Reply #3: Where do we stand on WWII? [View All]

[yvr girl]

That's such an odd question. We joined a week after it started. We waited a week mostly to prove our Independence. BTW, it started in 1939. Canada was automatically at war when Britain declared war in WWI. We played a major part. Our beach on D-Day was Juno.

We don't celebrate an 'Independence Day.' We celebrate Canada Day, and it's July 1. It was originally called, 'Dominion Day.' On July 1, 1867 the original provinces joined to form a country known as Canada.

Canada gradually gained its Independence. For most of our history, we were governed by the British North America Act. Prior to WWI we handled our own domestic affairs and Britain handled our foreign affairs.

Canada acquitted herself quite well in the madness that was WWI. We signed the Treaty of Versailles on our own. We've started to act more independently after that time, but we still technically had go to the Privy Council in London to make things official.

We actually didn't repatriate our constitution or institute our Charter of Rights and Freedoms until 1982. Britain was no longer our official overlord at that time. (We had been independent in an unofficial way for a long time at this point.)

Canada started as a business venture (the fur trade) and gradually became a country. Ours is a history is one of negotiation and compromise. Peace, Order and Good Government as opposed to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

As far as the human rights issues go, we like to think we are better than Americans (and we are) but our history isn't spotless. We had the Mild West as opposed to your Wild West (the Mounties kept things under control more or less.) Early in our history we basically wiped out a whole tribe/nation of Natives. We displaced the rest and put them on reservations.

Britain outlawed slavery long before we were even a country. The underground railroad came to Canada. We aren't blameless in this area either. Canada blocked many black people from entering our country for 'medical' reasons.

We interred Japanese Canadians during WWII. We also treated some German Canadians pretty poorly.