Canada’s Fate?
Not that I’m a huge fan or the Toronto Sun, but yesterday’s front cover happened to catch my attention.
Basically, it stated that if Canada were ever faced with the tradgedies of something as great as the Katrina hurricane….
We would never recover.
Somewhat pessimisstic. But I had to agree with some of they key points. One being that we are not in any way as close to the military and government support as our neighbouring americans to be in a place to act swift and fast. Then again, it seems apparent that Bush and his administration weren’t in any rush either.
Having said that, I wonder what kind of outside help we would recieve from other nations. I’d like to think we’ve been a country that has always been concerned for others on a global level. And we have many friends to come and aid us if we were ever in that great of a need.
Any other thoughts on this topic? Is the Toronto Sun right in assuming that we would be doomed?
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seems like some standard low-brow scare tactic drivle from the sun. there are many countries and regions in the world who have suffered as much or more devestation than nola and who have had less military/government support who have recovered or who are recovering.
look at the middle ages, buttloads of people were wiped out by the plague, but society recovered… Irish Potato famine… in the 30’s an estimated 8 million chinese were lost in a huge flood.. the indian ocean tsunami last year… and even the ice storms in quebec…
gotta love the sun!
I have to wonder about help from the Americans… think they’d remember us? I know they couldn’t remember to thank us for our help when we sent our troops over to help them, although I think everyone else’s name was on the thank-you card.
chris - you do have a very good point. however, what about our spirits? have we been living too comfortably to be able to make it through such an ordeal? will we ‘break’ more easily? i often wonder what i would do in such a state. i don’t think i’d be very successful.
jafer - while some americans have remembered our help, bush has been a very poor person to ‘lead by example’. he isn’t very polite to us canadians. i miss clinton. he, at least, had my respects. even though he went looking for oral sex from lewinsky every now and then… ‘i did not have sexual relations with her!’ ;)
it depends on what is meant by “never recover.” i don’t think we will do far worse than americans would and we have seen them recovering from katrina. one big storm would seem very harsh because we live so cushy compared to south asian countries battered by monsoons every year.
but i do think it is true that we would receive lasting scars (for example, more than half the trees wiped out in halifax’s main park due to hurricane juan, and other scars) if that is what is meant by “never recover.”
Of course Canada would recover. It is not the government or military that is totally responsible for recovery. It’s the resiliency of the people. As an American who has had the pleasure of spending considerable time in Canada, I feel absolutely sure the Canadians would weather any storm to come their way quite well. I certainly would expect the US to help our closest neighbors fully.