The ability to choose is the hallmark of Freedom. Choice makes for accountability, and accountability for progress.

I am a naturalized Canadian citizen. I came to Canada in 1964 from Greece. I have lived in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. I have also lived in the Philippines, France, Switzerland, Egypt, the USA, and Lebanon (we had to leave that country soon after our building got shelled).

I am multilingual, the father of six children and a former stockbroker. I recently became a grandfather. I am a white collar worker with a strong blue collar history which helps me relate to people of all walks of life. I like Canadians, no more no less than I like Chinese, Italians or Russians. I consider myself a World Citizen. It is my observation, that people who cannot walk a mile in someone else's shoes tend to be more judgemental and intolerant.

At this time in world history [March 2002] when peace is at such a premium I am of the opinion that voluntary political and economic union with the United States of America is the surest way of preserving democracy and achieving world peace.

I am always appalled at how supposedly tolerant and compassionate Canadians cannot tolerate Americans. That goes also for Europeans and other nationals who have an aversion for Americans.

Somehow it doesn't add up. Especially when you consider that more than 85% of Canada's trade is with the USA.

Europe, decimated by WWII was rebuilt by the American sponsored Marshall Plan. Filipinos enjoy freedom and a modicum of modernization because the USA liberated them from Japan. For a historical refresher course go here. In total sixteen million Americans served in WWII to defend world freedom. Let's not include North Korea and Vietnam. World economies remain well oiled because the USA made mincemeat of Saddam's army in Desert Storm. How quickly we forget.

Al qaeda is being snuffed out in Afghanistan because the USA is the only country with the military muscle to take on global terrorism. And it's not over, yet. There's unfinished business in Iraq. Then there's Iran, the Philippines and maybe even North Korea. We expect allies to participate in the fight for world freedom, but the brunt of the work will be shouldered, as always, by the USA. And who knows what kind of rogue states the next century will bring?

American foreign policy is to blame some cry out. I wonder what they mean by that. Are they referring to the inordinate relief that America has poured around the globe? Apart from trying to promote their books, I really wonder what motivates such people?

I am usually easy to get along with, a bit unorthodox, but generally speaking, I am considered to be a nice guy who likes getting things done. Like everyone else, I have my limits. Whenever my children have tried to get the best of me, they have discovered that dad can turn from mr. nice guy to mr. tough love in a heartbeat. That's why we get along so well. We all know the rules and life is predictable. My oldest daughter came to stay with me once. After promising to respect my house rules, she broke them. It was a simple decision on my part. I showed her the door. She had nowhere to stay. She slept in the streets in the middle of winter. She is now a happily married stay-at-home mom. Of all my children her and I are the closest. We talk for hours on the phone and email back and forth. I love her very much and always point out her strengths.

My point here is: if I can throw my own flesh and blood out on the streets for breaking my house rules, how much tougher do you think I can be with strangers who like taking pot-shots at the United States of America?

I attended a union meeting recently [ACTRA...the equivalent of the Screen Actors Guild....yes, I act on the side] and the first order of business was how to attract more filmmakers to Canada. The second: how to preserve Canadian Culture. The union leadership maintains that the best way to attract American producers to Toronto and Vancouver is by keeping the Canadian dollar low vis a vis the American dollar. In other words Canadian Culture is a function of American Culture. This is the kind of inane logic that permeates the Canadian psyche.

If you must lure American dollars to prop your floundering economy, then accusing Americans of being arrogant, greedy, crass or materialistic transforms your compassion and tolerance into nothing more than shortsighted avarice. Never forget this: You are, because America Is! When you finally figure out what the US border is protecting you from, someone please inform me. It wouldn't be from American feature films and cable signals, would it? In the meantime, keep exporting Canadian goods south and keep attracting those American dollars up north.

So, to my fellow Canadians, especially those of you who get your kicks....let me rephrase this: who derive your reason for being by slandering Americans, I have a few words of advice for you. First: Don't bite the hand that's feeding you. Second: stop calling yourselves tolerant, friendly and compassionate. Who are you trying to fool?

Perhaps the word profits is a dirty word for some Canadians. Somehow, they mistakingly equate it with cut-throat, aggressive marketing. Profits, in case you haven't noticed, buy art, architecture, athletes, theater, film, and literature; profits create foundations which fund research and cure diseases; profits rebuild war-ravaged continents. Profits build armies that can defend a nation and the rest of the free world from the Hitlers, the Bin Ladens and the Saddams that seem to creep out of the woodwork every twenty years. Profits, in short, create and preserve culture, and culturally Canada is bankrupt.

But, even if profits was a dirty word, why is Canada the telemarketing scam capital of the world?


Maybe it's American individualism that Canadians dislike the most, that raw brashness that allows one to stand for something regardless of the consequences, to rise or fall on one's own merits, and in the process know the meaning of resilience, persistence, and excellence. Canadians are subject [through no choice of their own] to a social compact where success can never be completely attributed to individual initiative and failure must always be cushioned by social safety nets. Not that safety nets do not exist in America. They do. But, Americans - the truly free and brave - choose individualism without safety nets. When they fall, or go bankrupt, they pick themselves up and keep going, and like struck iron they harden into steel. Their just society is soul not state-sponsored.

By contrast, Canada is a mosaic of ethnic groups which coexist peacefully as they forge a future in relative paradise - relative to the squalor and congestion they left behind. What they don't realize is that Canada would turn into Mexico-North if the US-Canada border was ever sealed shut. The message they are being fed is that Canada is the greatest country in the world. Of course it is! But, at what cost?

Some of us who have been here a bit longer know the real cost. There are compelling reasons why Canadian brains keep draining into the USA. The cream [read individualism] always rises to the top. Ask Wayne Gretzky or Jim Carrey. Canada is merely a stopover to bigger and better things in America.

Also, ask the snowbirds if they wouldn't rather stay in Florida year-round, or where the Boomers - now approaching their golden years - will want to retire.

Why wait any longer? Let's just formalize the union since Canada will be owned by the USA much sooner than later thanks to the 1987 Free Trade Agreement. Most people don't ralize that the USA already owns most of Canada.

Here is what I foresee happening: the USA will bring Canada to its knees economically as it continues to acquire Canadian corporations and stems Canadian imports. Don't blame them. We wrote them a blank check. Get ready for a fifty cent dollar...[as ACTRA leaders beam].

Another prediction: a crisis will eventually loom between China and the rest of the world, probably over the middle-east. China is a wild card. Although economically disadvantaged by North American standards, China is a nuclear behemoth with a gargantuan army capable of devouring Europe and Russia in a single gulp. I wouldn't doubt if they haven't cloned some of their army. If the USA ever became mortally wounded, would China come to its aid or would it view this sudden turn of events as an opportunity to be seized?

I look at it this way: if my four hundred pound eight foot tall martial arts neighbour had a knack for getting rid of bullies, promoting democracy, and restoring peace in the world, I couldn't care less if he was a bit arrogant, right-brained, or ate jelly-beans for breakfast. Sooner or later, though, I would know that he would own me. There is no free lunch. Of course, some will argue that Canada in the future won't need American protection because it will have developed into a military superpower of its own by retrofitting its five diesel submarines and adding two thousand soldiers to its army.

No matter how you slice and dice it, Canada does not deserve to remain a country. I know that irritates many Canadians with loyalist roots. But, any country with a non-existent military, a non-elected senate, and a record of selling its natural resources to foreign interests - only to turn around and buy them back as finished products, at a markup! - needs annexing. Let's not even discuss the AVRO ARROW fiasco. If all that is left of Canadian culture is the Canada Arm, the CBC, Gordon Lightfoot, beer commercials, and hockey...sorry folks...it's time to pack it in! Time to stop the navel gazing. It ain't happening! Swallow that nationalistic pride, chuck the maple leaf, the loony, the beaver, the moose, the Queen, and all the mumbo-jumbo about bilingualism and gracefully unite with the USA before it is no longer an option but a decree. And, let's give Quebec its independence. They've waited long enough. Give them what they want.

Just think, as Americans you will only have to work until May instead of August to pay your tax obligations, and the moose will still be here if you ever decide to come back for a visit. It will be the best of both worlds.

If there is one thing Canadians will fight for, it's their health care. They won't fight to save the Queen, but they will shed blood to preserve that most sacred of sacred cows. The privatization of Canada's national health care system should dismantle the last vestiges of resistance to annexation. If the US had a universal health care system in place what would really distinguish the two countries? Regional disparities? Idiom?

But, the real reason for Canada joining the USA has everything to do with the promotion and preservation of civil liberties in the world than with parochial economics, the salvaging of a cultural identity, or retirement considerations. A Bigger and Stronger USA means a safer world. It means that any international organization that rears its ugly head to destroy freedom will be doomed to failure.

Annexation has nothing to do with nationalistic pride, the kind of extremism which ignited two world wars. I has nothing to do with blood lines, or stereotypical caricaturing (that make for xenophobia, prejudice and hate). It has everything to do with making choice available in places where even discussing choice is a capital offense. It's as simple as that. Period.

One final thought. How we [Canadians] comport ourselves as we approach the task at hand will determine how we will be remembered by future generations. To the degree that we arrive screaming and kicking we will be remembered as selfish and myopic, unable to extricate ourselves from our provincial navel gazing.

To the extent, however, that we reach the summit willingly and offer up our sovereignty on humanity's common altar freely we will be remembered as that benign nation that helped preserve civilization itself, the archetypical society that paid the ultimate price. Finally Canada will have found its place under the sun. We will have come Home. That is the paradox of Canada's inexorable Manifest Destiny: to make the USA Bigger and Stronger, and the world Free.

In the final analysis we all need the same things: freedom, love, a roof over our heads, clean air, enough to eat, and American entertainment.

So much for Canada. Now, how about Iran? Do they watch American movies?

The answer to world peice is not a bigger, stronger US, it's a functioning UN. It's the closest thing we have to a global democracy. When America declared war on Iraq without UN backing (and without just cause) the UN was discredited and decades of work were undone.