I guess No doesn't mean No

I've been trying to follow what's going on up there through (mostly U.S.) news reports and the various bloggers that are posting on this mess.

My questions are: Do the Canadian people think they're being shortchanged because of Canadian government restrictions on press coverage, and is there any sense that the press as a function of a democratic society is being unfairly muzzled? And, is there any thoughts of changing Canadian law to give the press more latitude in reporting on such matters?

You're right. Canada doesn't have a border with Russia.

[you know how close you are, they could have eaten you long ago.]

I thought, that you thought, we did take a side.

[With student radicals and third world countries that would attack the USA and leave you alone?]

Canada and California have approx the same population. (32,000,000)

Canada (Total area: 9,984,670 sq km Coastline 202,080 km)

[And you decided to go it alone, undefended, aspiring to the sense of fair play of the USA's enemies, the likes of Saddam, Kadafi, Bin Laden and others more reasonable than the USA?]

And Canada has aprox. the same area as the USA and 10 times the coastline.

Missiles don't sneak across undefended borders, people do.]

United States (Total Area: 9,631,418 sq km Coast line 19,924 km

[It's the size that makes a bigger target. If we went under, you wouldn't be safe.]


How large would the US military be if the population of California, had to pay for the military to protect the entire US?

[Show me the part where we are not doing our share and asking you to shoulder the load and defend us. Get off it.]

There is only so much money you can squeeze out of a taxpayer.

[agreed, there has to be priorities.]

And I've been lied to, by politicians, before.

[We are in different countries, not different planets. We will work it out, we always have neighbor.]

[Show me the part where we are not doing our share and asking you to shoulder the load and defend us. Get off it.]

I've never said "we are not doing our share and asking you to shoulder the load and defend us" or anything close to that.

My reference to California population and USA geography was a setup for the question.

Since Canada is a large country with small population.

Where do you think Canada should spend its defense budget? Home land security, bases in foreign lands, satelites, missiles.

I recall in the early sixties the Canadian government spent millions on Nation Defense Survival Training, This was a six week (240 hours) course to train thousands of ordinary civilians for a nuclear attack. Which never happened, who knows why.

Does a country base it economy on a "worst case scenario" i.e. something that might happen or on something that you are positive is going to happen?

[We are in different countries, not different planets. We will work it out, we always have neighbor.]

We are and we will.

we both have social issues to contend with, while trying to prevent what other governments have fostered?]

I recall in the early sixties the Canadian government spent millions on Nation Defense Survival Training, This was a six week (240 hours) course to train thousands of ordinary civilians for a nuclear attack. Which never happened, who knows why.

[And it never will? Read about the DEW (Distant Early Warning) line in Canada designed to warn us of Soviet attack by missles over the top. Your country thought we could have placed the line further up stream to protect them too, and said so, I agreed that while we were paying you rent, we could have placed them further upstream, but I was told the reaction time was a big factor then, that isn't now.]


Does a country base it economy on a "worst case scenario" i.e. something that might happen or on something that you are positive is going to happen?

[Does a country ignore the fact that oil money has given many little radical countries and factions and even rich Bin Laden wackos the ability to kill millions of people, and we are convinced he will if he's allowed? There are more Bin Ladens on the horizon I'm afraid.]

I am just glad (we) the USA and Canada can disagree without a crazy person strapping on a bomb and killing each others children. I am also proud to say, that we can disagree with our own country from time to time without some monster putting a million dollar contract on us. They are the ones that look like idiots, not us.