Did you know that Canada has had the opportunity to become an imperial power with our very own colonies? I learned that fact and others in this article about Imperial Remnants."Canada has twice had a chance to join the ranks of post imperial colonial powers. Proposals to annex the Turks and Caicos islands, near the Bahamas, made the rounds in Parliament in the 1970s and 2004. Much as we may think we need our own tropical paradise, the idea never got off the ground."
I'm glad we didn't go for it as I'm not a fan of imperialism, colonialism, and empires but what's weird about it to me is that despite that, I still enjoy thinking of Canada as a British colony...so can colonies have their own colonies?
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Canada is SO no longer a colony. Fucking British.
My question is, who lives on those islands we were thinking of annexing? And, who owns them now?
I actually did a little research, and we never intended to "annex" them as a "colony". Instead, there has been sustained interest in a "union". They would become a new province or territory. The worry is that amending the Constitution to include the islands as a new province would open debate for the other provinces to make their own changes. Also, the population is considered insufficient for provincial status. This could be solved by making them a territory, which does not require amending the Constitution. Alternatively, Nova Scotia has voted to invite them to join Confederation as a part of the province of Nova Scotia, which would avoid the Constitutional difficulties of granting it full province status. In any case, we are talking about an invitation, not ome sort of imperialist military action like the Falklands War or something.
At present, they are an independent part of the British Commonwealth, much like us.
Duh - I just like to pretend to be colonial (makes me think of Colonial Willamsburg or wherever it is Ross Geller goes with his dad). Obviously if we were still actually a colony I would be very upset - but I do love the monarchy! I was afraid that post would be too self-contradictory...as is this comment.
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