Friday Jukebox/Canadian Content
As you all hunker down for some Fourth of July frivolities, please keep your northern brethren in mind this weekend as we celebrate Canada Day.
(In fact, we may celebrate it twice this year as July 1 lands on Sunday, making July 2 the official observance; it’s wonderfully convoluted.)
So, in celebration, let’s watch the new video from a great Canadian band, Nickelb Amos the Transparent:
Amos The Transparent - Says The Spark [Official Video]
![Amos The Transparent - Says The Spark [Official Video]](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/bgDrPtRDkd4/0.jpg?resize=720%2C388&ssl=1)
[Cross-posted at the 49th.]
A few quotes from my favourite Canadian: Robertson Davies:
The US, for historical reasons, mistrusts the concept of a welfare state, and this mistrust shows itself nakedly under present US government, which commits uncounted billions of the national wealth to what it calls defence, and is close-fisted in giving money to plans which would ameliorate the grinding poverty of a great part of its people. Quite simply, in Canada you could not get away with that.
I once had a dispute with a group of Swedish professors at the University of Uppsala as to which country, Sweden or Canada, was the dullest in the world. It was a draw; they claimed superiority because of their long history, and I claimed it because of Canada’s immense land mass, which gives us space for tremendous expansion, even of such things as dullness.Report
So all the celebration is about is the fact that you went from four colonies into one federation/larger colony? Even though you were still ruled by the Brits and considered to be inferior?Report
We prefer the term, Dominion.Report
Some say prayers.
I say mine.Report
So you got the Cardassians, and we got the Kardashians?
Tough to say who got a worse deal.Report
The celebration could be that Canadians got to pretty much the same place Americans did (self government, national identity) with 99.99% fewer war casualties and 100% fewer civil wars and we got to retain a rich treasure trove of links to the historical legacy of our mother country , connections to our brother dominions (commonwealth fist bump) and we got an awesome head of state (which means we’re allowed to treat our elected PM like the political hack he is without being unpatriotic) to boot.
Hell, when you count up the case on the points and merits July the 1st should be a rip roaring bawdy celebration in Canada and the 4th should be a comparatively sober and introspective meditation in the US. But I’ll still be bbqing and partying here in MN anyhow.Report
I don’t the US has anything to be somber about, if you please. As for Canada, y’d be speaking German or Communist now without the protection of yr big brother, so just say thank you and wish us happy birthday.Report
More like estranged brother but it’s not like the thirteen colonies would have imploded into nothingness if the revolution hadn’t happened. Most likely the whole of British North America would have followed the Canadian path and there’d have been some even bigger North American super state that would have whupped the Germans even more promptly and defeated the communists at least as thoroughly.
But there’s no need for revisionist history debates Tom ol’ boy, if you’ll lift your alluring sunglasses and read the transcript you’ll note that Scott was denigrating the Canadian birthday celebration in the comment thread dedicated to that subject and that I merely pointed out that if you objectively analyze the paths Canada and the US took it’s difficult to say the American path was the optimal one.
So I’ll split the difference and say good on America; we could have done worse than we did and happy birthday.Report
Thanks.Report
Next time we have an Opposite Day, I think you should do a tribute to Nickelback. This is not a request, by the way. It’s a demand.Report
We’ll see. Listening to Nickelback is probably the one thing worse than the wrath of Zeus.Report
What’s wrong with you Nickelback is awesome! As is Bryan Adams! You can keep Celine Dion and make sure she never crosses the pacific (or the atlantic for that matter I don’t want her coming in from the other sideReport
I’m down with some Bryan Adams love.Report
How about Gordon Lightfoot?Report