Our trek ahead here in Ontario is being well managed by Premier Ford for sure (in terms of economics trade is really a provincial matter just as the governors of the States of the United States manage their states). I like his thoughts of a closer economic union and why not open the borders like Europe between us and permit the American or Canadian police/border people more access to policing the entire continent (no stopping at a border when one or the other are pursuing a suspicious set of people or individual). Our border intake would then be at the airports and seaports and we would have a unified entry into our countries (controlled immigration/entry by citizens). This would also entail some revisions to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in order to make everything work well for both of us. We always have to keep it in mind that the rest of the world outside of North America with exceptions would like nothing better than to see Canada and the United States not getting along. We have a great trading and friendship partnership.
There are farmers all over the United States to the south of us who send us wonderful fresh food all winter long and we buy it in great amounts. We also receive a lot of goods through American stores here that we do not make because we are a country of 40 million and there is only so much we can make for sure. In theory we could make anything but economics enters into that and we make what is practical for us. We may not have the usual heavy snow cover but today it is minus 13 degrees celsius and not much grows here until the lovely spring and summer come although I do really like winter. Mind you we store up our summer crops to eat all winter but it is nice to have the fresh food flowing across our border. President Reagan and Prime Minister Mulroney created this great partnership and we both (American and Canadian) have flourished ever since. Presidents and Prime Ministers come and go but the great friendship between the United States of America and Canada flourishes year in and year out as we protect this great land mass that we are honoured to live on by the grace of God and the kindness of the First Peoples.
I love Canada but I also want what is best for Canada. We need to build up our military; it simply has not been done since PM Mulroney was in power. We need to man the border and PM Harper fired so many border agents trying to balance the budget. I would humbly suggest that an economist is not the best person to be Prime Minister. Balancing the budget by discarding needed services is not a good plan. Not meeting regularly with the Premiers of the provinces/territories is also a mistake when Prime Ministers think they should make all the decisions (like reducing the border agents particularly in Ontario) - the provinces should always be consulted on every detail that involves Canada and them.
Protecting this huge land mass is something that Both Canada and the United States are responsible for and we are not doing enough; our military does not have adequate equipment. We have not refurbished NORAD bases as fully as we need to. Our military does not provide enough incentives for us to get more of these bright young people into service (we definitely do not want people with Hamas sympathies or Hezbollah or Houthi or Iran supporters or ISIS and all of these other evil satanic peoples for that matter). We need to offer free advanced education to our bright young people serving (the GI Bill is a great addition to the American system) when they have served their time to make it much more interesting as a vocation.
Allowing the herds of wild animals to flow freely from north to south is also very very important. But nothing can happen with respect to Canada being other than what it is without the buy in of the First Nations. We have not actually heard from them and they represent a sizeable portion of the population here as well as being the owners of huge swathes of area in Canada. It is time for contemplation and we need to look after Canada and make sure that what is done is the best; the absolute best for Canada. That should always be our thinking. I love Canada and have lived here all my life and I was born here. But I love the United States too (they are our neighbours, friends and relatives), I have many many second cousins and greater there as do many Canadians. Many Canadians have to go to the United States to follow their career dreams because they could not get a job here in their field. We are a merged society no matter how you look at it.
But 11 Sep 2001 showed us that there are values in us not being one country only as we were there to help bring in all those planes and Americans on them when they closed their airspace. Being two countries has its advantages no matter how you look at it but an even stronger economic relationship would only benefit both of us. Go for it Premier Ford.
I will work on the Blake book again today; I got started looking once again at the Le Blak family which arrived it would appear in Hampshire in the latter part of the 1200s (from Rouen, Normandy) and appears to be the Le Blak family in Berkshire at the time of the 1301 Pipe Rolls there.
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