15% of Canadians for Bush

[minionofmidas]

Then again, when I was in Canada - how long ago now? 8 years? nine years? time flies... - quite some people out in Alberta were talking about it as an almost automatic consequence of Quebec independence. They mostly limited themselves to the Western part of Canada though, Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan, possibliy Manitoba (those two would be pretty solid Dem territory, btw). But the threats to Canada's existence as a nation have very much receded sicne then. It was a possibility, it is not so now. It probably won't be again in the near-to-midterm future.

[minionofmidas]

Why would a sovereign country want to give up their power to another?  

Look at Europe...

What else but "giving up their power" is any international treaty?
The difference is in the "to another" part, of course. But then, people sometimes have their reasons...The Moldovans voted a party in in the early 90s that wanted to merge the country with Romania. Now that option is dead, they are thinking about Ukraine.

[minionofmidas]

Border controls would be tough...

Yes, probably...considering Florida borders conservative nation, that could flare up, but it really is only dangerous if liberal nations borders conservative nation.  The WV/KY border could be bad, as could he west coast.

Just get rid of the 'moderate nation'.  Its not going to please anyone - its as if the Brits had made Kashmere independent instead of just giving it to one or another of the newly created enemies.

Yeah, you mean a problem-solver that would have avoided a lot of blood-shed, I can see how that is really stupid.

That wouldn't have solved anything - there would've been a war in which one or the other would've seized Kashmere.  There would've been just as much bloodshed.  Its better to recognize reasonable power relationships when creating states - for example Pakistan was big enough to fend India off, but couldn't hang onto Bangladesh.  

That is exactly what happened. The British didn't give Kashmir to either Pakistan or India, so the Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Indians fought it out among themselves. The result is a partition along some ceasefire line that really pleases no one.
Of course the whole concept of two nations on the Indian subcontinent was absurd from the beginning, and causes a lot of evil both between the nations and within India to this day. There were only two reasonable options for India: Union or Balkanization on linguistic lines.

[minionofmidas]

You want the Liberal and Conservative nations to be coterminous? But that's easy! Just use the 2000 election result as a starting point, have the Cons annex NM and the Libs NH, and you're almost there! Obviously there are still three Liberal nations, though the midwestern one might join Canada or something, and I don't see the Eastern and Western nations as such a problem. Alaska is also separated from the rest of the Conservative nation, which should give a boost to the Alaskan Independence movement...
All entirely academic of course, (though I saw the question discussed during the 2000/1 crisis) but then so is (right now) the question of any part of Canada joining the US. No reason to feel threatened in your Independence, as it's not going to happen.

[minionofmidas]

Dividing India into India and Pakistan was a very, very bad idea...
I would like to apologise on behalf of us brits for Mountbattons' stupid decision.

Would a Subcontinental version of the E.U work?

They were actually talking about it recently, but no, it wouldn't work. Forget it. India would be way too dominant.

[minionofmidas]

Congress and the Muslim League polled roughly equal among Muslims in the forties. The very idea of India's Muslims being a separate nation wasn't aired (by a Muslim, not by some Hindu nationalist) until 1930. That fad would have waned away, I'm quite sure of that. And there was a civil war in 1947. Hundreds of thousands of people died, 6 Million became refugees.

[minionofmidas]

There's still about 120 Million Muslims living in India now, so effectively we still have a union. In the neighborhood of Bangalore where I'm living it's more like forty percent muslims. It's working, most of the time.

[minionofmidas]

There's still about 120 Million Muslims living in India now, so effectively we still have a union. In the neighborhood of Bangalore where I'm living it's more like forty percent muslims. It's working, most of the time.

Well, a division was made and accepted by all parts. I think that if the Muslims in Kashmir had been allowed to decide, instead of the Rajah, the problem might never have occured.

For the Congress leadership, it was the prize to pay to get the British out. And at that time they believed they might take Pakistan back at the ballot box. That option was effectively killed by the war, of course.
Gandhi never accepted it. That's why the Hindu nationalists murdered him.
And yes, of course the BJP hardliners are fundamentalists.

[minionofmidas]

lol, i get so embarrassed when I reead my old posts when I was an 'american'...

It's rather amusing. Hey Hugh since your such a proponent of the US annexing Canada why don't we annex Australia while we're at it.

Nah, he's now a proponent of Australia annexing Canada.

[minionofmidas]

Bump, so everyone can see JMF soundly kicking my ass in an old debate.

I don't know why you'd want to bump a debate you admit you got your ass handed to you in.

Neither do I, but it improves my opinion of him.

The bump has fulfilled its purpose if everybody reacts like you.

[minionofmidas]

Bump, so everyone can see JMF soundly kicking my ass in an old debate.

I don't know why you'd want to bump a debate you admit you got your ass handed to you in.

Neither do I, but it improves my opinion of him.

The bump has fulfilled its purpose if everybody reacts like you.

I'm easily manipulated.  Money works even better.