From CBC. Trudeau talked with Trump and says the 51st state threat is serious. Trudeau’s press people say “There will be no messing with the 49th parallel. Period.”
This mention of latitude reminded me of an obscure and forgotten dispute. 54-40 or Fight! was a slogan used by Polk in the 1844 election. 54 degrees 40 minutes was the northern edge of the Oregon territory, way up inside present Canada, including all the populated part. I’ve always chuckled at the silly slogan. It was forgotten and couldn’t possibly come up again. Well, Trump is bringing it up again. He’s specifically talking about a 1908 treaty that settled all the fights.
Latitude also reminds me that Greenland is right next to Canada, only separated by a river-like strait. It would be easy to build a bridge between Ellesmere Island and Greenland. We don’t think of this closeness because we don’t think in polar terms. Trump is undoubtedly aware of the possibilities.
One of the panelists in the clip mentioned that she was preparing to paint her house. She tried to find Canadian-made paint, couldn’t find any but did find and buy British-made paint. Before the free-trade poison started, Canada was strongly linked to Britain and the Commonwealth, part of an old imperial trade tradition. Street pics of Canada showed lots of British cars, including many that were never seen down here. Now Canada is reasserting the old links, though Britain has also lost most of its industries to China.
Speaking of which…. I was skimming through some old Canadian radio trade journals and ran across this.
Instead of Canadian versions of US trucks like the Fargo (rebranded Dodge) or Maple Leaf (rebranded GMC) this Vancouver station used an Anglia truck. Almost as cute as a Bantam, which was also British in origin.
Polistra's Mill 