Why Canada wants Scotland to vote 'yes'

[Zorra]

The Union Jack currently occupies space on three of Canada’s provincial flags – by Friday all may be historical artifacts. The Scottish referendum is currently too close to call, but even if Scotland votes to stay, Britishness – as an idea and a way of being – has died in the process of debating it. Should the United Kingdom survive, it will survive out of economic fear. The lie that Britain deserves to survive as anything other than a bad arrangement handed down from history has been called out. And it brings me hope: if Scotland has the guts to reject the fundamental hypocrisy, vulgar classism and demand for self-contempt that Britishness demands, maybe Canada can work up the courage to do the same.

Scots built Canada under the banner of Britain. Sir John A MacDonald, the father of Confederation, rejected Chinese citizenship exactly because, as he said, the Chinese immigrant “has no British instincts or British feelings or aspirations, and therefore ought not to have a vote.” Canada is its own country, of course, but British instincts and feelings and aspirations have been steeped into Canada, to the point where in some regards we are more British than the British. My nation’s motto is “peace, order and good government” – and each of those three principles is applied with the utmost sincerity. We really believe in those values.

The anglo elite, clustered mostly in Toronto now, continues to ape British culture, as they have done for 200 years. When David Cameron went looking for the ideal British banker, he found the man in Toronto – the upright, clean-cut, sober Mark Carney. Mordechai Richler called them the “Westmount Rhodesians”. They still run most of the political and business institutions in the country, with all the widespread influence that comes with those positions.
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That is what the Scots have done – they have made Britain look silly. They have made it look silly because it is silly. What has become painfully obvious watching the campaign from here is the inability of the pro-British forces to articulate a decent reason for their continued existence. Talk of the “family of nations” is the blubbering sentimentality of the defunct bully. Talk of a “nasty divorce” is a final retreat into threat.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/16/canada-wants-scotland-vote-yes-end-of-britishness

Seems to me that the folks in the Free Republic of Ireland are really, really enjoying their independence from Britain, and they managed quite well after kicking their British overlords to the curb.

[frazzled]

1. Do they want it ... really?

The author of this screed gives no evidence whatsoever that Canadians prefer an independent Scotland. From what I understand, Canadians either haven't been paying attention to it, or are uneasy that it will bring back the Quebec independence movement.

This is truly a pathetic, poorly written article on the subject.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. Like many people, he says "everyone" when he means "I", I suspect. N.T.