Forever Canadian,

I spent the last ten weeks with the Forever Canadian campaign. Now that the referendum is over its time to take stock of the referendum  in general and Forever Canadian in particular. If you listen to Rebel News, the Alberta Prosperity Project or any of the  separatist groups, you'd think confederation was in some sort of peril. As imperfect as it is, confederation is the way things are and will, in all probability, be. 

We will always have a national government well deserving of criticism, as well as provincial governments who have abundantly earned criticism of their own. The Senate, while not universally understood well enough to be properly reviled,  has proven itself to be a straw institution with no meaningful power or influence. It has become a retirement home for loyalists to party politics.  I suppose, in absence of bumping qualified career diplomats, this is better place to park appointees  than, say, as ambassador to  Ukraine, where they might actually do some damage,

No one I know has said, with a straight face,  what we need is more government. The recent federal ferver to align with the EU and it's ultimate imposition of a bunch of additional government is not resonating with  thinking people. Since we aren't part of Europe and have the strongest trade relationship on earth with the Americans, I can only assume  Trump hysteria has caused people to forget just what the USA means to Canada and vise versa. 

There can be no doubt Trump is a few rounds short of a full clip, being bombastic has essentially shielded him from any policy criticism because no one gets past the 51st state or tariff headlines. Trump is not Canada's president, we didn't have such fervor about Castro, Edi Amin, Iran or whoever is in charge of North Korea's awful haircuts this week.  We are being deliberately distracted. I guess, lottery, beer and hockey are losing their grip on the masses so the powers that be needed to ramp up the rhetoric and Trump is an easy target. Not that he does not deserve it, but I do enjoy watching the hand wringing and teeth gnashing of the political elite, who cannot figure out how to deal with a bully, who's more plumber than president. 

This is not to disparage plumbers, imagine the quality of your life without a flush toilet. 

The shit jokes literally write themselves.

I am an unapologetic federalist, I like Canada: BC is a great place to pay two buck a liter for gas or sell for sale by owner signs, and Quebec is just a nice place in general. Sadly we don't have any plans to make Belize a province, which would at least give us a place with decent weather and  for Rotarians to take their fat girlfriends. 

Of all the provinces I like Alberta's absence of rats, no sales tax and generally good, if cold, quality of life. Albertans' are the worlds best at winter construction, a dubious distinction, but, still useful. 

We do a lot right and the Forever Canadian campaign made clear in terms people could understand just what Canada is. First and foremost, it is formidable, the USA has the worlds' best army, we arguably have the worlds' best small one. Yes, we need to retire the Iltis, the G-Wagen,  get some new planes and an icebreaker or two, but this can be handled. 

We have the 4th largest oil reserves and despite Avi Lewis and his unicorns, oil will count for a long time, we also have a massive lithium and uranium resource, both of which will come in handy for building silly electric cars and the power stations with no carbon footprint. 

In the bible, Joshua 9:21-27, speaks to the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, which is kind of what we are. I'm not sorry if bible references freak you out, but that 4,000 year old bible story is as true today as it was in 1931 when Canadian economist Harold Innis "borrowed" it from old Joshua. The difference is we are technological experts and have significantly reduced our dependence on slaves, oxen and donkeys. We now have Caterpillar, Komatsu and Sany to do the heavy lifting. 

We also have a lot of Hydrogen and Helium, one gas that is noble and the other blows up if you put it in  a blimp. These are popular gases useful for a lot of things aside from blowing up blimps or having hilarious  fun at karaoke.

Canada was led for ten years by a moron and this set us back a bit, but it also exposed the politics of pretty. I doubt very much another politician will ever seek to be praised for his socks. Imagine the humbling if that's your greatest achievement: Hello Kitty. I am certain we have overcome our podiatry obsession and moved on.

Our current Prime Minister has not raised his pant leg to show us his argyle dress socks, so the foot fetish honeymoon is over.

We are destined to be Forever Canadian, it took a private citizen in a  clapped out 1993 Winnebago to show us that this country is something to be proud of:  flawed, but safe, caring and generally prosperous. That's why I supported  the cause.

We stood up for what we believed in and did not hide behind what we are opposed to, 18,000 volunteers helped and 75% of the electorate said so too. Did we win? There are no winners or losers in this debate, we need to stop finding fault and start looking for meaningful solutions to the problems we have.

Some of our leaders will get it, some won't, let's hope the majority do.

Doug