Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, [5], 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: Better the devil you know? | |
Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) | [ Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
] Date Posted: 00:45:06 12/10/04 Fri In reply to: Jim (Canada) 's message, "British investment in Canada" on 23:24:49 12/09/04 Thu I am intrigued, reading between the lines, by some posts by Canadians on this forum. It would not be difficult to get the impression that pro-British Canadians are pro-British largely as a reaction to the economic and cultural encroachment of the USA. This is hardly a long term solution, as after federation Britain would just replace the US as the bogeyman. After all, our commerce is more or less inescapable as it is. One of the best things about modern Britain is that we don't really make anything, we just earn money by investing it with other people who make things. I understand that Britain is the largest foreign investor in both China and the United States. The American Ambassador to the Court of St James once told my step-father that, in his state, California, almost 60% of jobs directly depend on British investment. Personally, I find that extremely hard to believe, but even if it is exaggerated it suggests a rather Large Beast. I agree, though, that it would be sad if people could no longer go down to the Bay to do some shopping, and if the fish and chip shops were replaced with hot-dog stands. But this, in my humble opinion as a former Suid Afrikaner and a Britisher, would be because it would represent a loss of Canadian-ness, not a loss of Britishness. Mind you, I'd like to see the "British Isles Show"... Recently, there was a "New Zealand Show" in Venice (well, an Esposizione Nuovo Zelandese), for which the commune emptied out an old church on the Strada Nova stretch of the Grand Canal, and filled it with packs of Anchor Butter and some posters of nifty scenery. I do hope that the British Isles Show is more encouraging than that... [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> [> [> Subject: Britain - Canada relations | |
|
Author: Jim (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 01:29:39 12/10/04 Fri First of all, many Canadians are pro-British out of fear of the Americans, and after federation, Britian would become the dominant force. However, there is quite a difference. Britain is our own heritage and background, while the USA is a foreign power. Canada is only half the population of Britain, while it is only one-tenth the population of the US. I think most Canadians would feel comfortable with being closer to Britain - after all it created us and nurtured our self-government. The US is a great power but Canada never was. However, Canada shared in a great power as part of the British Empire. The British Isles Show in Toronto is a popular annual event and it is quite a large trade show. Many companies have booths there and it is attended by hundreds of people. Taking place in the centre of Canada's largest city does help it. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> Subject: Britain and Canada | |
|
Author: Owain (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 08:37:36 12/10/04 Fri Canadian population is infcat significantly more than hafl of the population of the UK I do belive. 40 million to 60 million right? But I would not be surprised to hear Canada's growth rate was higher than that of Britain. Britains growth is quite tiny and I heard on the radia recnetly about many British famers going to Canada where farming was much more profitable. I suspect that two generations or so down the line Canada may be able to equal the UK's population. This would help dispel any myths about British domination. Infact in an FC I suspect that most emmigration would be out of the UK rather than too it so British domination will simply fade away over time. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Canada-UK Populations | |
|
Author: Jim (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:23:46 12/10/04 Fri Canada's current population is 32 million. UK's current population is 60 million. The UK could afford to drop its population by a few million because of its limited space. Canada and Australia have plenty of room to take them. British domination would fade away and the federation would become a partnership of equals - a much better relationship than Canada joining up with the USA. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: There's plenty room in Scotland | |
|
Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:37:47 12/10/04 Fri [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Jim, please end this nutty myth that Australia has lots of space for more migrants!!!!!!!!!! | |
|
Author: Ian (Australia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 14:06:17 12/10/04 Fri Australia looks big on the map, but it is MOSTLY DESERT. Australia is the DRIEST inhabited continent on the planet. There is NOT ENOUGH WATER TO GO AROUND. Sydney is on pretty much permanent water restrictions. Droughts and bushfires are increasingly common. Maybe Brits like drinking and washing in sand, or maybe they all have solar powered water desalination plants, but otherwise please don't tell them that Australia has lots of room for more migration. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Canada does - except we all in live in the south | |
|
Author: Jim 9Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 14:18:13 12/10/04 Fri [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Quite | |
|
Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 14:54:47 12/10/04 Fri I've often thought that Australia is rather like Cornwall: inhabited all round the edges but more or less empty and uninhabitable in the middle. But of course in Britain itself there are those who argue that we need more and more people. There is, after all, a labour-shortage, which I think is pretty much unique in the developed world. The snag is that there is also a housing shortage. A Singaporean chap (well, British, but you know what I mean) said the other day, "It would be fine if Britain just got with the programme and built upwards like everyone else." He's got a point there; but then taipans always like big shiny buildings for some reason. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: We got space... | |
|
Author: Brent (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 02:25:08 12/11/04 Sat * Second largest nation in the world, by land mass. * By some estimates, possessing up to 30% of the world's supply of fresh water. * If one fully accounts for each drop of oil in the Alberta Tar Sands, more potential petroleum reserves than the combined reserves of OPEC. Surprised that some of you haven't been busting down the door to get here... [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: ... | |
|
Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 02:35:54 12/11/04 Sat Well, I take a line through Churchill: he said that if ever Britain fell to Europe, he'd be in the first boat across the Atlantic to Canada to carry on from there. Hope there's still room for me Westside when Blair signs the EC constitution. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: He has already signed it... | |
|
Author: Paddy (Scotland) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:04:02 12/11/04 Sat All he needs is for the British to approve it, which in all honesty is unlikely. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I would be happy to find homes in the Toronto area, right by the lake, for any of you that would want to come | |
|
Author: Jim (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 14:57:52 12/11/04 Sat [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I would be happy to vouch for any Commonwealth brethren! | |
|
Author: Brent (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 03:04:54 12/14/04 Tue [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Unfortunately we mighty as well be from Somalia trying to get into Canada. | |
|
Author: Nick (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:57:37 12/14/04 Tue Canada operates a points system and only takes people skilled in trades it especially needs at any one time. This tends to be quite difficult for most British people who aren't terribly skilled in toilet cleaning. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Well... | |
|
Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 13:28:18 12/14/04 Tue I will try and claim political asylum from Tony Blair's dishonest, hypocritical, Authoritarian and spiteful Government... [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Canadian points awarded.... | |
|
Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 14:44:27 12/14/04 Tue I have a superb talent for taking up large amounts of space unncecessarily. Since this is what Canada self-evidently needs most, I think that I should be a shoe-in. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Well, I am a Tory Riding President, and my MP is considered one of the closest people to Tory Leader Stephen Harper, AND it's a minority government, so who knows... | |
|
Author: Brent (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 03:11:31 12/15/04 Wed [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Stephen Harper | |
|
Author: Jim (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 17:39:19 12/15/04 Wed Brent: We need you to put together a policy proposal that will further our aims that your MP can discuss with Stephen Harper. If we can get Stephen motivated on it, we can start to move on this. I suggest a go-slow approach at the moment. Don't mention federation at this point, yet. Perhaps start with negotiating a free trade arrangement for Canada with the Australia/New Zealand CER, CARICOM and the EU to begin with. Have all of these overseen by some type of trade council which can lead to building new political ties. The Conservatives have got to be made to realise that Canadians do not want further economic integration with the US and that policy will only lead to the party remaining in opposition. However, the above proposal will diversify our trade more, create a lot more jobs, and can help the Conservatives get to power. I would be more than happy to back you up on this with letters to Stephen Harper. Let's discuss it. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Actually, Jim... | |
|
Author: Brent (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 18:58:21 12/17/04 Fri ...both Scott Reid (Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington) and Daryl Kramp (Prince Edward-Hastings) have indicated interest in my Commonwealth Free Trade tome and have indicated that they will be attending the book launch, to be held in the new year...still waiting on the publisher... [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Excellent news, Brent | |
|
Author: Ian (Australia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 21:45:12 12/17/04 Fri [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Water Supply | |
|
Author: David (Australia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 02:36:26 12/11/04 Sat You are right that there are significant water supplly challenges in Australia at present, although there is capacity for increased supply. For some reason, our politicians seem to have a great fear of building dams. Personally, I see nothing wrong with them. Water recycling which is presently being used in Singapore also has great potential (although most of our politicians lack the vision to try it). I think eventually our politicians will realise that nuclear power is actually an environmentally friendly power source and thus we will be able to operate desalinisation plants without creating global warming, this may be 20-30 years away though. Perhaps importing fresh water from Canada via a pipeline would be an option? [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: If there is no rain to fill one dam, there is no rain to fill two | |
|
Author: Ian (Australia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 03:10:47 12/11/04 Sat Dams also destroy ecosystems, which we can ill afford: Australia has already done enough damage to itself over these last two centuries, raising water tables and destroying land through salination. We need to make people get over this daft prejudice against recycled water, we need to encourage the use of rainwater tanks in our cities, we need to make sure that people stop using drinking water to wash cars and water gardens. Nuclear desalination may be helpful, but I think recycling is the way to go, and it will only take off when people grow out of their stupid wasteful ways. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I'm happy with our current level of resources and population | |
|
Author: Michael J. Smith (Canada) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 21:07:31 12/15/04 Wed Some writers in the past have written about Canada's paltry population and our ability to easily accomodate a billion people, that, even if it only had a 100 million, it would be a great power. But I'm not a strong proponent of opening the doors and turning this country into an overpopulated parking lot just for the sake of national glory and power; I would rather preserve our abundance of things and maintain our high quality of life. Call me blissfully greedy. Christ, I love the open country. Let no man put asunder. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> Subject: The population's are higher than that... | |
|
Author: Darryl (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 15:42:42 12/14/04 Tue No your wrong. Canada has over 30 million and the UK between 65 and 70 million people after taking into consideration the general growth of the UK population and a large amount of new immigrants arriving over the last 5 years. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: The trouble is... | |
|
Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 16:12:20 12/14/04 Tue We don't really know. Somehow, they managed to mess up the 2001 Census so completely that they think there are more than 2 million people missing from it! Moreover, the immigration system has just collapsed. I understand that we receive about a quarter of a million LEGAL arrivals per year, and when you think that the legal arrivals are a small proportion of all our immigration, I think that we are looking at about 2 to 3 million over the last 7 years. Anyone who has been to London recently will see how quickly it has changed in the last few years. All the waiters, waitresses, barmen etc. in the late 1990s were either Australian backpackers, French or German students, Americans who couldn't afford their fare home and the occasional folorn cockney. Now, they are all Russian, Romanian and Polish. I was talking to an Aussie barman at a bar caled "Southside" near my London place - from the name you can imagine that it is rather oriented towards the backpacking community from Down Under, and Fosters is drunk and there are plastic crocs on the ceiling and roo burgers etc. He was telling me that his bar was pretty much the last bastion of the traditional London bars where Australians could get jobs about 5 minutes after arriving in London, since they have been priced out of the market by poor Latvians whose labour is controlled by very sinister Russian people whose cars have smoked windscreens and who rent luxury flats in Bloomsbury from such scumbag plutocrats as myself. I had a Russian couple in one of my flats over the summer - a blonde girl in her early twenties and her young son, both clad from head to toe in Burberry and Gucci and bedecked with Louis Vuitton handbags. When the time came for a cheque to change hands, I met the father: dark-glasses, body-guards, black Daimler, monosyllabic and at least 60 years old. Heavy metal objects clinked together in one of the bags which I offered to carry for his wife. If that man was not involved in trafficking illegal workers then my name is Cissy Fairfax... but I needed the money, so stuff it. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Where exactly is the crossover point between nneding the money and "doing the right thing"? | |
|
Author: Ian (Australia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 11:31:10 12/15/04 Wed [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I did the right thing for me, certainly... | |
|
Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 15:48:35 12/15/04 Wed [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |