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Conclusion: The World We Want

Thank you for participating in the Dialogue on Foreign Policy. The interactive web site is now closed. The Minister's report will appear on this web site once it is released.

This Forum is bilingual, and participants post messages in their language of choice.

Secular states and EU model...

Contributor: codc01

Date: 2003-04-07 07:55:43


This is taken from the Values and Cultures answers:

Quote from answer:
"Second, I think that Canada should align itself much more with Europe. Europe is much more advanced in terms of having a secular, social democratic political culture. Canada, with the possible exception of Alberta, is much more in line with this culture than it is with the US political culture. "

Do you know how much European Countries have problems? France is a secular state, and because of that they have lost all sense of values and symbolism. Is this good, absolutely not - symbolism is very important in our day to day lives - and I'm quite happy with all the symbolisms we have in Canada.

Symbolism gives us an historic perspective, and this is important to many Canadians.

The EU is too socialist (check all the social problems they have, and the crime rates), while the US is too 'Tory' like (look at the proportion of poors)... Canada should stay on the course it has taken - the exact middle ground between the US and the EU - I don't want another US, but neither do i want another EU. We have a unique system, lets keep it that way (those who wish to have the systems of the US or EU should move to those places!)...

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Secular states and EU model...

Contributor: cfallon

Date: 2003-04-08 13:19:38


I agree. We should be very wary of heading down the path of the EU. Afterall, the EU project is one of imposing a super-structure on an already overgrown set of national structures.

We and the Americans should forge ahead with smaller and less sexy governments. These governments would fix our roads, make sure the water is potable and the schools educate our young.

Small governments will bring peace to the world.

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