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She doesn't look or sound like any distant cousin of mine.
No, she isn't. She is actually from New Jersey, but that is the Beau Soleil Band from Louisiana performing with her. You can see your cousins in the background.
Here is something you might find interesting too. Information from the French Embassy ...
Here is a side note though … should our beloved Cajuns consider Quebec or Acadia a mother country?
Glad to hear you consider Cajuns to be "beloved"!
I can tell you that quite a few Cajuns have a psychological "Mother Country" relationship with Canada's Maritimes which is where the original Acadia was.
They don't so much have that with Quebec even though some Cajuns have become stars of Quebec pop culture.
Though some Franco-Americans in the NE US do have a "Mother Country" relationship with Quebec, but this is more on a family level than something that would be societal.
I did mention several times that it's not a standard "Mother Country" evolution, though in a way the founders of what was to become Anglo-Canada did "break away" from the fledgling United States. They refused to a part of it and moved to largely unoccupied land that was still part of Britain's North American colonial empire but had not joined the movement led by George Washington.
As I asked before: tell me how Anglo-Canada could have come into existence if the 13 Colonies/United States did not provide a whole host of historical figures, people, events, etc. to the tableau?
(I knew this would be hard for people to wrap their heads around.)
I guess I just prefer a different name than Mother country.
No denying the influence of having 20,000 Empire Loyalists, 60,000 immigrants from the US, but 30,000 were immigrants from the UK. Plus of course Quebecois that made up the population then. Of course First Nations as well.
The US wasn't a mature enough country IMO at that point to really have culturally that much of a distinction, unlike today.
So the idea, that Canada is similar to the US because of what happened in 1784, is a stretch for me.
Canada and the US are similar because we evolved at the same time. Also, as the years progress, technology has made an influence. TV in the 1950's especially had an influence..and movies.
The point is, as much as part of Canada could possibly consider America as a mother country, there are others elsewhere who could consider parts of Canada as having a maternal character.
No, she isn't. She is actually from New Jersey, but that is the Beau Soleil Band from Louisiana performing with her. You can see your cousins in the background.
Here is something you might find interesting too. Information from the French Embassy ...
I can tell you that quite a few Cajuns have a psychological "Mother Country" relationship with Canada's Maritimes which is where the original Acadia was.
They don't so much have that with Quebec even though some Cajuns have become stars of Quebec pop culture.
Though some Franco-Americans in the NE US do have a "Mother Country" relationship with Quebec, but this is more on a family level than something that would be societal.
My daughter in law (lives in Massachusetts) is of Acadian ancestry. Her parents are originally from Maritime Canada. She also talks about her Cajun cousins.
As for our Constitution, I'll let Chevy comment on that, but suffice to say, even though the Supreme Court has evolved since it's creation in 1875, I'm not seeing it as moving towards a more American system. Chevy???
I'd be interested to hear his view. Though it may be a "fish-in-water / is water wet?" view since he works within this legal framework every day. Also lawyers tend to not want to say what the law could or should be, and stick fairly strictly to what the law actually is.
These comments line up with what I've long heard about the 1982 Constitution and the move away from British-style unwritten evolutive constitutional traditions and parliamentary supremacy towards a more codified American model that actually began with Diefenbaker's Bill of Rights in 1962.
In fact large measures of the opposition to the patriation process by many of the provinces were driven by their concerns about the erosion of parliamentary sovereignty and legal precedent classically and since Magna Carta, the core protection of individual rights and freedoms, and by the rather Americanized approach reflected by a specific charter of rights and freedoms.
Minister of Justice J.L. Ilsley claimed that “those principles resulting from Magna Carta, from the Petition of Rights, the Bill of Settlement and Habeas Corpus Act, are great and glorious privileges; but they are privileges which can be and which unfortunately sometimes have to be interfered with by the actions of Parliament or actions under the authority of Parliament.” [Hansard, 1947] In Ilsley’s view, a bill of rights that was intended to limit parliamentary supremacy threatened to Americanize the Canadian political system. No less than three federal investigations were initiated between 1948 and 1950 to consider the viability of a national bill of rights. In each case, the investigating committees rejected a constitutional amendment.
I think it's an interesting idea, but I just don't buy the whole mother country argument.
Mostly because the British/Canadians had a better experience in the war of 1812 than the Americans did. I mean, the United States tried to invade your country and utterly failed.
I think there are some cultural arguments that can be made, like you said, about Hollywood.....but on the other side, the Americans have a lot of Canadians in our entertainment industry. From Canadian locations (because its cheaper to film there) to Canadians at every level of the production process/artists.
So that argument only gets us so far. And we can argue about fast food and some of these other cultural things, but I agree with the poster who said that most Americans really don't think about Canada. The parts of the country that do are generally along America's northern border. Most people can tell you where Canada is, but they really don't know anything more about it and really don't think about it at all. You say Canada and they go "meh?"
So that argument only gets us so far. And we can argue about fast food and some of these other cultural things, but I agree with the poster who said that most Americans really don't think about Canada. The parts of the country that do are generally along America's northern border. Most people can tell you where Canada is, but they really don't know anything more about it and really don't think about it at all. You say Canada and they go "meh?"
It's actually quite typical for the "Mother Country" to be dismissive and aloof about its "child". This does not prove that the theory is wrong.
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