Ian Hanomansing’s first topic in his weekly radio show on CBC was, “Is Canada more like Europe than the United States? What’s at stake for you if Canada builds closer relations with the EU?”
I wasn’t going to wait on hold for half the day, so I used their submission form at https://www.cbc.ca/aircheck to submit my (unused) thoughts. Of course, I found out that there’s a length limit; not that my thoughts were millions of pages in length, but apparently 600 characters (not words) are long enough.
This is what I wrote:
I am an immigrant to Canada. I came here from southern Africa, a former British colony, 45+ years ago.
My simple answer to your question is that Canada is currently more like the United States. Unlike Australia, for example, which is more like Europe — the United Kingdom specifically — than the United States.
I don’t think what Europe is suggesting is full membership, hence the word associate, so talk about Brexit isn’t really relevant. I’m a dual Canadian/European citizen, so I don’t feel that there is anything “at stake” for me, but I feel closer to Europe, even though I’m just a few kilometres from the US border. And even though I’ve had a mail box in Blaine for years (which expired this year), I have refused to cross the border since 2025.
That’s 754 characters, but I deleted the last sentence to get in what little I could. I won’t bother making that mistake again; some people have ridiculous length limits on submissions.
To expand somewhat, because this is my own goddam blog and there are no length limits, I grew up in a former British colony, and I don’t apologise for using something closer to British English. I have no strong opinions on whether British English is the “correct” English, but it is my preference, just as many people have decided that the American version of the language is their preference. I know the American version is supposedly newer and makes more sense (to some people), but my personal opinion (if you’ll excuse my redundancy) is that it is lazy, and I don’t like lazy. This is especially true in Canada, where we’re right next to the States and 99% of the population just accepts the fact that the default in many computer programmes in multiple operating systems is to use American spelling, and so they will swear up and down that the correct spelling of “colour” is “color”, because they simply don’t know the difference. And that’s part of the reason why I hold that Canada is more like the United States.
And what’s “at stake” for me? I don’t think there’s really anything “at stake” for me. I like the fact that I am a dual citizen; I think of a few of my friends with even more than two citizenships and I am jealous. (I no longer qualify for citizenship in my country of birth, because I’m the wrong race.) I live in the 21st century where one’s citizenship isn’t primarily a statement about your loyalty; it’s just a piece of paper that one (or more) governments have decided to give you, and which entitles (or obligates) you to accept some rights or responsibilities. And if you don’t like some of those responsibilities, you can reject that citizenship. That’s a choice that most of the population doesn’t have, and so I realise I am privileged.
But this question is not about dual citizenship, but I still think that nothing is “at stake” for me. My business is international anyway, and it has nothing to do (directly) with my citizenship. If I really wanted to do business in the EU, I suppose I would research this supposed “associate membership” more and see how it could benefit me, but I don’t see how it would benefit me. Like 99% of any special offers you see on TV, it does nothing for me, and everything for whoever is pushing the offer on me. Thanks, but no thanks.
So there’s my answer in 2303 more characters. That’s all of 3.8 times as many as the 600 characters I was allowed. Phew! I’m exhausted.