This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published by The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1408046
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1408046
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Canada Has Long Feared The Chaos Of US Politics
With good reason.
Great piece, thanks!
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Oh, Canada finally arrested the “truckers” and towed away their shit that was deliberately impeding the streets of the capital and terrorizing its residents? Sure took 'em a hell of a long time to do much of anything about it.
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But at least they’re nice about it…
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It’s telling that, wherever the US has had a hand in shaping the founding documents of other countries, our experts nearly always recommend a parliamentary system as opposed to our own model.
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When the nation of Canada was founded in 1867, its people deliberately chose a form of government meant to avoid the mistakes and problems they saw in the U.S. government next door. That helps explain why Canadian police used emergency powers to arrest hundreds of people and tow dozens of vehicles while ending the trucker protests in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.
Putting these two sentences next to each other implies that the US somehow deals with this stuff differently, that our governments don’t take big actions to quell protest or “protect law and order”.
That probably comes as a surprise to people who were in the streets in Ferguson in 2014, when police resorted to tear gas on day 2 of the Mike Brown protests, and the National Guard was called in on day 8. Or perhaps we could look at the George Floyd protests in 2020, when over the course of a month 96,000 guardsmen (or similar) were activated and 14,000 people were arrested.
The various levels of government in the US take peace and order very fucking seriously…it’s just that who is allowed to be on the receiving end of that “peace and order” is both politically and racially skewed.
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imo. Canada gave the truckers ample opportunity to leave/ disband, on their own…since Canadians, as a rule, don’t carry guns or have those huge military type weapons, there was no need to rush…other than being annoying…no harm was done…no burning or looting as happens here on a daily basis.
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Umm, what?
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I’ve owned a home in quite remote outport Newfoundland for nearly 25 years now. My primary home is in quite remote far northern NH. My closest friends on the Rock are almost all fishermen and other working class folks. Here many of my neighbors and daily business associates are working class. Here in NH many of those salt of the earth types worship Trump, guns, and environmentally destructive outdoor recreation. Trump brought out the worst, and I hear people I’ve known for years making racist, homophobic, sexist, and anti-Semitic comments almost daily now. My Newfie friends are very similar in many ways, especially their environmental degradation tendencies, but they’re not nearly as politicized. I notice, for instance, that the biggest church in the whole area of Newfoundland is Evangelical/Pentacostal. But I’ve never heard a bigoted comment from the many church attendees I know. There are several rather flamboyantly gay folks in the bigger rural towns nearby, and though I hear teasing, I’ve never heard even a hint of judgement or attack. When Trump was first elected, I heard lots of support for his supposed “tellin’ it like it is.” But after my Newfie friends saw him in action, they’d start saying to me things like: “How the hell did you people elect a guy this nasty.” Here in northern NH, whole houses have been turned into Trump 2024 billboards, and the yahoos are out there screaming about gun rights and their right to ride their ATVs and snowmobiles anywhere in the White Mtn. Nat. Forest. We live in a sick racist country I’m afraid.
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As they back slowly away.
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Canada is number five on the Economists’ democracies list and it is a full democracy. It has one major flaw, first past the post voting as opposed to one of the many forms of proportional representation. Trudeau favours instant runoff (preferential) which is not proportional and has serious mathematical flaws. He should have looked at what happened in BC in 1952 to see how it can blow up the plans of a dominant party(s)
The US IS A FLAWED DEMOCRACY AND IS 26 ON THE ECONOMISTS’ LIST.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins with this. > The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. This has two major consequences - rights are not absolutes (see the Oakes rule) and the test is not domestic but a general world=view of democracies and democratic evolution and growth. the recently retired Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court Rosalie Abella (my candidate for the greatest living jurist and one of the greatest ever) in a speech at Fordham University (politely trashes the US Supreme Court. A Conversation with the Honorable Rosalie Silberman Abella and Dean Matthew Diller
Rosalie Silberman Abella Fordham Law Review Volume 87, Issue 3 2018. I believe she is teaching at Yale this semester. She is amazing. Her discussion will make clear how different Canada is.
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Events in the US had done much to discredit the Republican model, but they weren’t the only ones. France was another example of a Republic that always seemed to descend into turmoil. This essentially gave rise to a consensus amongst both French and English Canadian political classes that a Parliamentary model was better suited.
For the English class, the inclination was also a natural one as many held strong ties to the institutions of their British ancestry. For the French, the Parliamentary system was best suited to preserving the hierarchical order of their Catholic agrarian traditions.
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Eventually, the fumes from your meth lab neighbors in the apartment below you make their way up into your space.
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I guess that no political system is perfect as long as politicians are part of it. Take this a-hole Johnson in Wisconsin…wow, what a loser.
But the Canadian system is a whole lot more civil and peaceful than the American system. Yes, I know the truckers who knew nothing about freedom, held on for a long time but who instead denied freedom, are gone. But they are gone. For good, I hope. They are too scared to block buildings in Washington, DC.
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basic assessment - US has too many fooking idiots … eh?
Excellent article. In a very simplistic fashion, it contrasts the reasoned debate of Canada with the ignorant mob rule often seen it the US. Sadly, our society has traveled too far down the path of corruption to be able to turn back and emulate our wiser cousins to the north. Sad!
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All I can do is LOL at your comment. You Texans are so brash it’s beyond understanding to this timid Canadian. Having said that, how’s the mess in your state and country coming along? I’d like to visit again. Has it been cleaned up?
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What are you referring to?
Pretty good article about Canada. The opinion writer missed some salient points when quoting McDonald but I’m sure no ones is interested anyway. It was just a little thing about his racist attitudes toward anyone not British.
I should add her brief discussion on Canadian unity is flawed. That’s a long story.
Next time, and I’ve mentioned this before get this guy. He lives in Ottawa and writes for various papers including the WaPo. There is an opinion piece today.
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Where do I begin? There are many.
You are someone I admire here for your deep understanding of the American law and how it’s applied. Having said that, lately, I have found your commentary about what Canada ought to do, or should have done with the convoy, quite out of touch with the Canadian perspective. This article is pretty good at explaining it. That’s why I found your latest one particularly laughable. That’s all.
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