The Canadian snow doesn't dare crossing the border

Happy Canada Day? 70% Canadians Think Canada is “a joke” as Canadian Pride Takes a Tumble.

Comparing to five years ago, just over one-third (35%) of Canadians say they are less likely to feel proud to be Canadian, while only 16% say they are more likely. Roughly three in ten say they are less likely to attend a Canada Day event or display a Canadian flag around the holiday. Similar proportions say they are more (27%) and less (27%) likely to speak positively about Canada to those not from Canada, but negative sentiment is on the rise. On Indigenous issues specifically, 33% say they're more likely to learn about Indigenous history compared to five years ago, but even this figure is waning, down six points since last year. 

Compared to June 2023, the portion of Canadians who say they are less likely now to do any of these things has grown, especially when it comes to pride in being Canadian and speaking positively about Canada, while the portions of those more likely has fallen.Someone said,Canada is kind of a joke. It just follows whatever the US does when it comes to anything meaningful. Demands the entire country publish everything in French because small fraction of their population speaks the language. I mean just look at its currency, this is not the outcome of serious people.

But why this happened?

(1)Canada day isn't even celebrated by most Canadians.

(2)The immigrants don't give a fuck about Canada.

(3)The first nations people say celebrating Canada day is insensitive to the first nations.

Most of the young people can't afford to build wealth through real estate.They choose silence today but they should have been the most cheering group.More and more young people are worshipping the United States and like to immigrate to the United States! You should know that the United States and Canada have the longest undefended border in the world. The U.S.-Canada border is a model of harmonious coexistence among human beings!

The law of the jungle is the mindset of most Chinese people regarding international relations, and bullying is the stereotype of most people regarding the United States.

However, in this case, there is a question that we cannot logically reconcile ourselves with. That is, there is a country with very rich resources but very weak military power right at the doorstep of the United States, and that is Canada.

But why doesn't the United States annex Canada?

You should know some interesting history facts about america or medieval history in Europe

(1) Historical grudges

Canada has a vast land area of ​​9.98 million square kilometers, which is larger than both China and the United States, and ranks second in the world after Russia.

It is hard to imagine that a country as vast as Canada has a population smaller than that of a state in the United States, and has less than 70,000 active military personnel. Canada's military expenditure accounts for only 1.3% of its GDP. This proportion has been on a downward trend for half a century, and in 1962 it was as high as more than 4%.

In fact, the contemporary United States not only does not want an inch of Canadian territory, but also does not accept territory that is offered to it: Puerto Rico has held referendums many times to request to join the United States and become the 51st state of the United States, but all have been rejected by the US Congress.

According to many people's ideas, being a neighbor to a superpower like the United States should be tense, but Canada has used the military resources of the United States. Canada not only does not increase military spending, but also wants to reduce military spending to use it in its own livelihood.

Since the total GDP of the United States is 12 times that of Canada, and the proportion of military spending is three times that of Canada, Canada's military spending is almost negligible in front of the United States. It should be noted that Canada is a sovereign country, and the United States and Canada often have disputes over issues such as trade and international affairs between the two countries, but why is Canada not afraid of the United States? Why doesn't the United States invade Canada? Where does Canada's sense of security come from?

Canada has a territory of 9.98 million square kilometers, and its crude oil reserves are the third largest in the world (the total reserves are nearly 6 times that of the United States). The richness of various minerals, fresh water, forests, and wildlife resources is even better than that of the United States. Canada has only more than 30 million people and is surrounded by the United States on both sides. Its military strength is far weaker than that of the United States. The United States only needs to send an aircraft carrier battle group on the east and west coasts of Canada to blockade the sea, and then send out armored forces to completely occupy Canada. But the reality is that the United States and Canada do not have any troops stationed on the border. Why doesn't the United States simply occupy Canada and make it its 51st state?

The answer is: the United States did invade before but was not strong enough. Now it has the strength but it is unnecessary. More importantly, the rules of the world order after World War II are no longer simple jungle laws.

The United States invaded Canada in 1776 (Canadian Campaign) and 1812 (War of 1812), but in the end it was taught how to behave by the British army in Canada.

The Canadian Campaign was a battle during the American Revolutionary War. At that time, the Continental Congress of the United States hoped to prevent the British from attacking southward from Quebec Province, and believed that the residents of Quebec Province would respond to the rebellion, and finally decided to send troops to invade Quebec. The United States sent troops in July 1775 and began the Siege of Quebec in December, but failed in the siege; in May 1776, British reinforcements arrived in Quebec City, and the US military had to lift the siege due to the losses and diseases it suffered during the siege; the British army later launched a counterattack and won the Battle of Trois-Rivières, driving the Continental Army (US Army) back to Lake Champlain. In October of the same year, the British army destroyed most of the US watercraft in the Battle of Vacour Island, and the United States lost the ability to invade Canada, and the Canadian Campaign ended.

Although they were frustrated in the Canadian Campaign, Americans still did not give up their fantasies about Canada. In 1812, Thomas Jefferson, the outgoing US President, said: "This year, the Canadian region will be annexed, including Quebec. As long as we move forward and attack Halifax, we will eventually drive British forces out of the American continent." The belief that the United States must control the entire North American continent was later called the United States' "Manifest Destiny."

So in June 1812, the United States declared war on Britain and invaded Canada (the United States wanted to start a war when the total number of regular troops was only 12,000 at that time, which shows how much the United States wanted to occupy Canada).

At that time, in the eyes of Britain, the United States was just a third-rate country that had just been established. Even if the United States declared war on Britain, Britain's focus at that time was still on fighting Napoleon in Europe. At that time, Britain hoped to avoid the expansion of the war in North America, so it did not dispatch troops to assist Canada.

By 1814, Britain defeated Napoleon in Europe and sent more troops to reinforce the North American battlefield. The British army in Canada occupied Maine in the United States and once captured the capital of the United States, Washington, DC, and burned the predecessor of the White House, which was still a wooden building at the time. The War of 1812 meant more to the United States than to Britain, because the United States and the world's strongest Britain fought back and forth, and Britain failed to crush the United States. Later, the British Army suffered many setbacks in the Louisiana battlefield in the southern United States, the Battle of Lake Champlain, the Battle of Baltimore, and the Battle of New Orleans. Later, the two sides ceased fighting in 1815, and the border was restored to its original state. Neither side gained or lost in terms of territory, and the United States did not realize its plan to occupy Canada.

Today, although the nominal head of state of Canada is still the Queen of England and it is a member of the Commonwealth, the actual economic and trade ties between Canada and the United States are undoubtedly closer. If we put aside sovereignty and borders, the two countries are no different from one economy purely from an economic point of view: the United States is Canada's largest dominant trading partner, 76.2% of Canada's exports are sold to the United States, and the United States' exports to Canada account for 52.2% of Canada's imports.

With the support of the past NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and today's USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement), free trade has been achieved between the United States and Canada. American and Canadian citizens can also hold their own passports and freely enter and exit each other's countries without restrictions. Many people hold dual citizenship of the United States and Canada. The lifestyle in Canada is almost the same as that in the United States. It feels like a state in the north of the United States, and the degree of integration between the two countries is getting higher and higher. When entering the United States, the channels for holders of American and Canadian passports are more convenient than those of other countries.

The two countries have truly achieved similar economic development levels, cultural inheritance, free flow of goods, and free flow of population... Why would the United States today need to annex Canada by force?

Canada's national conditions also allow us to have a deeper understanding of the two Gulf Wars. Canada has much more oil reserves than Iraq. If the United States' military actions in the Middle East are only for oil, this piece of fat meat is much more delicious than the hard bones in the Middle East. Why bother to go far away?

In fact, after World War II, the world is gradually moving out of the jungle law of the colonial era, at least on the surface It has become more civilized and entered a state where the spirit of contract and the law of the jungle coexist. Civilization can often restrain barbarism, and order can often restrain chaos. The maintenance of relations between countries, international trade, and the negotiation mechanism for handling conflicts have reached unprecedented heights in fairness and efficiency.

The international system formed after World War II includes the political system (the United Nations), the trade system (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which was later the WTO), and the international financial system dominated by the US dollar. They enable countries around the world to deal with each other in a much more civilized way than in the past, and there is also sufficient room for negotiation and bargaining when encountering conflicts.

For example, the United States believed that some details of the previous North American Free Trade Agreement were detrimental to the interests of the United States and did not respect the principles of fairness and reciprocity, and demanded renegotiation. Therefore, the United States, Canada and Mexico reached an agreement after 13 months of long negotiations, during which they experienced seven rounds of trilateral negotiations and multiple rounds of bilateral negotiations.

During the bilateral negotiations between the United States and Canada in the new USMCA, the United States and Canada each made a certain degree of concessions. The two most important parts are the terminal settlement mechanism and the Canadian dairy market.

In terms of the dispute settlement mechanism, the United States compromised with Canada. Canada's victory lies in the fact that the dispute settlement mechanism it advocated can prevent the United States from launching anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations against Canada based on its own domestic law. In the end, the USMCA agreement determined that the dispute settlement mechanism would be handed over to third-party arbitration, which prevented Canada from being hit by anti-dumping tariffs from the United States for no reason; and the most important concession from Canada was dairy products. The annual value of the Canadian domestic dairy market is US$16 billion, and Canada agreed to allow American dairy products to occupy 3.5% of it.

In the colonial era more than 200 years ago, the same trade issue was very likely to lead to war and serious consequences. For example, the Boston Tea Party in North America became one of the important fuses of the American War of Independence, and the Sino-British Opium War opened up China's modern history of suffering heavy blows.

Today, the United States and Canada, Mexico, and other countries with huge differences in national strength can express their respective interests through negotiation, bargain, and finally reach an agreement, using communication and negotiation instead of siege. This shows the progress of the times.

(2) Economic Development

Although the more than 8,000 kilometers of undefended border between the United States and Canada is a model of harmonious coexistence between countries, Mexico, which also borders the United States, is in a completely different situation.

The control of the US-Mexico border is very strict. Even in Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Texas, which border Mexico in the United States, police may stop cars for investigation on the road. The purpose of the US police doing this is to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the border and driving deep into the United States.

The fundamental reason is that the economic development levels of the United States and Mexico are too different. In 2023, the per capita GDP of the United States will exceed US$81,000, Canada will be US$53,000, but Mexico will only be US$15,000. This has caused a large number of people from Mexico to smuggle into the United States through the US-Mexico border, causing great trouble to the US's public security, employment, and social management. Not only Mexico, but also refugees from other Central American countries have poured into the United States through Mexico.

It can be said that any country with a similar level of economic development to Mexico and once it borders the United States, it is difficult to avoid a large number of smuggling incidents, and the United States has to tighten border control.

In the face of border tensions caused by smuggling, the only solution is to develop the economy. China has the most typical example in contemporary times: with the opening and rise of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and inland provinces, no one would choose to swim across the border river to escape to Hong Kong for a living after the 1980s.

(3) Sharing the same boat

The Peace Arch Park on the US-Canada border is an important land transit point and an important tourist attraction. It is the most commonly used transit point for people commuting from Seattle to Vancouver.

Visitors can park their cars in the parking lot on either the US or Canadian side, then walk to the park and walk under the white Peace Gate, truly realizing that one foot is in the US and the other is in Canada.

On the US side of the gate is written "Children of A Common Mother", and on the Canadian side is written "Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity". It can be seen that culture and values ​​are the highest level of state relations and a major backing for US-Canada relations.

From the current state of the relationship between the United States and Canada, we can better understand the direction of development of the contemporary world, that is, less jungle law and more contractual spirit... The bottom contract of the international community is the United Nations Charter.

Under the framework based on the United Nations Charter, sovereign states can have more just relations, more peaceful negotiation channels, and more diversified development opportunities.

For a superpower like the United States, the benefits that can be obtained through trade, finance, technology and cultural exchanges are far greater than those obtained by occupying other countries' territories in the past, and these processes do not harm the interests of other countries like war and aggression, but are based on the market. Each party takes what it needs and cooperates for win-win results.

Although,Today most Canadian think “The Canadian snow doesn't dare crossing the border” because it's afraid that the Americans will shoot it in self-defense.Lol..

In addition, Bitcoin is likely to become increasingly important in the future monetary system, but Canada seems to have fallen behind in this regard! Here are the countries with the largest Bitcoin reserves in the world:

United States: 213,246 Bitcoins, worth about $13.58 billion
China: 190,000 Bitcoins, worth about $12.1 billion
UK: 61,000 Bitcoins, worth about $3.8 billion
Germany: 50,000 Bitcoins, worth about $3.18 billion
Ukraine: 46,351 Bitcoins, worth about $2.95 billion
El Salvador: 5,702 Bitcoins, worth about $363 million (El Salvador plans to buy 1 Bitcoin a day until the country's legal currency can no longer pay)
Bhutan: 621 Bitcoins, worth about $39.55 million
Venezuela: 240 Bitcoins, worth about $15.29 million
Finland: 90 Bitcoins, worth about $5.73 million
Georgia: 66 Bitcoins, worth about $4.2 million

But some interesting news, Nevada-based Black Rock Oil Company (Black Rock In a letter of intent, Canada’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) proposed that three natural gas sites in southern Alberta, Canada, would be able to receive up to 1 million bitcoin mining machines relocated from China.We can’t clearly see how much Canada has to do with Bitcoin or how many Antminer S19 Pro are running in this country now?

History allows us to recognize the truth, but there are more truths that history cannot show. Anyway, let's cheer for Canada together as we yearn for peace! Happy Canada Day!