27 January 2007

Republic

Remember this?

Via Warren Ellis, I learn that Stéphane Kelly, writing in the Toronto Star, takes the idea seriously. As a Canadian, of course Kelly calls this an annexation of New England.

If the annexationist vision is imaginable, it is because there is a good historical ground for it to thrive upon. And we have underestimated this ground for a long time. We wrongly thought Canadians had always been anti-American.

After the Revolution of 1776, the elite of the Loyalist colonial towns of New England changed their point of view on the matter. In Canadian towns, people started distinguishing between bad Americans (southerners) and good Americans (northerners). These Canadians criticized southern politics, subjugated as they were by the radical republicanism of the Democratic party under Jefferson and Madison (allied with Revolutionary France). Northern Americans were judged acceptable because of their sympathies to England.

As well, in New England towns, resentment toward Canadian Loyalists ebbed ....

I can imagine worse futures.

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