CANADA AIN'T AMERICA

The US continues to misread our northern neighbor.

There was an interesting moment in the Revolutionary War when Benedict Arnold led a truly rag-tag force of militia on an invasion of Canada. The force dwindled from the outset with desertions (militia never liked to fight far from home), then experienced a horrid slog through frozen Maine rivers and swamps. Arnold arrived outside of Quebec with fewer than 700 men.

He faced an even bigger problem. Most of those 700 were on enlistments that expired on December 31. He had to take the city before then, or lose his entire army. Oh, and the city was fortified.

Launching a night attack, Arnold’s forces nevertheless pushed through the gates and actually temporarily occupied the center of town before a counter attack drove them out. Despite the defeat, it was a remarkable accomplishment. Arnold, though viewed by many as an exceptional leader and hero, nevertheless was shunned by other Continental officers, leading to his ultimate decision to betray the colonies and hand over West Point to the British. He finished his life in England.

It would surprise modern readers to know that a small, poorly armed body of irregulars nearly seized Quebec from Redcoats.

It would also surprise most to understand that the Canucks are NOT Americans. Have you forgotten their draconian lockdowns during the China Virus? Their oppression of truckers who were trying to make a living and, in the process, feed cities?

Now we have another liberal elected in Canada. First, recognize that the liberals in one party or another are the majority in Canada. For a “conservative’ (i.e., the equivalent of a RINO in America) to win, the liberal parties have to split. There was no chance of that happening in the last election, despite what the hopium X-posters say. Pollivere was ALWAYS going to lose, whether he spat on or kissed Donald Trump. The Canucks just ain’t there yet.

Second, recognize that aside from a swath through Alberta, Calgary, and a couple of other western territories that are powerful oil-producing regions, most of Canada is far left and heavily infused with immigrants.

But the biggest misunderstanding about Canada is they aren’t America because they lack two of the key Four Pillars of American Exceptionalism that Mike Allen and I lay out in A Patriot’s History of the United States, most notably the two that deal with bottom up governance. Pillar One is a “Christian, mostly Protestant religious tradition” that stresses congregational church governance. BOTTOM UP. The Canucks don’t have that. They are a Catholic/Anglican country. Both are top down (Pope and King/Archbishop). There is no Canadian history of resisting authority on religious grounds as there has been in America. Second, they do not have a common law system. Common law came from the Germanic tribes to England, then to us. Today only the USA and England have common law systems.

Common law has power rising from the bottom: God puts the “law” in the hearts and the minds of the people (as is recorded in both the Old and New Testament) and the people elect or select rulers who will carry out what they already have internalized. Hence the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Canada grew up to an adult under the Dominion status where it took all the important orders from (now) Mediocre Britain.

”But,” you say, “Canada is a democracy.” Right. So is Cameroon, which has had dictator Paul Biye for 45 years. They do not have training or a tradition of bottom up resistance to government as Americans do. Constitutions are meaningless without such a tradition (Cameroon’s is very good). From the outset, when our forefathers in Virginia were burning the governor’s mansion, or when our Massachusetts kin were throwing tea into Boston Harbor, or even in failed large-scale protests such as Coxey’s Army or the Vietnam marches, Americans have a long tradition of resisting and opposing tyrannical government.

Neither Canada nor Mexico (which is Catholic and spent its first 250 years as a vassal of Spain) have a history of bottom up change. Both are top down quasi-oligarchies.

The very best that can come of the reelection of another liberal is that President Trump will use the liberal parts of Canada as a foil; will continue to leverage them for trade (where with a “conservative” he would have had to tread gently), and will continue to foment a desire on the most “American” parts of the country—-the middle western provinces—-to secede and join the U.S. But be warned, even these conservatives will be at best liberal Republicans and not very MAGA-ish. Still, probably better than remaining Canucks.

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Larry Schweikart (@LarrySchwe94560)

Rock drummer, Film maker,NYTimes #1 bestselling author

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