Yesterday was a lazy day

 As I bid the dogs goodbye, my day slowly dwindled into a very lazy day. I cleaned up everything which involved taking the protective sheets off of the two couches, collected up all of those towels from drying and put them on to wash. Then I vacuumed the entire main floor and will clean the floors today likely although they were not really marked up very much as I cleaned the dogs at the door every time and I had moved rugs to protect the hallway. The couches were immaculate when I took off the protective covers but vacuumed them anyway - always methodical. That was pretty much my work for the day. After that I just rested as I was fairly tired. I didn't even go skiing with my oldest daughter but will do that today. I just worked away on Sudoku puzzles here and there; I collected more matches and read/watched the news on the television. 

It was during this time that I noticed that President Trump said that Canada shouldn't exist - its existence was the result of just drawing a line. But the roots of Canada are fairly old and it is true that this entire continent was managed by the First Peoples who moved north to south and created this logic that still exists today of trade moving north to south and back again. Over a thousand years ago the Vikings sailed the North Atlantic setting up small colonies here and there and we visited L'Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland and the experience was truly amazing. I had heard about Viking explorations since my early days in school and even before as my brothers liked to tell me what they learned at school when they came home. They taught me how to do some of the schoolwork long before I was in a classroom. So Viking was a word known to me as far back as I can remember but in the late 1940s and early 1950s it seemed more a mythology than a reality but here in front of me in 2010 was L'Anse aux Meadows - a recreation but none the less it looked ancient. It is interesting how we do that. we visited Edinburgh Castle in 2008 and when we reached the top of the structure there was an ancient chapel in front of us "St Margaret's Chapel" and the tour director said this is the only part of this entire structure that is original (800 years old); the rest was all rebuilt. 

Can Canada and the United States of America recreate that open structure north to south that has existed in this part of North America for eons as two independent countries? I think they can; Premier Ford thinks that a closer economic relationship between us is possible (it does for the most part already exist with CUSMA/USMCA/MUSCA). Anything that we now do here in Canada to restore our industry pre-NAFTA is already available on a continental basis inside of Canada and the United States (or will be if President Trump succeeds in bringing back all this industry that went to Asia). It does require a leap of trust which has been somewhat tarnished of late. Canada would still be maintaining our Westminster Model of government based on the King and Parliament and the United States their Republic based on a President and Congress and the Courts should be possible but it requires a leap of faith which has two hundred years of proof for its steadfastness and workability. In 1818 the British and the Americans signed a treaty which created the 49th parallel as the border from the western side of Lake of the Woods, Upper Canada (now Ontario) to the Strait of Georgia (British Columbia). Canada later bought in 1870 Rupert's Land (a huge tract of land in the west owned by the Hudson's Bay Company which also extended down below the 49th parallel) and ceded the land below the 49th parallel to the United States of America as per that earlier treaty. You can see continuous happenings between these two countries all in a peaceful way throughout their history over the last two hundred years plus on this shared continent which is also home to the First Peoples whose right to move north and south is guaranteed by the Jay's Treaty of 1794. All of these treaties being created after 1783 when the Republic of the United States of America defeated the British. So why does Canada exist anyway - it is ancient in its naming although a misunderstanding; the First Peoples have been here for thousands of years and the word Kanata (original name for Canada) became mistakenly applied to the entire area that was part of the French North American Colonial Empire by the colonials. When Jacques Cartier explored Newfoundland and the St Lawrence River finally all the way to what is now Montreal and slightly beyond in the 1530s, he asked the First Nations people in this area what the name was. A misunderstanding by Jacques Cartier when the First Nations peoples noted that he was pointing at Stadacona (now Quebec City) and said that it was a "kanata" (Iroquois word for village or settlement) but the word which was interpreted as Canada stuck for that portion of the continent as France claimed that part of the continent including the Louisiana colony which extended all down the Mississippi River. In reality the actual name of this entire continental area is Turtle Island. The name Canada gradually came to be a huge amount of this continent going west to the Pacific and south to New Orleans as the French occupied this area (the Mississippi River drainage section) that later became the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 by the Thirteen Colonies (the United States of America) from France of this huge tract of land and included most of the lands in the Mississippi River's drainage basin (15 million dollars was paid). A small amount of this land was above the 49th parallel and was ceded to Canada in 1818 by the treaty mentioned above.  What was happening to the south of this area - in 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh (England) attempted to found the first English settlement on this continent at Roanoke. This colony had disappeared when supply ships returned in 1590. In 1598 England did establish a colony north of the French explorations of the 1530s at Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) on Baffin Island. Then in 1604 the French established a colony at St Croix, an island on the Saint Croix River between Maine and New Brunswick. They moved to what is now Quebec City in 1608 as this area around St Croix was too limited and heavily exposed to the elements. The Quebecois (descendants of the original French settlers in 1604 and greatly added to through the years) continue in this part of the country and form one of the provinces of Canada. Their roots in this land are continuous (and all across Canada actually) and their pride in country is huge (Prime Minister Trudeau is a descendant of the early French Canadian pioneers (as is my son in law)).

In reality the French were the original colonials to North America (huge settlements following the 1608 habitation at Quebec City) although the British were at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island in 1598 (and in Newfoundland during the fishery season and later settlements on the island) so in some ways they were earlier  but colonials tend to set up villages and permanent residences so it is debatable which was really first the French or the English as permanent colonial settlements with farms etc in what was known as Canada by the French and English. In 1614 the Dutch established trading posts first at Fort Nassau (Albany NY) and Fort Orange (Albany NY) in 1624 (my husband's Dutch ancestors were there this early on). In 1607 the Jamestown Colony, Virginia was established by the English and 1620 saw the Mayflower land in now Plymouth (this is marked with a large flat stone actually and quite intriguing in the harbor at Plymouth, Massachusetts; when we were there it was very busy with people celebrating this initial colony) by the Dissenters (many of my husband's ancestors) as I tend to refer to them. But through all of this the First Peoples were present on the entire continent and the United States of America emerged in 1783 in control of the 13 original colonies having defeated the British. The Declaration of Independence was signed 2 Aug 1776 although it is my understanding that the commitment was made 4th July 1776 which is Independence Day as celebrated in the United States of America (independence from England). 

At that time the area known as Upper/Lower Canada extending from Newfoundland to British Columbia) and north to the North Pole was in the hands of the British having defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and taking Quebec (but did not include the area in the south west (the Louisiana Colony still held by the French but presumably all called Canada - historians could correct me on that). Sitting across the Bering Strait from Russia lies Alaska (the very north west of the North American continent (below the many islands on the way to the North Pole) above and beside Canada) which was a Russian colony of the Russian Empire up until the purchase of this property by the United States of America in 1867 for 7.2 million (equivalent to $129 million in 2023). There had been ongoing wars between the French colonials and the British colonials in the thirteen colonies but all of that ended in 1763 clearing the way for the 13 colonies to look at a larger picture for these colonies. As mentioned they purchased in 1803 as the United States of America the Louisiana Colony from the French thus greatly enlarging the United States of America to the west of the colonies but limited in 1818 by the treaty establishing the 49th parallel between the British for Canada (name first given in 1534 by the French explorer Jacques Cartier but in reality the Iroquois (First Peoples nation) word for village) and the United States (created in 1776). The Treaty of Ghent ratified 17 Feb 1815 had earlier ended the War of 1812-1814 between the British regulars (including First Nations, Metis, Canadian militias both Quebecois in Lower Canada and British/Loyalist settlers in Upper Canada) and also in the Maritimes (First Nations, Metis and British/Loyalist settlers) and in Western Canada (First Nations, Metis, British settlers and others) and the Americans. 

 Anyway forward and onwards as we negotiate this new way of life called tariff wars. The winners: who ever collects the tariff money in the long run (does trickle down economics ever work!) - the losers the purchasers (always the purchasers pay for tariffs enacted on products!).