Congrats!

8 minutes to go here ...

That's my whole point, we're 136 years old, and they treat us like we're 112. Hmph.

Happy 136th, Canadians!

(the ones in my time zone, anyway)

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!!!!

What happened today that made TPTB choose today as your day?

On July 1, 1867 the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and what are now Ontario and Quebec joined together to become the Dominion of Canada. The creation of the British North America Act a few months previous paved the way for this Confederation of colonies. Other provinces joined in subsequent years, all the way up to Newfoundland joining in 1949.

I did not know that. t /Carson

Thanks Megan.

Happy Canada Day!

Megan, that war plan is very disturbing. Was it totally theoretical? It was especially weird reading the detailed description of topography, resources and military. Like a stick insect, I rely upon being invisible and ignored to provide a feeling of safety. Oh well.

By the way, Nora and found that the Firefly episodes wouldn't play in our DVD player. We were going to take them to my mother's place to watch on my brother's computer, but he returned his DVD drive, so I think we can't watch them at all. Seeing as they're doing us no good, I figured we should pass them along. Who's up next?

Ouise, you Crimson you, don't worry about it. Unless Canada is still a pawn of the UK, which Canada Day shows you're not anymore, there's nothing to it.

The exercise was really about a war between the UK and the US; loyal UK-allied Canada was going to be a battleground, obviously, for that, but the plan wasn't aimed at Canada per se. No civilian authority ever requested or saw the plan, it was purely a theoretical military exercise. In fact, it was because the UK and America were so friendly that they could plot these wargames; the "Black" plan against Germany was sidelined as being too hot to handle. There were lots of plans:

Other color plans included "White" (domestic uprising), "Green" (war with Mexico), "Gray" (war with any one of the Caribbean republics), and "Purple" (war in Central America). One scenario pitted the U.S. against the combined forces of France (Gold), Canada, and Britain. Another (Red-Orange) pitted the U.S. against a combination of Japan and Britain.

And of course, the Brits were doing their own plotting against us North Americans as well. And Canadian generals had their own plan:

in 1921 Canada's Director of Military Operations and Intelligence, Col. J. Sutherland-Brown, produced a remarkable document called "Defence Scheme Number 1" to deal with possible war with the U.S. As in the U.S., isolationism ran high in Canada and it was politically difficult to plan for war in Europe. "Defence Scheme Number 3" did eventually deal with that scenario, but not until a decade later. ("Defence Scheme Number 2" dealt with war against Japan.) DS1, as the name implies, was primarily a defensive plan, but it included invasions of the U.S. in the first days of war as a means of gaining time until troops from elsewhere in the Empire could arrive. These invasions would have been aimed at Albany, Minneapolis, Seattle, and other northern cities, to be followed by a slow withdrawal and destruction of bridges and railroads. The plan was withdrawn in 1929, about the same time the finishing touches were being put on War Plan Red.

Excellent info here, a fascinating Straight Dope article. Turns out there's been plenty of tangles between the countries, some, like the Fenians, relatively serious, but right now there's not much. So much of American strength and Canadian prosperity comes from having such good neighbors that we all take it for granted. Imagine having Russia or Germany or Afghanistan on your border--yuck!