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11 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

Magisterial piece. Not much else to say, only that watching Comrade Chow lead a procession of cretins with their mindless "land acknowledgement" incantations during Toronto's Remembrance Day Ceremony crystallized in my mind the complete and utter decay of virtually institution of note in this country. That fat, wretched HR-tard LARPing as a soldier you linked to shouldn't even be allowed to clean the toilets in the Highlanders' armoury, much less serve in it. I *suppose* that's a good thing if any of us fears the military might be used against us by a future Liberal/NDP regime, as they wouldn't last five minutes against highly skilled bushmen in the Canadian shield. But against the low-T and nonbinary folx at Yonge and Bloor? Absolutely.

Where to go from here? I don't place much stock in Poilievre, but, I suppose, better than nothing. Who knows, there may be a backbencher elected from some rural Alberta or Saskatchewan riding that may surprise us and go onto greater things. I think part of the change has to be generational: I approve of Trump's emerging cabinet of young 40-somethings, many with military backgrounds. Maybe some of the veterans of Afghanistan might find it in themselves to take up a battle once more, only for this country and not a neo-con war machine. They may look at their kids and say, fuck this, I have to do *something*.

As a librarian, it's the older histories I'm trying to collect and become aware of to help counter the fetid dreck that university presses are churning out. Ted Barris, for one, has written wonderful histories of Canadian involvement in The Dam Busters raid, the Great Escape, and many other pivotal battles. I suspect as well that Pierre Berton's histories might also still prove worthwhile, and there *is* an emerging, non-orthodox community of scholars emerging online and in smaller presses; a recent work called Grave Injustice, put the lie to the residential school genocide hoax, but getting books like that past the far-left gatekeepers of academia and librarianship will take some work (the latter also an increasingly decayed profession I'm afraid).

I do agree with your assessment of the "emerging right" online community: not enough Matt Taibbi, too much Ezra Levant (although he has done some good) and other shameless grifters. Unfortunately we just don't, as yet, produce talent on par with a Rogan or some other figure. But, gotta start somewhere...

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Ezra Levant and Rebel News were at the top of my mind when I disparaged the alt-media in Canada. It isn’t only their ideological stance, it’s their presentation. It’s hokey, inauthentic, and comes off as very weak.

The Canadian Forces are in a truly deplorable state. The troon whose picture I included is, sadly, representative. When you see them in public, they’re invariably fat, shambling disgraces to the uniform. Morale is clearly in the toilet. In large part this is due to political interference by the Liberal Party, who have forced Woke down the military’s throats, while using sex scandals to purge the officer corps of traditionalists.

Poilievre will prove to be a huge disappointment, and everyone knows it. What you suggest - a movement of Millennial and Gen-X Afghan War vets - may be just the ticket. A party of serious men, implacably opposed to everything the Liberals stand for, with the steel to do so openly, and the willingness to unabashedly embrace Canada’s traditional nature and, most importantly, unapologetically represent the interests of the Canadian people, would be galvanizing if headed up by a charismatic leader.

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10 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

You saying that takes me back to the days of Preston Manning and the Reform Party. He and the party did shift and invigorate Canadian "conservatism" somewhat from its Red Tory doldrums, which ultimately produced the Harper ministry that, all things considered, may have been the best in my adult lifetime.

But yes, a new movement has to be absolutely, one hundred-percent unapologetically masculine, stern, focused, disciplined, and fire-breathing to the extent that it must sidestep and undermine all gatekeeping institutions in this country: media, academia, NGO's, public sector unions, etc.

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Preston Manning was a bit of a clown, and Harper was positively wooden. Neither had any charisma to speak of.

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10 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

I don't disagree, but I have to laugh when I remember Manning and the party being called Nazis and that earnest, shaky, squeaky voice in Parliament trying to make itself heard. Speaking of earnest, it was Manning's father Ernst that was apparently the father whose "sins" Preston was paying for.

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Good God that voice…

The left has been calling everyone Nazis for decades. It seems finally that it is no longer having the effect it used to.

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deleted10 hrs ago
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Competence and honesty would also be nice to have in our political leaders. I don't believe I've seen any of that in my lifetime.

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deleted10 hrs ago·edited 10 hrs ago
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Yes, Levant is close to the only game in town. Which is part of the problem.

It isn't so much a matter of money, as of outlook, style, rhetoric, etc. And it isn't only journalism I'm talking about, either, though of course that is also important.

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8 hrs ago·edited 8 hrs ago

I cannot agree with you there, John. I am very grateful for what Ezra Levant and his Rebel News team have accomplished. I discount the surface appearance and look for the meat there. They are doing all of that on a shoestring budget. Hurrah for them!

They have helped keep Canada from sliding entirely into the totalitarian pit since 2015.

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Don't misunderstand: I am grateful for their presence. Better than nothing.

I just wish they weren't so lame.

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John have you ever noticed that you run a hokey, amateurish Substack? And you produce only once in a while?

Rebel News is head and shoulders above your efforts, I must say. I think you are envious.

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8 hrs ago·edited 8 hrs ago

I do not find them lame. I find that small team quite courageous in fact. Look at the risks they take! In order to highlight the news that no one else in Canada will deal with.

And remember John....here you are producing an amateur Substack site. Low budget. Not at all slick. Some people might say the same lame-ness applies to Substack offerings...😁

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deleted11 hrs agoLiked by John Carter
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Poilievre is an opportunist. He’s hoping to take advantage of Trudeau’s unpopularity to lever himself into power, but once there he won’t do anything notably different - at least not if his actions and policy preferences to date are anything to go by.

Very likely he will be the next prime minister, and there will a great sense of national relief at having ousted the despised Trudeau. Then there will be an unravelling into disillusionment as it is realized that he is really no different.

In the aftermath, there will be room for a true leader to arise.

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deleted10 hrs ago
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I don’t even think he’ll provide much in the way of breathing space, tbh. He’ll likely leave the Liberal Party QuaNGOs in place, such as the human rights tribunals, which will continue to happily terrorize the Canadian population; and he’ll continue shovelling Indians into the country as fast as they can be flown in.

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11 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

Agreed. I think he's a transitional figure, at best. He might halt the decline, for a bit, but he's a lifelong political striver who has benefitted from the current system.

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I am not a Canadian, but I have always admired the men who fought at the Vilmy Ridge, the ill-fated Dieppe Raid, and the Canadian 3rd Division at Juno Beach and Caen. That was the Canada I thought I knew. In comparison, today's Canada seems to be just another European socialist country somewhere out there.

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Today’s Canada isn’t even really European. It’s a subsidiary branch of GloboHomo Inc.

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Today's Canada is the Globohomo's retirement center. Just this week it refused to disclose names of 900 Waffen SS survivors who still reside there, fearing for their safety. You can't make that shit up.

And if there's almost a thousand of them there in 2024, imagine how many managed to die peacefully in their beds by now.

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9 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

The history book club I'm a part of took a break from ancient history this past year to focus on the history of our country; we read two books by Stephen Bown called "The Company" on the history of the Hudson Bay Company and the Fur Trade, and "Dominion" on the building of the railway and the formation of the country. Despite being more tied into Canadian history than most, it was still eye opening.

The men who explored and founded this country did incredible things; wintering in a shack on the shores of the Hudson Bay with a vague hope that a boat will show up 8 months from now. Walking and canoeing across unmapped wilderness. Building a railway where it makes no logistical sense to do so, and building a country on the back of that.

Canadians have been treated maliciously by the organizations that have downplayed this part of our history and replaced it by uninspiring mess that most people know. It's malicious towards the Indigenous people of this country as well, reducing them to a conquered people mistreated by evil white "settlers" that we remind of their conquest in each land acknowledgement, instead of the alternate path that could have treated them as a founding partner in the great ventures that made this country.

Somehow, a nation that once did great and adventurous things has been reduced to a small and inward looking place. We need to find a way to reverse that. I'm more optimistic of Poilievre than you, at least that I think he authentically gets what is wrong with the country, although whether he or anyone currently on the scene has the ability to reverse it over the near future is probably too big of an ask.

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It's the petty smallness of soul of Canada’s mismanagers that has always most offended me about them.

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9 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

“Canada contributed Celine Dion and Stan Rogers.” Don’t overlook Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot!

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8 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

An excellent essay. One comment: the paragraph: "America’s hat, by contrast, is absolutely culturally paralyzed by its own self-consciousness ... as a paradoxical result of which, its consciousness of itself has been almost obliterated." Would make better sense if it read "Canada's hat, by contrast,..." Sorry, once an editor, always an editor.

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“America's hat” is a common online descriptor for Canada.

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I sit corrected. Carry on!

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"Canada contributed Celine Dion and Stan Rogers."

And William Shatner and Mike Myers.

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deleted7 hrs agoLiked by John Carter
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Stan Rogers is great.

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9 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

I am a Canadian , i enjoyed and was ( to some extent ) inspired by this essay . A great many of us are well aware of what the liberal patty are up to and we can't wait until the opportunity arises to banish them from this planet . A great many of us admire the trumpster and we hope that this new American dream will in some way rub off on us. An example is being sent by our American friends of how to cleanse a nation and reestablish its destiny. I believe you are right in saying we need to reestablish the mores of our past . A great read and thankyou !

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Trumpism can't be imported directly, obviously. That's one of the core points here.

But that said, we can and should take inspiration from the example!

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You know my feelings about space and Mars, won't bother repeating them. But this article was very pleasing to read, to be honest I see myself not as an Anglo-Saxon (c'est impossible), I'm a Franco-Celte, and I love the ferocity of our people, the savagery of Canadians and Quebecois, a people who didn't flee from danger but flew towards it.

To me, whenever Americans talk about conquering or annexing Canada I must admit I bristle and I view the notion with the utmost disdain. I detest the idea.

Canada/Quebec has always outproduced and out-performed in manufacturing and in war, and we've always been more European, more Anglo-Saxon, more Celtic and more French than America to my mind and this is something that fills me with pride.

I hate the leaf, and am glad to see you championing our Red Ensign. In my view the British Empire is at an end, so I'd prefer if we attached ourselves to a French Empire, as Quebec wishes to. I see more potential there, and more joy in such a thing, but I see us as the most integral part of such an Empire. The film-capital of France is Quebec, the cultural centre is Quebec and the producer of the best novels in the Francosphere is Quebec.

That said, Anglo-Canada's Asian connections and independent spirit combined with the sheer Celtique Savagery of Quebec and its Euro & Franco-African and Franco-Asian connections combined could make Canada a force if we were just to allow ourselves to become unchained and to force out the bureaucrats currently strangling the very life from us.

Yet we'd also need to remigrate, focus on ourselves and our resources and get back on the gold-standard and we'd be the leading economy.

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Rather than joining some other empire, I would rather that Canada truly starts living for itself. That is part of what I was trying to communicate here … that the reactionary essence of the country is not intrinsically linked to a foreign empire, but something that stands on its own.

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That’s also a beautiful sentiment, I quite like it. I think your wish is a really beautiful one, I hope it end up being like you said.

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deleted8 hrs ago
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"To me, whenever Americans talk about conquering or annexing Canada I must admit I bristle and I view the notion with the utmost disdain. I detest the idea."

Bros, THIS American doesn't want to annex Canada. We have enough problems of our own. But I'd gladly trade you New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut for Alberta and BC ... :-D

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lol non merci, we don’t want ‘em (NY, Massa & Connecticut I mean). Honestly, I think Canada & US work better separately as I said and Alberta & BC are crucial to Canada. You guys can have southern Ontario though.

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deleted7 hrs ago
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10 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

As the less intelligent child of two brilliant Canadians, Canada suffers two great maladies: emigration and immigration. The best are leaving and the worst are coming. All great societies suffer from loss of strong genetic material destroyed in wars. Some might argue that the weak or dumb are the ones killed and thus don’t procreate, yet, in most instances the strongest and bravest members of society are usually the ones that heed the call and ultimately do not pass on their genes to later generations. Thus societies that are involved in more conflagrations or wars that are not temporally spaced out suffer the most. I am not sure what the future holds for Canada. Like our European cousins facing a future of declining population and influx of immigrants with no hope of assimilation, the future does not look bright.

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This notion that wars are dysgenic is quite common but also, I think, quite silly. Stupid people are more likely to get killed in combat; the brave, strong, and intelligent are more likely to survive. Then, women love a man in uniform: many soldiers leave buns in the oven back home before deploying.

Obviously this can in extremis go too far, but in controlled doses warfare is genetically hormetic.

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Ethnogenesis by Lev Gumilev

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7 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

Consider the men of Japan and Germany Pre 1940 and compare them to today’s offspring.

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The real question is the nature of war in any given era and who wins and who loses. Germany and Japan lost their best because they lost the war. If a country wins its best will continue on. If it goes to a stalemate after heavy losses the effect is almost the same as losing

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That was quite magisterial. Thanks and restacked.

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Cheers!

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9 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

It took the hardy settlers of Regina to hang the gorilla man after he killed a woman and attempted to abduct a girl by luring her with an ice cream cone (she fortunately refused to go with him). From trial to hanging took maybe one day? This was in 1926, after the crazed killer had terrorized landladies across the United States. Canada didn’t have a policy of mollycoddling criminals back then! Landladies across America breathed a sigh of relief.

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Carter, I did not know you until you wrote this...rousing, righteous and rigorous history of Canada, my adopted land of which I have become very tired indeed. You're absolutely correct: we must find it in ourselves to fight or we will simply die with a whimper...

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10 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

As a non-Anglo-Saxon-French Canadian I agree with this essay. The only way for its proposed direction to work in reality is to make the Anglo-Saxon-French culture and outlook the baseline expectation of all newcomers. I assumed this to be the case when I arrived in the post-national state many decades ago. I was almost immediately disappointed. Divide and conquer.

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Indeed. Canada has generally been willing and able to absorb non-Anglos, albeit mostly Europeans, but the absolute necessity is that they fully integrate. Unfortunately for many groups this is basically impossible.

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7 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

In the early '80s, it was English vs. French vs. Other European (e.g. Irish, Italian, some interesting Catholic/Protestant division lines). Further minorities did their best to integrate into the generally European, Christian ethos (ghettoization was not an option) -- I was one. The "cultural mosaic" appeared to be a power game to ensure that the English/French rulership structure was not threatened. Since actual merit was relevant in education and work, I don't think any normal person had a problem with it. Canada: you've come a long way, baby! The "cultural mosaic" evolved into a malignant poison.

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The multiculturalism thing was definitely a power play, partially to undermine sovereigntists in Quebec, but I think also intended over time to dissolve the core culture, which was an obstacle to managerialism. Multiculturalism was imposed around the same time in many other countries, such as Australia and even Sweden.

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The optimist in me likes to think that nothing is impossible. An example of a bad omen is the Balkans. Same gene pool, more-or-less, but brutal division.

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Brilliant analytical history of Canada, JC of B. I learned SO much that I never knew before.

One comment in passing. You said (of the British): "British forces pushed as far south as Washington, DC ... which they burned to the ground."

You don't suppose we might get them to come back and do it again, do you? I'd wager the red states would likely foot the bill. And they'd have to bring a LOT more torches...🤪

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Sadly, the British have their own problems. Once America gets its house in order, it might consider returning the favor and liberating the British from their own native oppression…

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Well they didn't "push" as far south as Washington. In fact the seasoned troops that the Empire diverted from the Peninsular war in 1813 and 1814 were caught up around Lake George and Lake Champlain and never made it further south.

The reference to burning DC and the WH is ofc correct. But this was done amphibiously by sailing up the Potomac.

Almost nothing was accomplished by the War of 1812. Americans refused to cross into a foreign country to fight (witness Stephen Renssaeler' ill-fated attempt to cross the Niagara River). The Canadians took Detroit with a ruse that would would have made Hannibal blush, but were eventually kicked out and pushed out - fighting a rearguard action to the current city of London, Ontario.

In the end the remoteness and wilderness was as much an advantage as a disadvantage.

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10 hrs agoLiked by John Carter

"A republic is not a democracy..." Suggestion:

"A republic need not be a democracy, but most often uses democratic elections to select parties and/or representatives for parliament".

(Or as it is known outside the USA, a democracy.)

Sweden is by the way a monarchy, but we don't get up in arms over being called a democracy, since we're that too at the same time.

System of governance/government is a bit like poutine, if you think about it: no-one would call poutine french fries, or gravy with potato-chips, or cheese curds with sauce and potatoes - despite it being all of that.

Anyway.

Hockey, yes -true. Fighting is seen as bad form and poor sportmanship, the sure sign of an insecure and poor loser who cannot win by being the better skater and player. This attitude came about in the 1960s, whe hockey became popular among the upper crust too; before, it and soccer both were the pastimes of the plebs, very much.

Even more evident in bandy - though the goalies in bandy largely regard hockeyplayers as pansies. Smaller ball, harder than a puck too, and much larger goal, no club, and rather thin mitts to catch with.

What I'm curious about is why Canada doesn't seem produce many high-quality cross-country skiers. You have the space, the terrain and the climate for it. I do recall you being very prominent at times in long-distance skating?

When I worked at a major international Swedish clothing company in Stockholm, I had aCanadian co-worker. He was doing the "backpacking-and-working-my-way-around-the-world"-thing, and he was the most laid-back, chilled-out and relaxed "dude" I had ever met at that point. Mellow was his natural ground-state. Don't know how representative he was, of course, but I do remember his comment on Canadian military policy (him being shocked at our system of total conscription which we still had back then): "The fuck do we need a military for? If the soviets invade, the USA has to come fight them anyway, so why should we bother? If the Americans invade us, we're SOL anyway. And who else is going to come fight us? Esquimos?"

Then, it struck me as weird attitude. Now, seeing what's been happening here and there and everywhere since the Wall came down, maybe he was some kind of harbinger or fore-runner of an attitude that was coming into its own?

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That type you describe is extremely common; I've encountered that man many times, as well as the sentiments he expressed. Always struck me as rather weak, but decades of liberal indoctrination produced many of them.

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Weirdly enough, while not getting upset to warrior-levels over migrants committing arson, rape et cetera with reckless abandon, a frightening number of Swedes showed exactly the anger needed two years ago, and has continued to to do so in present day.

Against Russia. Because Ukraine.

The reason for this is, if you argue (as I do, publicly) that invaders committing crimes in your nation, coming to loot and plunder, ought to be shot on the spot and displayed on gibbets at every border crossing - you're a racist.

But not if you say that we ought to go to Russia and do it to Russians.

Weird, how deep and hard a mind can swerve around itself to avoid cognitive dissonance, yes?

The only truly non-racist stance is, if foreigner comes to your land and commit atrocities, foreigner dies/is expelled for life, period and end of. Start specifying type of foreigner. . . /that's/ racism.

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I look forward to the re-emergence of of a martial Canada.

Perhaps they'll eventually adopt the grizzly as their new national animal..?

We can hope!

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Would be great. Or the wolf. Or the polar bear.

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