Canada hits new low:


NELSON, British Columbia There are plans for a bronze monument and a festival in Canada to honor U-S draft dodgers -- and many Americans aren't glad to hear it.

The project is called "Our Way Home." Its director says it was done to honor what he calls "the courageous legacy of Vietnam War resisters." He says it also pays tribute to Canadians who helped those Americans resettle in Canada when they fled the draft.

Officials in British Columbia say they've been flooded with angry phone calls and e-mails since the news spread about the memorial planned for 2006.

One local official says there's "no doubt that this has really struck a nerve."

Copyright 2004 Associated Press

So? That's their business.  Get over it.

I'd have thought you'd have been supportive of draft-dodgers - after all, not everyone has a daddy to get them a secure post at home...

I'd have thought you'd have been supportive of draft-dodgers - after all, not everyone has a daddy to get them a secure post at home...


Oh that is such a cheap shot.  Especially coming from the same liberals who defended Clinton for eight long years.

It wasn't me who raised the subject.. but I guess you know all about cheap shots...

Oh that is such a cheap shot.  Especially coming from the same liberals who defended Clinton for eight long years.


so then why do the people who called Clinton a draft dodger for 8 long years, suddenly applaud that behavoir in one of their own?

I'm just saying the migration of war resisters, or "draft dodgers," if you prefer, was a fact of life in places like southern BC during the Vietnam era.  They want to build a monument commemorating that part of Canadian history.  I don't see it as a slight against me or my country.  If some Vietnam vets and irrascable Americans don't like it, tough!  Canada's a free country, and that means they're free to do things that Americans might not like.

The U.S. does things Canada doesn't like, such as impose the death penalty, but we can still get along.

The proposed monument isn't a threat to the security or economy of the United States.  It's just a thing people can go and see if they want.  Of course, guys like Crybaby O'Reilly will want to "boycott" Canada and hurt their economy, which is a perfectly rotten and juvenile thing to do.

If the a country has to please the U.S. at all times to be considered our friend, we will indeed be all alone in the world.

Canada hits new low:


NELSON, British Columbia There are plans for a bronze monument and a festival in Canada to honor U-S draft dodgers -- and many Americans aren't glad to hear it.

The project is called "Our Way Home." Its director says it was done to honor what he calls "the courageous legacy of Vietnam War resisters." He says it also pays tribute to Canadians who helped those Americans resettle in Canada when they fled the draft.

Officials in British Columbia say they've been flooded with angry phone calls and e-mails since the news spread about the memorial planned for 2006.

One local official says there's "no doubt that this has really struck a nerve."

Copyright 2004 Associated Press


As a Canadian

YAWN!!!
If the city of Nelson wants to put up a monument to Draft Dodgers or Resisters so what, the country is littered with giant hockey sticks,the world's biggest perogie, huge animals of various kinds (fish, geese, moose) monuments of the dead white guys that caused the deaths of red guys....

If that's what they want, so what? It's their right to do so.

Tanya

I totally support this....I think the draft was BS anyway....FORCING people to do something was just plain WRONG! NO offense to those who served or are serving now, but that was thier choice :)

I totally support this....I think the draft was BS anyway....FORCING people to do something was just plain WRONG! NO offense to those who served or are serving now, but that was thier choice :)


Go Canada!!!!!  But RRF, you shock me.  I'm surprised you think the draft was wrong, and now for a roll reversal.  Under some circumstances I would support a draft, as in WW II, or similar situation.  Just not to support imperialistic little dirty wars like Vietnam, or this one, both justified by lies.

Go Canada!!!!!  But RRF, you shock me.  I'm surprised you think the draft was wrong, and now for a roll reversal.  Under some circumstances I would support a draft, as in WW II, or similar situation.  Just not to support imperialistic little dirty wars like Vietnam, or this one, both justified by lies.
I agree with you on all points, Don Carlos!  :)

Bottom line is this, It's Canada's freakin land, it's canada's big lump of rock or whatever they wanna carve it out of and it's Canadian tax dollars going to it. So whats with the complaining. Hell it's of slight benefit to America anyway, consider this, Herb and Alice from Ohio want to go see it. They spend like $100 or whatever on fuel to get to Canada, bada bing bada boom money in to the US Economy...  ::)

I agree with you on all points, Don Carlos!  :)


I suspect that in terms of basic principles we are not far apart, just in how we think they can best be put into affect.  That is why I try to avoid sarcasm and subtle insults when I respond to you.  You THINK, your don't parrot.  Don't stop.

I didn't realize England HAD liberals ???

They have the Liberal Party but the liberals of the Liberal Party are more conservative than liberal, whereas the Labor Party liberals are more akin to liberals we have here in the United States.
Howzat?

I suspect that in terms of basic principles we are not far apart, just in how we think they can best be put into affect.  That is why I try to avoid sarcasm and subtle insults when I respond to you.  You THINK, your don't parrot.  Don't stop.
I have ALWAYS enjoyed reading your educated replies and respected your insighful views. Thanks for being, well, YOU, Don Carlos ;)

So, who "defended" Clinton for 8 long years ??? ;D

Not I, ma'am.  Clinton was too far right on economic issues for me.  He signed that bogus welfare reform bill, and gave into to business pressure groups too often.  I only defended him agains the outrageous and hypocritical attacks from the Right.

We do so, there are like 3 of them.. somewhere round here, if i can just remember where i put them.....  ???

To get back on topic, I am a dual citizen (US/CAN), and I will speak here firstly as a Canadian. Incidentally, Nelson is no longer going to erect the monument. Under the pressure of the contraversey, the local government has folded on the issue. I think it's a sad thing because I do not believe that this monument was meant to honour American "draft dodgers" for what they did as draft-dodgers; instead, I believe it was meant to commemorate the contributions that these former Americans made to Canada as productive members of Canadian society. However they may have come to Canada is one issue, but however that was shouldn't overshadow the fact that they became good Canadians, and that's what was to be honoured. Speaking as a Canadian, I am tired of seeing the Canadian government, both national and provincial, consistently compromising the will of the people to appease a foreign government. Speaking as an American, I don't believe that our alliance with Canada, my other country and our closest ally, should come under such scrutiny at the drop of a hat, each time the sovereign Canadian government wishes to comply with the will of its people in the form of progressive legislation (note the failed decriminalisation of Cannabis under pressure from Washington, when both the findings of the scientific community in Canada, and the people of Canada wished it to be so).

I have my own fears for the future of Canadian sovereignty, and some of them I have already expressed on other threads. This, I think, is just another example of Canada obeying a foreign people instead of obeying its own people. If this isn't a compromise to sovereignty, I don't know what is. I urge the other Canadians on the board and everywhere else to start taking this possibilty seriously. Take a look at the writings on the wall. If we want to turn these tides we have to start now. If you are a Canadian republican who honestly cares about Canadian sovereignty, then perhaps you should reconsider your attitudes toward the Crown. If you were thinking of voting for the Conservative party or the Bloc Quebecois in the next elections, and you're worried about our sovereignty, perhaps you might consider taking a look at the Canadian Action Party or being reassured of our Liberal party's commitment to our national sovereignty. Do what you feel is best, please, but I know that if I were to wake up one morning to find that Canada had become the 51st state, I would be crushed and my heart would be broken.

For fear of sounding like a cook, I'll end my sermon here.

GO McDONALD!

We are a sovereign nation and can do what we want.  The US is our closest friend in the world but we can still disagree on some issues, how boring would the world be if we were all the same.

GO McDONALD!

We are a sovereign nation and can do what we want.  The US is our closest friend in the world but we can still disagree on some issues, how boring would the world be if we were all the same.


Thanks for your agreement, Conker. Glad to know I'm not the only concerned one.

They have the Liberal Party but the liberals of the Liberal Party are more conservative than liberal, whereas the Labor Party liberals are more akin to liberals we have here in the United States.
Howzat?

Hmm... a brief summary of UK politics:

In the 19th century, the Liberal party was a fairly conservative one: back then the Liberals (aka Whigs) and Conservatives (Tories) were I guess rather similar to the Democrats & Republicans today: both very elitist and (compared to today's politics, anyway) really quite right-wing.

Today's Liberal Democrats (the name change came back in the 80s after a merger with the SDP) are closer to what I'd call the libertarian (rather than "liberal"), using the words as I've heard them being used by Americans: on some policies they're way further to the left of the Labour party, though there is still quite a strong free market ethos - government should be doing as little as it can get away with, while preventing its people from being exploited/invaded or otherwise harmed.

The Labour party is no longer the left-wing "communism-lite" of the last century: realizing that policies of state control and state ownership were not going to get them into power, they took a hike to the right which has kept them in power for the last seven years and it's likely they're going to stay that way after the next election, too.

The problem for the Conservative party is that Labour has taken a lot of its ideas, and the main battle between them now is not ideological left & right, but who will manage things best... if it wasn't for the Iraq war, and the way we went to war with an overwhelming majority of the population against the idea, and based on a premise that has since proven to be false, I wouldn't be able to see the Tories regaining power for another decade or more.  After all, Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer has done the best job of any chancellor in living memory, and we've had an extremely stable economy the entire time...

For fear of sounding like a history teacher, I'll end my sermon here ;-)

I hope someday they will erect a draft dodger monument.  It should depict five hippies standing outside a paisley-patterned VW microbus with a sign on it that says "Canada or Bust!"
;)

I hope someday they will erect a draft dodger monument.  It should depict five hippies standing outside a paisley-patterned VW microbus with a sign on it that says "Canada or Bust!"
;)


I hope so too, and the reason is that there is no reason not to. Anyone who still thinks that the Vietnam war was good and justified is an idiot. Yet when almost everyone agrees that we should never have gone into Vietnam (especially since we lost, plain and simple. none of the "no one won" crap because the VC succeeded in their goal, and that means they won!), almost everyone looks with disdain upon people who refused to be used as pawns in the US' sick Cold War death game. The Vietnam war was wrong and they stood up for what they believed in.

i had two teachers who were draft dodgers. they were good teachers....my father volunteered to join the US army in 1965 but was classified as 4F, unfit for military service. some 50000 canadians did volunteer during the 60s and about 30000 served in vietnam and over 100 of which never came home....just so you americans who think we're all a bunch of idealistic liberal lovers (which we are and damn proud of that fact) that we do care about our southern neighbours, even to the point were we are willing to serve in your wars and die.

'Hear Hear'

Muchos Kudos my Brother of the commonwealth

I have my own fears for the future of Canadian sovereignty, and some of them I have already expressed on other threads.

And with good reason.  The desire to annex Canada goes back to the Revolutionary War, when we tried to invade.  Canada was given an open invitation to join the US in the Articles of Confederation.  There are also more reccent examples.  Today, with the presence of US based transnationals Canada could be concidered an economic colony.

We're not too worried about invasion.  In the War of 1812 some Americans tried to annex parts of Canada and after 2 years of getting nowhere a gang of our drunks took a boat to Washington and burned a good part of the city and went back home. 
The White House got it's name from the white paint used to hide the burns on the facade.
Later on the British were kicked out of New Orleans so no one really won the war...we kept our land and you go Cajun counrty.

There is a monument somewhere in Canada, BC I think to our Vietnam vertans who served with the US.

I do kind of like the VW Mirco Bus monument idea...peace, love, out.