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Location: Blogs Simon and Melody's Blog |
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| Posted by: supersi |
Sunday, March 16, 2008 |
On a recent visit to Canada, former British prime minister Tony Blair commented, “Canada is poised to become an economic and political powerhouse in the world.” He continued, “I often say to people, Canada will become one of the world’s most powerful nations.” Blair then added this caution: “As power grows … so does more responsibility.” At least he is more optimistic than a Time magazine article that ran a few years ago, of which the front cover read, “If Canada disappeared from the face of the Earth, would anyone notice?”
So what would Canada do as the next superpower? Forget about wasting time with illegal wars against supposed axis of evil dictators. We’re way too busy trying to read the French on the back of cereal boxes for silly things like that.
I hope Canada’s new (or extremely long-term future) status as superpower doesn’t get to our heads – especially now that the dollar is at par and cross-border shopping for milk and eggs is cool again. All the same, it was very nice of Tony Blair to offer such kind words, wasn’t it? Just one of many warm exchanges between our two countries. Perhaps it was in return for similarly complimentary speech recently offered by Toronto’s mayor David Miller about the British capital.
Mayor Miller had a delegation sent to investigate the implementation of London’s “congestion charge”, which charges drivers £8 for driving into central London between the hours of 7am and 7pm. The scheme has been credited with greatly cutting pollution and traffic congestion in the city centre. The delegation made their investigation and reported their findings back to the mayor. But Miller decided not to implement any such scheme in Toronto, saying, “We are not a medieval city divided by a river.”
So, what is Toronto then, if not “a medieval city divided by a river”? Well it doesn’t quite classify as “medieval”, does it? How about, “A brand spanking new city divided by a river”? Wrong again – the Don doesn’t really classify as a river, per say. “A brand spanking new city divided by a slow-moving cesspool of sludge”? Erm… “A brand spanking new city divided by a parking lot called the 404”? Nope. It’s not coming to me.
Anyway, as sure as Toronto is to get a congestion charge and Britain is to be rid of instant coffee, it seems inevitable that Canada is to become the world’s next superpower ;-) |
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