the current world issues that canadians bang their chest about

arctic -nope not gonna happen thats the big kids domain
EU subsidy issues- "canada? thats a french colony right?"
NAFTA- the mexicans have more clout than we do
Afghanistan and NATO-the only reason we got acknowledged by the germans is they were scared they would have to put some meat shields if we left.
Africa and the UN ? - ya we know how rwanda turned out. the UN does nothing unless the big boys say so
global warming-in or out no one gives a shit what we do because we are such a small factor


we should really stop helping the world out and concentrate on our own genitals at least then we would get something out of it

   

I agree, I've always thought pulling a Switzerland and going all neutral towards everything save for our own issues would be the best thing for us. we wouldn't have to worry about foreign wars, genocides, poverty, etc. only about ourselves.

   

Canadian_Mind Posted:

Switzerland we are not.

Do a bit of homework.

Switzerland has not been granted it's neutrality since 1848 because they are nice people. They stay aloof of the wars about them and have no territorial ambitions. The key factor is nobody even Hitler wanted to F$%^ with them.

Back at least to the time of Henry VIII Swiss mercenaries were the ass kickers of Europe. It is no accident the Vatican is guarded by Swiss. Much like Sweden's armed neutrality, Switzerland is guarded by a difficult terrain and a much more difficult militancy.

Canada cannot mobilize ever able bodied man in 48 hours trained and armed. Canada has too much geography to guard with it's puny urban population clustered along an indefensible border. Switzerland has more Panzer II's than Canada and a larger more potent air force.

In this world a barefoot boy gets his toes stepped on. In Burma unarmed monks provide target practice for government troops. Passive resistance only works against a moral, principal enemy.

I don't make the rules......

   

Fuck that shit. We are not neutral. We do have some fucking principle. We do have some courage.

   

So do the Swiss.

   

I wouldn't mind Neutrality, but I think the 2 WWs were definitely worth fighting and there will likely be other conflicts in the future just as important as those. I think it's more important that we just don't turn into an Imperial power like Britain or the US.

   

You're suggesting that we couldn't go neutral like the Swiss because the Americans would never accept it?

   

The Swiss no longer differentiate between right and wrong.

   

ridiculous

   

the fact of the matter is folks here think we actually matter internationally, that it makes a difference. we tout the UN as a big part of canadian values.

thats a daydream.

but in reality they dont give a damn about us or our warnings and opinions, we rank right up there above bolivia or paraguay

the only way we get shit done is to sell our collective souls to the US or the EU. so they might help out if it really suits them and its not too inconvenient

neutrality? it really doesn't matter we are neutral by default due to our mediocrity.

   

Internationally Canada has as much influence as Sweden or Finland.

Which is the square root of buggerall.

   

The most influential countries in the world are UNSC members and nuclear powers. We got passed up for the UNSC and decicded on our "dumbass own" to forfeit nuclear weapons.

So what do you expect eh?

   

To call Canada's place in the world buggerall is plain stupid. Anyone who expects Canada to project the international presence it had in the post WW2 years is living a lie.

How hard was it to punch above our weight when they was only 2 nuclear powers and most of the world had been smashed flat by the biggest conflcit mankind has ever seen? Not very...the reason Canada had the world's 3rd largest fleet was because the Japanese/German/Italian fleets were on the bottom of the ocean and the Soviets didn't build much of one. Our fleet was one of frigates and destroyers while the former IJN was one of carriers and battleships. And unlike most of Europe and Asia, our economy was revving on all cylinders and totally untouched.

Canada as a middle power is exactly where we belong. It is totally egotistical to expect nations with much bigger economies and/or militaries to give us any respect unless we do something to earn it. When was the last time anyone here (or at the UN for that matter) cared what Bolivia or Thailand had to say about important issues like North Korea? In that fashion at least, Saturn is right, we're not on the Security Council and we don't have nukes, so to most of the world, we're not a huge factor like the Us, Europe or China.