Canadian Apathy 3: Canadian Citizenship

"Voluntary" and "Mandatory" duties of citizenship?

Now even less about the war of 1812? Should not every Canadian citizen - home grown or not - know how the borders came to be? This also dovetails into Monarchy, Commonweatlth and the Queen we have now.

Our borders did not exist since the beginning of time - thousands of families had their houses burned down in barabaric raids over ties to England versus independence.  Not to mention how Hudson's Bay Co. obtained the lands in the name of trade.

Instead of the test becoming easier and shorter, the volume of material should increased as so many basic things about Canada are not known at large by its citizens, metaphorically it makes us look like the class dunce at the meeting tables and with travelling buddies on our post-university travels.


http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/taxes-census-treaties-described-as-obligations-of-citizenship-in-new-guide/wcm/016bf5ad-58df-4924-82b4-78ea5168e768

"By the sound of it, the new text will read like Quotations from Justin Trudeau:"

http://nationalpost.com/opinion/c-p-champion-new-citizenship-guide-shows-liberals-are-the-copy-cats/wcm/5653a9c6-b260-4a4e-b311-c37edb0f622e

Canadian Apathy 2: How Serious is the Institution of Bilingualism Taken in Canada?

http://nationalpost.com/news/in-quebec-chickens-say-cot-cot-french-canadian-terms-that-are-nothing-like-their-english-translations/wcm/765be3b9-3770-4235-82cf-a6ee08a5215e

"Although Canada is an officially bilingual country, a large majority of Canadians do not speak a word of French" 

1) I did know about the "P.E.T." translation and have giggled childishly for years driving up to the P.E.T. Aeroport (fart-port)...

2) ....However, yes it is a character flaw of most Anglo Canadians, and with a modest amount of effort to learn French by Anglos, would have eliminated a lot of the tensions and problems we have had for over 400 years. Unfortunately Canadians would prefer to be just in awe of multilingual countries like Switzerland or more selfishly would rather learn Spanish so they can mannerly order "cerveza" from the hotel pool bar on their next all inclusive one week vacation.  

The cultural and historical significance of French among Anglo Canadians is sadly below the efforts of say Netflix binge watching or playing Tetris on your expensive latest iPhone during your 1.5 hr commute on a GO train (think of all the time you could have to learn French....or just putting that time to use better, like learning Canadian history -  another topic that Anglo Canadians don't spend an ounce of effort on nor feel they need to know). 

In a country so much to be thankful for yet its institutions are becoming less and less identifiable to a point we have to ask ourselves "what do we stand for?' (large groups are out there to oppose or ignore the Queen, bilingualism, Canadian history, CFL, CANDU reactors, etc), it is sad to see this part of Canadiana, and the efforts to learn both official languages, appear like an annoying mosquito on a clear cottage day for Anglo Canadians. 

Of course, in Canada we have to be tolerant and respective of all cultures, celebrate diversity.... unless it's Quebec, Natives or Americans....then the rules don't seem to apply, especially in the media. 

Canadian Apathy 1: Even After Voluntarily Providing $10M to Khadr, Liberals Likely to Face 2019 Re-Election

As shocking as it sounds, even after protecting citizenship for known and convicted terrorists and doling out $10M to the Canadian-born Omar Khadr, even on the 4th of July and payment unnecessarily accelerated while Parliament was not even sitting (that is, no chance of debate), this band of self-righteous do-gooders (all "for the middle class", of course), are likely facing another victory in 2019.  If this is happening now in year two of the Liberals' term, what will Canada look like after 2019? God help us....

http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/emerging-polling-trend-suggests-khadr-settlement-may-not-have-hurt-liberals-after-all/wcm/387208e0-45ed-4290-9a7a-922ab463c516