Little Wednesday Night Irritations

[monk222]

~
"I forgot," Monk groans upon seeing the blue trashcan full of grass clippings when he takes the trash out. Tomorrow is Trash Day Thursday. And it's heavy dragging through the swampy lawn.

Then, out front with Little Bear for the final rounds, someone fires off a round of fireworks, obviously in anticipation of the Fourth of July weekend. It's not like Little Bear and Monk haven't been bothered enough with Heaven's own thunderworks these days.
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Comments

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that happened to me today too. Not the trash, but the fireworks... July 1st is Canada Day!

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Was your independence as traumatic as ours? You are still part of the Commonwealth, or is that still an existing notion?

[shamelesss.livejournal.com]

ooooooooh good one. haha.
I expanded A LOT on that story.....all night last night.

I saw Farenheit (spelling?)9/11 last night. I cried. Have you seen?

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Yes, we are still a Commonwealth nation (remember my tract about the involvement of the Queen in Canadian affairs)?

Our independence was not traumatic whatsoever. I'm not even entirely sure when it happened. I think it just sort of fell into place as the British Empire receded... as one website puts it, it was an evolutionary process, not a revolutionary upheaval.

The facts go: in 1867, there was something called the British North America Act which was passed by British Parliament, which unified the Canadian provinces into a dominion, and dictated the formation of a sovereign government that retained the role of the Governor General as the Queen's representative in the Dominion.

The new country was small by current standards. It wasn't until the 1870's that the Hudson's Bay Company gave up its control of what was then called Rupertsland... which was a GARGANTUAN swath of the interior of Canada... and that land was then added to the Dominion, where it turned into Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and some of the Northern Territories.

The primary reason for this had to do with the fact that the British were sick of defending their empire, and wanted out. At the time, the Americans were big on Manifest Destiny... namely, that they should control all of North America, and not the British. Creating a sovereign Canada would seem to block this idea a bit.

The BNA served as our Constitution until 1982, at which point Pierre Trudeau repatriated the constitution.. this had quite a lot to do with Quebec, though the minutiae of it are lost on me. If you think about that in American terms, it might seem absurd... Canada literally didn't have its own Constitution at home until 1982.

Many historians and sociologists suggest that in some ways, the quieter, mellower nature of Canadian society is related to the fact that we never fought for independence (unless you count fighting back the Americans and burning the White House). We sort of just sat around, and then it happened. I suppose this is because Canada was primarily settled by the Hudson's Bay Company and settlers associated with it... there was never this sense of "otherness" that early American settlers had, and thus, there was never this dire need for independence from Britain. Canada was, for a very long time, almost completely unsettled and primarily occupied by British traders and their families.

As far as I can tell, July 1st is sort of an arbitrary holiday, and it's pretty recent as far as I know. But everyone loves a holiday!

By the by, you might be interested in knowing that after the fall of the Soviet Union, Canada became the second largest country in the world, second only to China I believe. It really is a massive country.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I saw your post on the movie. I haven't seen it, as I almost never get out of the house. I suppose that this is one of those movies that will lose some of its effect when viewed a year later on cable, too, since the timeliness is probably a factor in what makes this a happening movie, only months away from the election and all. But I think that I get the idea, and I'll live with waiting.

[shamelesss.livejournal.com]

see it it was really good

[adottir.livejournal.com]

Somehow, I just think Michael Moore is a douche.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Alright, alright, Michael Moore is a very polarizing figure these days, and people look at him on different levels.

Though, you may be interested in Richard Cohen's review (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19320-2004Jun30.html), which is a critical account from a lefty.

(If you aren't registered for the Washington Post, they want even less info than the NY Times, and it's well worth getting. I can also copy the column for you if you want.)

[adottir.livejournal.com]

Hah. Thanks, Monk, for the post. I appreciate it. It isn't that I hate Moore's political views, etc. I'm just bothered that this guy, complete with an annoying personality and caveman look, is a polarizing figure these days.