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Question 7: Prosperity

How should Canada take advantage of its location in North America to increase prosperity while promoting our distinctive identity?

 

 

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Contributor:1868
Date: 2003-05-01 02:46:45
Answer:
I don't think we need to increase our prosperity. We need to distribute it better in our own society, and we need to help poor countries become more prosperous.

As for our position in North America, obviously it is delicate. I would like Canada to stand up for what we think is right in spite of pressure from the US. We need to remember that although we have a lot in common our societies are different. I think of the current contraventions of civil rights in the US, of the huge military lobby, of the excessive patriotism, the recourse to violence, the discouragement of diversity of opinion on political issues, the right wing extremism and unilateralism. We aren't the same. Another factor is that the US is undoubtedly the most hated country in the world, with its arrogant, self-serving foreign policy. Do we want to be seen as increasingly allied with the bully of the world? I don't think so.
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