Quote:
Heh. Actually much of it is four lanes, though the bits through the mountains in BC/Alberta are still two lanes, I believe.


Actually, I'm suprised you would state this fact given that you are not living in Canada right now...I was stationed in Victoria BC for three years and regularly drove from the West coast to Ontario and then on to Nova Scotia to visit family during my leave. Aside from the 401 in Southern Ontario/highway 20 in Quebec, the bulk of the Trans Canada highway is still two lanes. There is a short section of twinned highway in mainland BC from Vancouver to Hope (remember the first Rambo movie?), a little bit outside of Calgary and Edmonton, about 100 km in Saskatchewan joining Regina to Saskatoon, a 200 km stretch either side of Winnipeg and about 150 km from Moncton, New Brunswick to the Nova Scotia border with a little beyond there...I've driven it all. Considering that one-way coast to coast is roughly 7,500 Km or so, the majority of it is still two stinkin' lanes...and following 18 wheelers, combines and campers/motorhomes in the summer, it's one hell of a bummer to drive.

I also don't agree with your opinion about the military. In my opinion, being the nice guy and diplomacy doesn't always garner any immediate favours to someone when the sh*t hits the fan. Remember how unprepared both Canada and the US were at the beginning of both world wars...

I spent 14 months of my military career on peacemaking ops (Yugoslavia). Had we not been armed to the teeth and trained for combat, we would have suffered the same fate as the people we were sent in to protect soon after we arrived in theatre. During my first tour (Croatia '92-'93) we were shot at and mortored daily, had two APCs hit by anti-tank rockets and lost four APCs to land mines...Both sides in the conflict tested our resolve to act and to enforce the peace. Again, had we not been a strong force and not willing to be pushed around, we would have simply been brushed aside and large scale conflict would have resumed.

I believe that we in Canada enjoy our current autonomy in part thanks to big brother next door and the fact that we have a reputation as having highly-trained professional soldiers. It's just really too bad that recent successive Governments have allowed our forces to atrophy and decay away to the point where if something were to occur on our soil, we couldn't do anything about it.

Canada's reputation as a semi-power is diminishing daily because of this exact "we're nice people, don't worry, it will never happen to us " mindset...

I digress, however I do understand that it is difficult to appreciate something if you have not lived it.
_________________________
01001010 01101111 01101000 01101110