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A Maine politician sent Canadians an unprompted offer to join the US (www.bangordailynews.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by streetfestival@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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Brennan Day, who serves in British Columbia’s Legislative Assembly as a member of the Conservative Party, said he received Martin’s letter and was not sure how many other officials received it.

“Honestly, I couldn’t believe it’s legitimate, but we reached out to [Martin’s] office,” Day told a Vancouver radio station. “It is a legitimate memo.”

Martin, who served his first term in the Maine Senate this year and is retired from a career in the international mineral extraction industry, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Day posted Aug. 6 to Facebook an open response to Martin’s letter that said it “reads like a recruitment brochure for a political ideology,” and Day told Martin “you are operating well outside of your lane sir, so allow me to operate well outside of mine.”

Day took offense to several parts of Martin’s letter, including the Maine senator’s reference to “Canadian political baggage” and how the provinces becoming states would feature no “British monarchism, no bilingual federal documents [and] no imported bureaucracies.”

If the provinces became U.S. states, Martin also wrote that for “millions of people currently frustrated by central authority, moral decay, and bureaucratic suffocation, that reward is liberty.”

Day told Martin he holds “deep respect” for the U.S. and its citizens, but the Canadian lawmaker said the letter “lands more as a manifesto of arrogance.”

“Your letter is a perfect example of what many Canadians find so deeply troubling about the American worldview — assuming that what works for you must be the solution for everyone else,” Day added.

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[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If the provinces became U.S. states, Martin also wrote that for “millions of people currently frustrated by central authority, moral decay, and bureaucratic suffocation, that reward is liberty.”

Oh. Yeah, there’s no moral decay in the US.

You have a guy in the Epstein files as president, who was best buds with Epstein while he was sex trafficking, walked in on underage girls at his pageants, has taken bribes, convicted of fraud, found guilty of rape, using the office for billions of dollars in personal gains, etc.

And your “liberty” involves using the military as police and building concentration camps for your undesirables.

No, YOU have the problems with central authority as you quickly allow the president to exceed his constitutional authority. YOU have the problem of moral decay. YOU have the problem of bureaucratic suffocation as the big companies weaponize the legal system and the executive funds them and cracks down on anti trust.

I don’t want your version of liberty. It is everything but.

lib•er•ty l'libardē | noun (plural liberties)

the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views: compulsory retirement would interfere with individual liberty.

How’s that working out for your LGBTQ citizens? How about your minorities being fired for their race and sex from the pentagon and government roles? How about forced pregnancy and abortion rights? How about withholding aid from blue states due to their votes?

We certainly do have liberty here, whereas in the US only the billionaires who grovel at the president’s feet have any such right.

[-] hddsx@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 week ago

There is no moral decay in the US. I look at the federal government and see no semblance of morals of any kind. I don’t think the US has ever been a biome consistent with morals. Decay implies that something has once existed

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 week ago

“Your letter is a perfect example of what many Canadians find so deeply troubling about the American worldview — assuming that what works for you must be the solution for everyone else,”

Even describing what is happening in the USA as "working" is a helluva stretch.

[-] Someone@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 week ago

I didn't think there was any possible way to make the prospect of becoming an American any less appealing, yet here this guy goes and does it.

[-] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 week ago

How could anyone look at what's happening in the US right now and think "count me in!"?

[-] ganryuu@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

Fascists like fascists

[-] YesButActuallyMaybe@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

I mean… Puerto Rico and Guam should be states if you ask me.

[-] radiofreebc@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

This is what would happen to Canada. Canada would become a territory, with no voting rights, if they joined the US. Anyone who thinks Canada would be on equal footing with US states is living in a fantasy world.

[-] LeFantome@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

They could never let Provinces join as states. For one thing, there would never be another republican President. For the four provinces he mentioned, there would be at least six more democratic senators with maybe two Republicans from Alberta. It would be even more lopsided in the house.

Even the most of the “conservative” voters in Canada would be democrats under the US system.

If you added the four provinces he mentioned to the US today, there would be an impeachment vote in the house that would be upheld in the Senate. No more Donald Trump.

And Saskatchewan is proud to be the birthplace of universal healthcare in Canada. How long would it be before their senators brought a bill to the floor proposing that for the US?

Was the guy who wrote this letter a Democrat? I mean, it is a helluva plan in some ways.

[-] brax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

I dunno, conservative politicians have been shit on a global scale through pretty much all of history, and yet we still vote for them... So, in sure people wish we'd join that shithole, too. Then they'd probably bitch about how much worse life got and blame the Liberals or NDP for it.

[-] lost_faith@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

We (western provinces) won't be allowed to keep our parties, any laws, or be called provinces. They will be us states with us politics. So ineffective dems or destructive repugnicans.

[-] bowreality@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 week ago

I really liked Charlie Angus’ reply: https://youtu.be/9BptD9K1Bu4

[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 week ago

Amen.

This is 100% spot on.

I love Charlie Angus

[-] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

Charlie is like Bernie Sanders and Bill Burr rolled into one. I love it. 😂

[-] sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

I was awful entertained by Todd Maffin's response.

[-] cyborganism@piefed.ca 22 points 1 week ago

no bilingual federal documents

Eh ben, vivre le Québec libre, câlice!

[-] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Dude's a moron. All US documents are available in Spanish as well as English.

[-] k0e3@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago

Still? I kinda remember them saying some of the websites became English only after the orange chimp came into office.

[-] frozenicecube@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 week ago

Can we send him one back asking for Maine?

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Hell no. People there elected this moron.

We don't want any part of that.

[-] lost_faith@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

I once thought that we could do well to take a few states, cali, d.c. (not a state i know), washington, etc. but then I noticed that there is too much rot even in "blue" states. leave em to their rot, we don't want any state, even if we would require what that pos senator laid out

[-] smayonak@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The same propaganda networks that lead to 35% of California's voters being republican are being promoted in canada. Facebook, am radio, Fox News, and now CBS, CNN, etc are being distributed in canada. You even had a guy who campaigned on a Maga platform running for pm. As long as the neoliberals allow those networks to keep spewing propaganda, canada is going to be next on the democratic chopping block.

[-] lost_faith@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Hopefully, with the stellar economic and trade situation in the us plus the military being deployed against citizens, they will finally see that conservatives are absolutely incompetent. Meanwhile I'll be here turning blue from lack of oxygen.

[-] smayonak@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I am praying for that.

But the neoliberals have been unwilling to move centre on any issue. And their market-based solutions do not allow for criminal penalties for promoting outright lies with clearly established harm to voters. I think the worst thing is that scum like poilievre want to do the reverse: destroy public media. The neolibs are the ones who forced public media to include corporate advertising. Which means they are only a half step away from the Maga party on public media. And both are very permissive to allowing propaganda to be disseminated on Canadian networks.

[-] adespoton@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago

Not all of Maine. People with his world view are welcome to stay in their “liberated” country.

[-] cyborganism@piefed.ca 7 points 1 week ago

Maine, amd New Hampshire should join with New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland to form the nation of Greater Acadia.

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago

Fuck that shit, it's bad enough having to share a border with those idiots. They can stay the fuck over on their side thank you very much.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Okay, how about this: Canada and the sane rational people of Maine team up to launch this bastard into space.

[-] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

You chose to turn your country into a dumpster fire, we don't want any part of it. We have enough fires to deal with already.

[-] Formfiller@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Is that Temu Phil Donahue?

[-] jaemo@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

That, or Wish Captain Kangaroo.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 6 points 1 week ago

no bilingual federal documents [and] no imported bureaucracies.

هذا المغفل يجب أن يتعلم بعض اللغات قبل أن يصدعنا يهذيانه. رجاء فليطخه احد.

[-] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

Here's Brennan Day's full response on fb ... https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=122177188046462955&id=61563888661962

[-] Reannlegge@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

stay off of the book of faces; your eyeballs going onto that platform pays Facebook, Facebook in turn donates to Trump. I personally want Carney to bring back the DST, when trade negotiations inevitably fail. If Carney has the balls to do it retro actively as the plan was originally Facebook will be losing money rather than making money!

[-] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

No bilingual federal documents? Did he also send that invitation to his neighbour Quebec?

[-] PyroNeurosis 3 points 1 week ago

This could have been a gas, if he had a friendlier relation to the recipient and it wasn't quite so measured. And if weren't such a trying time politically.

Basically if he'd hammed it up a bunch and worked both the timing and audience better, he coulda had something.

[-] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

Assuming it's just a joke is a bit of a take.

[-] PyroNeurosis 1 points 1 week ago

I'm certain it wasn't, but in these trying times I have to try not assuming the worst of people.

[-] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Me too, when the meds haven't worn off.

Just kidding, I haven't been on meds for ^years^.

[-] ShawiniganHandshake@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

An American politician joking about annexing Canada isn't something we would ever find funny, no matter how it was timed. I don't think you understand quite how seriously Canadians take American threats to our sovereignty, joking or otherwise.

[-] sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I can't think of a topic we find less funny. I think that Americans fundamentally understand that because they're generally unaware of how many times they've already tried and failed. In US schools, Manifest Destiny is taught as a good thing. There's not a lick of consideration for the people being manifested. It has all the comedy inherent in telling your buddy that you're going to try to bang his wife.

[-] sixpaque@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Your letter is a perfect example of what many Canadians find so deeply troubling about the American worldview; 'they do not have a clue what's going on in their own country.