Quote:
Originally Posted by Ustwo
It was in the late 80's or early 90's I forget the date, and the Worlds Fair or some such was in Paris ... Anyways they had a parade of nations thing and Canada was with the third world nations...... Oh how the Canadian commentators were pissed at being lumped with the third world and did ‘not like it at all!’.
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That would piss me off too. leave it to the French to be so condenscending.
But some of the factors that define a third world nation is the dependence on the export of primary resources to sustain its economy, plus the concentration of its population is one or two "primary" cities, with a languishig agrarian society that cannot sustain itself.
Granted, there are only 2 or 3 urban areas that have a population of over 1 million, but I do believe that our economy has developed past that stage that defines it as 3rd world. We also do not suffer the sociological 3rd world problems (high birth rate/high death rate, large low age population, literacy issues and high unemployment).
A lot of the blessing of Canada's situation can be drawn directly back to being on the winning side of the European wars (WWI & II) and the subsequent kick start to the economies that the allies achieved. And this was in no small part due to our friendship/alliance with the US, and the subsequent co-development of our infrastructures.
The fact is that the US has 10 times the resources, and all the economies of scale that that entails. So an F18 may cost $50 mill each, but who can realistically afford a fleet of those??? The US gov't may purchase them, but I doubt they actually paid the sticker price. In the same way, The Canadian gov't also purchased them and didn't pay the sticker price. Again the lockstep of our two countries bears fruit. ( I wonder if that was $15 mill Canadian that we paid??? sweet!)
sometimes, though, we retain the right to be individuals and not be exactly like the US.
dammit .. I'm rambling. I need a beer.