"North American Union"

[steve_spackman]

what do our NA friends think of this idea?

[Hondo]

As in combining the USA and Canada into one country?

[Daniel]

http://www.motorsportforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131107 see this thread for something even whackier :D

[steve_spackman]

As in combining the USA and Canada into one country?

USA CANADA and MEXICO

[Hondo]

Too much territory with too many different needs and cultures. Actually, I think the USA is getting that way now. Too many people with too many interests and concerns, and not enough money to address them all. At some point, growth in any country can no longer be sustained without expanding the countries borders.

[steve_spackman]

Too much territory with too many different needs and cultures. Actually, I think the USA is getting that way now. Too many people with too many interests and concerns, and not enough money to address them all. At some point, growth in any country can no longer be sustained without expanding the countries borders.

so you think that it could say turn into something like the EU?

[Hondo]

No, and quite frankly, I don't see the need for a formal union in North America beyond NAFTA.

I think if the Russians get frisky with a smaller EU country in a military way, the EU will come apart. Possibly the EU will get stronger and become the new "Great Satan" and Islamic thugs can throw stones at it for awhile.

[Easy Drifter]

There is already a Free Trade Agreement between the 3 countries. Doesn't always go smoothly but it is there.
I do not think most Cdns. would want a merge with the US. I also do not think the US would want a merge with Mexico considering how hard they work to keep illegals out.
A not well known fact is that most of the Natural Gas in the US comes from Canada and that Canada supplies more oil to the US than any other country.
Canada and the US are each others biggest trading partners.
A joke by the Royal Cdn. Air Farce (a famous Cdn. satirical group) had an actor protraying George W. Bush looking at a map and saying 'Canada up, Mexico down. Canada up, Mexico down' :eek:

[SOD]

^ to the average USA rube, Canadians are just a bunch of 'Snow Mexicans', and don't you forget that.

[Daniel]

^ to the average USA rube, Canadians are just a bunch of 'Snow Mexicans without moustaches', and don't you forget that.

Fixed it for you :p

[airshifter]

^ to the average USA rube, Canadians are just a bunch of 'Snow Mexicans', and don't you forget that.

Canadians are much too smart to fall for opinionated and incorrect fearmongering based on ill informed stereotypes. Don't you forget that!

[Mark in Oshawa]

^ to the average USA rube, Canadians are just a bunch of 'Snow Mexicans', and don't you forget that.

SOD...while there are more than a few Canadians that would agree with you, sadly no...we are not "Snow Mexicans".....we are "Hey..you guys are just like us"..which is grating on some levels because we are something else again.

I get up Christmas Day and watch the Queen's address. Americans wouldn't do that. We like weird winter sports that the Americans tolerate at best. We have different views on a lot. We are like Americans to people in Europe...but anyone who has been to the two nations knows there is a difference. Our roots go back to the crown and the UK still even with all the immigrants and I think most Americans sense that at some point.

The three nations will trade but NAFTA will never evolve into something like the EU. The US of A has too much of a xenophobic strain in parts of the populace to accept Mexico on that level and while most Americans think Canada is the same...as I stated above we Canadians like doing things our way.

Besides...we don't want to give away vital parts of our heritage such as: on how to make coffee, put a rock in the four foot or how keep warm while ice fishing (ok..that one is easy and it involves lots of alcohol!)

[Easy Drifter]

Sod: You are clueless. Read most of the posts on this forum. The majority of US citizens know quite a bit about Canada.
Over my years of travel in the US I found that most US citizens that knew nothing or little about Canada also knew little about their own country.

By the way the much maligned Sarah Palin probably knows more about Canada than does Obama.

[Daniel]

Sod: You are clueless. Read most of the posts on this forum. The majority of US citizens know quite a bit about Canada.
Over my years of travel in the US I found that most US citizens that knew nothing or little about Canada also knew little about their own country.

By the way the much maligned Sarah Palin probably knows more about Canada than does Obama.
I think we can be fairly certain that SOD was only joking with that remark.......

[Easy Drifter]

Got to go watch the Skins game from Casino Rama.
Anybody on here know what I am talking about? :p

[Daniel]

Got to go watch the Skins game from Casino Rama.
Anybody on here know what I am talking about? :p
Is that some kinda injun talk? :p

[SOD]

Canadians are much too smart to fall for opinionated and incorrect fearmongering based on ill informed stereotypes. Don't you forget that!

if you only knew who told me that :laugh:

[Jag_Warrior]

if you only knew who told me that :laugh:

Shush! I thought we agreed we were going to keep that on the down low, quiet tip!

:D

[Jag_Warrior]

what do our NA friends think of this idea?

OK, I understand you mean the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but what do you mean? A common currency or...?

IMO, the North American (unfair) Free Trade Agreement is bad enough. The situation with Canada is a pretty even give & take. But Mexico receives a greater benefit than either of the other two. And this act has greatly harmed American manufacturing and the middle class in this country. I was a great fan of Ross Perot in the early '90's and I believe that his words on the matter were prophetic: the sound you'll hear from NAFTA is the giant sucking sound of American jobs heading south. And that's exactly what has happened. I'm all for free trade. But it must be fair, free trade. And right now, it's too easy to bribe U.S. politicians to do what is best for the corporate elite, rather than what is best for the nation long term.

[Jag_Warrior]

By the way the much maligned Sarah Palin probably knows more about Canada than does Obama.

Can she see Canada from her house?

:D

[Easy Drifter]

Jag: I doubt it but we do have a land border with Alaska. :)
Daniel: I am not to sure if you are kidding or not. Casino Rama is on a very prosperous Indian Reserve and is Indian owned by the Chippewas of Rama.
However, it is a curling game, but not a bonspiel. It is also fairly good money for a winning team. This afts game was a semi final with the current world champion team competing. They lost. To night pits the Glenn Howard rink against Shirley Jones the reigning womens' World Champions.
Casino Rama is about 50 K from here near Orillia.
The area where I live is a curling hotbed. The Glenn Howard rink (2007 World Champions) home rink is Coldwater. Another top contender in curling is Wayne Middaugh who also curls out of Coldwater as does his wife Sherry whose team is always a contender on the women's side. The Middaughs live here in Victoria Harbour. Glenn is the Manager of The Beer Store in Midland (10k away) and lives neaby. His brother was multi time World Champion.
What is kind of funny is that the three of them plus Glenn's wife curl as a team in a recreational league in Midland and often get beaten. Coldwater is 1100 people about 20k from here. I do most of my shopping there although Midland is closer. Midland is about 17,000. Orillia 32,000.

[Daniel]

Was an educated guess :)

[Easy Drifter]

If I remember correctly curling originated in Scotland.
There is only 1 sheet of ice at the Casino that was put in after the last concert in the Casino's concert centre. It will come out after tomorrows final. The seating for curling is 4000 and the front rows are up close.
Getting proper ice is tricky as the place is designed for concerts.
Most Curling takes place in rinks designed for the purpose and with several sheets of ice.
The 'Skins' games are really designed for TV and even the stategy is different. In a regular game of 8 ends the top score counts. In a Skins game each end counts separately and to win an end you must score two points (your 2 rocks closest to the Button) Each member of the 4 person team throws 2 rocks. The money starts off at say a $1000 for the first end. If no winner the money is added to the next end. As the game progresses the amount per end increases as well as any carry over.
I think top money tomorrow is $100,000.
That is a very simplified description of the game.
It is complicated as people throw rocks as guards (they weigh 40 lbs.) and you really can make them curl or curve.
Someone described it as chess on ice.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Can she see Canada from her house?

:D


Jag...if she lives in Juneau...YES she can. The border isn't too far behind the Alaska Capital in the Panhandle.....

[Mark in Oshawa]

If I remember correctly curling originated in Scotland.
There is only 1 sheet of ice at the Casino that was put in after the last concert in the Casino's concert centre. It will come out after tomorrows final. The seating for curling is 4000 and the front rows are up close.
Getting proper ice is tricky as the place is designed for concerts.
Most Curling takes place in rinks designed for the purpose and with several sheets of ice.
The 'Skins' games are really designed for TV and even the stategy is different. In a regular game of 8 ends the top score counts. In a Skins game each end counts separately and to win an end you must score two points (your 2 rocks closest to the Button) Each member of the 4 person team throws 2 rocks. The money starts off at say a $1000 for the first end. If no winner the money is added to the next end. As the game progresses the amount per end increases as well as any carry over.
I think top money tomorrow is $100,000.
That is a very simplified description of the game.
It is complicated as people throw rocks as guards (they weigh 40 lbs.) and you really can make them curl or curve.
Someone described it as chess on ice.

I was there for the second semi between Jones and Howard. Watching the final on TV in between posts now.

Curling...it is more or less a Canadian thing....yet another reason a union between us and the US would be lost...we have a different culture...eh?

[Mark in Oshawa]

Is that some kinda injun talk? :p

Daniel...the natives get a little cranky when you call em injuns....but since they take a lot of my money on a periodic basis with their dang casino up in Rama (the name of the reserve is Mnjkaning...try letting that roll off the tongue!) I am sort of the opinion I can all em that.

Our native peoples have a lot at their disposal to fleece this country back off the white man and I figure the Casino is there way of getting it back one Quarter at a time!

[Roamy]

It is fine the way it is except I would like to see a trade
southern Texas for the Baja !!!!!

[Easy Drifter]

Actually Mark they reverted back to Rama a few weeks ago.
Their multi time Chief, Sharon Stinson Henry, is a pretty sharp lady. Her husband is a former Olympic Boxer.
She also makes very good money as Chief (well over $100,000 a year) and the council menbers do very well too.
She lives in Orillia, not on the reserve, in definetly a better part of town. Mind you she lived there before she was elected chief.
She has done well for her people and Rama has more facilities than many 'white' communities. New arena, new Medical centre, fairly new school to grade 8 which also teaches native culture and Ojibway and a top notch fire dept. and a police force which often aids the OPP rather than the other way around.

[Hondo]

It is fine the way it is except I would like to see a trade
southern Texas for the Baja !!!!!


You think the French would give us a refund on Louisiana?

[Mark in Oshawa]

Fiero...they would charge you for returning a damaged product.....

[Daniel]

Fiero...they would charge you for returning a damaged product.....
Did they not buy the extended warranty? :crazy:

Could always try to say "It was like that when we got it" and shrug your shoulders though ;)

[Mark in Oshawa]

Did they not buy the extended warranty? :crazy:

Could always try to say "It was like that when we got it" and shrug your shoulders though ;)

They didn't get the warranty. They didn't make sure the foundation was waterproofed and they definately didn't consult anyone with a knowledge of Geography. I could have told em New Orleans was a bad place to put a town.

[steve_spackman]

"For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents ... to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."
- David Rockefeller (Council on Foreign Relations), "Memoirs" autobiography (2002, Random House publishers), page 405

[Roamy]

You think the French would give us a refund on Louisiana?

no that sonofabitch has be out of warranty for a long time :p

[Easy Drifter]

You could give back, or make a trade with Russia for Alaska and be rid of Sarah Palin at the same time.
Two problems though. Alaska has too much oil and Sarah might end up President of Russia!!!!!!!!!!! :D

[Azumanga Davo]

You could give back, or make a trade with Russia for Alaska and be rid of Sarah Palin at the same time.
Two problems though. Alaska has too much oil and Sarah might end up President of Russia!!!!!!!!!!! :D

And that concludes the thread on 'screwing Russia over'. ;)

I know Putin is generally hated by most of the Western world, but golly gee, I certainly feel sorry for him if that latter part happened to his country. :D

[Daniel]

Sarah might end up President of Russia!!!!!!!!!!! :D

:eek:

[Jag_Warrior]

And that concludes the thread on 'screwing Russia over'. ;)

I know Putin is generally hated by most of the Western world, but golly gee, I certainly feel sorry for him if that latter part happened to his country. :D

So Reagan delivered the setup and Palin finishes them off with the knock-out punch!

Sounds like a plan to me. Maybe Sarah can serve her country (and the world) afterall.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I was gonna say something....and I realize...no, put a bullet in this one, the leg is broken....

[veeten]

I was gonna say something....and I realize...no, put a bullet in this one, the leg is broken....

Okay, Plaxico Burress, put the gun down now... ;) :p