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Cascadia really isn't a serious ramification in reality. But the Six western regions leaving is possible. I think around 36% of people outside alberta(46%) are interested in forming their own country. So those numbers are not far behind Quebec's 40%. The main reason I say that is the US states really don't want to leave the Union. When I lived in Washington and Montana very few people talked about leaving the US as opposed to BC and
Actually I've talked to a lot of people about the idea of Cascadia and most of them seem to be at the least open to it, and many of them actually seem to think it's a good idea. There's a pretty big disconnect between Oregon/Washington and 'mainstream America'. One of the main reasons people move to the Northwest is to escape the staunch conservatism of 75% or more of this country. I can't speak for Montana however, I would say most of Montana is too far east to be Cascadian except for the part west of the Continental Divide (known as 'Glacier Country' in some tourist guides).
Last edited by callmemaybe; 08-16-2012 at 08:51 AM..
Why couldn't people simply drive through Quebec from Ontario the Maritimes on the highways that are already there?
Precisely..
And as for all this speculation that if various provinces separate they will join the USA if things dont go too well? i dont buy it as BC can furnish the world with wood and mined resources and has some of the greatest fishing areas in the world, Alberta and Saskatchewan have some of the largest oil deposits in the world albeit in shale form not to mention most of the worlds potash and Alberta/Sask/ and Manitoba will always be one of the worlds largest agricultural areas,
Ontario? .. OK the USA can have that.
Quebec can live forever on its natural resources and Hydro Electric power and agriculture, the Maritime provinces would probably unite and between its natural resources and its proximity to vast fishing resources i doubt they'll be needing to be joining the USA. Plus much tourism revenue could be generated by all provinces
There wou;ld also be many ex Canadians who would rather remain in their own less than successful province than join the USA and incur what i see down in the politics section of this forum.
PS, Ontario would do just fine on its own..
No offense to the poster above but i'd say the whole cascadia movement is very fringe all around. I'm talking in BC and in washington/oregon.
It has no where near the real world political ramification that the quebec separatist movement has. I'd even place it behind the alberta speratist movements on a scale of viability/reality. I sort of feel the whole pacific north west connection is a little overblown as well. I feel oregonians and washingtonians maybe even northern californians feel somewhat more of a kinship with eachother than with BC due to the fact it is in another country.
It's true that British Columbia is a very different culture with quite a different narrative than Oregon/Washington (I'd daresay Chilliwack, BC has more in common with Coldwater, ON than it does with Bellingham, WA in many ways) and the ties between the people are fairly distant in time for the most part. I have a friend who is from Albany, OR and has a Canadian mother but that's one of the few actual family ties I can even think of among people I know.
However go back about 150 years and Oregon and Washington had a strong French Canadian and Hudson's Bay Company presence. British Columbia also has a lot of post-revolutionary American roots from the days when the Oregon Country was disputed territory, which is supposedly the reason BC is more of a 'hot-blooded' culture than Canada east of the Rockies in many ways (cough Stanley Cup riots cough). I wouldn't be too surprised if the people in OR and WA with French, English and Celtic roots are at least in large part Canadian in heritage. I have a couple friends from Longview who exhibit Canadian vowel raising in their speech, and I've heard anecdotally of 'American' influence in the speech of the BC Interior and also in their country music.
What BC shares with OR/WA and does not share with the Prairies and Ontario is a long history of counter-culture. I think British Columbians tend to be more independent minded and capitalistic compared to Ontarians and Prairieans who are more community-oriented. You can see this in the immense economic inequality in the city of Vancouver.
But yes, BCers, despite their connections to the American Northwest, are staunchly Canadian and some of them indeed came from further east in Canada and directly from the UK (or China). I actually think Cascadia will be a much harder sell to BCers than to Oregonians and Washingtonians. America could afford to lose Oregon and Washington, and Oregonians and Washingtonians aren't as a rule fiercely patriotic. OR and WA only have about 11 million people combined, a drop in the bucket in a country of 320 million. BC on the other hand has 9% of Canada's population and its entire west coast.
Even though I'm in the Cascadia movement, I also love Canada and I'd like Canadian identity to continue even within Cascadia. I would be okay with like a cross-border autonomous Cascadia that wasn't fully independent as long as we didn't have to contribute to Washington's wars and didn't have American consumerism and waste shoved down our throats.
Why not get this Cascadia movement up and running by having the American Northwest separate from the rest of America,then after a few decades/generations when the move is shown to be a total success you can perhaps ask or persuade BC to come on board.Or does this whole Cascadia movement fall to pieces if BC isnt an initial participant?
Would love to see Quebec go...... Returned to a Federal Government were hiring is based on skills and merit rather than language. Would love to see them take the city of Ottawa's Nazi-esque language police with them!!
Would love to see Quebec go...... Returned to a Federal Government were hiring is based on skills and merit rather than language. Would love to see them take the city of Ottawa's Nazi-esque language police with them!!
Nazi-esque language police in Ottawa? You do know Ottawa is in Ontario and as such doesnt really have any need for language police,thats just a demographical quirk only Quebec feels it needs,
i'll agree though it would be nice to save the tax payers a bundle and see the totally unnecessary language police relegated to the history books....
As for hiring for jobs? when every one is French its not about language anymore its just about hiring the best person for the job.
Nazi-esque language police in Ottawa? You do know Ottawa is in Ontario and as such doesnt have any need for language police,thats just a demographical quirk only Quebec feels it needs,
i'll agree though it would be nice to save the tax payers a bundle and see the totally unnecessary language police relegated to the history books....
As for hiring for jobs? when every one is French its not about language anymore its just about hiring the best person for the job.
Welcome to the forum Jerry
He's probably referring to the recent crackdown/spending to ensure all services are deliverable in both official languages.
My position is, either stop receiving equalization payments infinitely year after year, or just leave (you get my vote on that).
And what's the point of all this bilingual policy when hardly anyone outside Quebec speaks or reads French? I suppose more people speak Chinese, Punjabi, or Farsi than French. It is costly and offers little value. Don't get me wrong, I am all for protecting the French language in Quebec, but forcing bilingualism everywhere else is sheer stupidity.
BTW, what's the big deal with maple syrup? The taste is nothing special and can be easily replaced with something similar. It is not important to anyone.
And what's the point of all this bilingual policy when hardly anyone outside Quebec speaks or reads French? I suppose more people speak Chinese, Punjabi, or Farsi than French. It is costly and offers little value. Don't get me wrong, I am all for protecting the French language in Quebec, but forcing bilingualism everywhere else is sheer stupidity.
Quite simply to please Quebec. Even though .07 % of most other provinces speak French all of them still need it an official language.
I don't see English as an official language of Quebec >_>
Why does Canada force a bilingualism on the rest of Canada when hardly any one speaks French outside Quebec? 75 seats in the House of Commons might have something to do with it..
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OK the USA can have that.
