• Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    You want to know why Canada still exists despite having a fraction of the manpower or military of the United States?

    It’s because the United States likes Canada. We think they’re fun to have around.

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        That’s an abstract question to try to answer; it’s not like we sit around and ponder about y’all for hours on end but someone says “This is my friend Bill from Canada” and you just think “Oh cool.”

        On a societal level, we share the world’s longest international border, we’re massive trade partners, like, most of the Northwestern hemisphere’s best comedians come from Canada…we like Canada, we think they’re fun to have around.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          5 days ago

          Yeah, that’s my impression too. It’s more like you never sat down and thought about annexing us to start with; at least this side of WWII. We’re pleasantly familiar feeling and stay out of the way, so there’s no reason to.

          Hopefully you know that “your country only exists at my pleasure” is not a compliment. I read this as a deliberate jab at first, but now I’m not so sure.

          • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            We’re pleasantly familiar feeling and stay out of the way, so there’s no reason to.

            I think I’d go farther and say you’re pretty good friends; we have plenty of projects going together, we’ve got a giant waterfall we do a pretty good job sharing, etc.

            Hopefully you know that “your country only exists at my pleasure” is not a compliment.

            Wasn’t really designed to be; it’s more meant to chastise other imperial superpowers throughout history. If you went back through history and took the dominant superpower of any given era and plunked their leadership down in 1950’s Washington DC, how many of them form close economic ties and a mutual defense pact, and how many of them march on Ottawa?

            If I read our treaties correctly, the official attitude of the United States is more like “Canada shall cease to exist over our dead bodies.”

            • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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              4 days ago

              It’s a bit of an unfair comparison. WWII had just ended and the world was adjusting to the invention of nuclear weapons. The British stopped invading places too, and that was their whole thing. Also, don’t forget, before WWII you did try to annex us.

              To date you’ve chosen to sphere us instead, but it’s not because you’re all just nice guys.