

Her signature proposal to pay $500 in bonds to Canadians upon amalgamation plays to the worst stereotypes that Canadians have of Americans. Nearly 22 pages are devoted to Chinese State Capitalism and its impact, particularly in Africa. To Francis, the Union of North America seems to be primarily a matter of defending North America’s resources from rapacious foreign (read Chinese) sovereign funds, and accelerating resource development in Canada’s north. While thoroughly researched and footnoted, Francis’ reasoning is fatally flawed, and badly argued. Unfortunately disappointment set in right away. The prospect of a full length book by a well known personality, business columnist Diane Francis was therefore a cause for celebration. Over the years, there have been very few books taking up the cause of continental union, and as far as I know, these were mostly low key books by relatively unknown authors. The case for union is, to me, self-evident, but this post is a review of Diane Francis’s book Merger of the Century. I have been an advocate of a United North America, that is of the United States and Canada for nearly as long as I have lived on this continent. Merger of the Century, by Diane Francis (Book Review)īook website – Author’s website – Publisher’s Site – ( Browse Inside) – Excerpt in National Post – – Amazon.ca I say that the word ‘critically’ is redundant because non-critical thinking is not thinking. Thinking critically means applying the rules of logic and evidence to the thought process. I put this word in brackets, because frankly it is redundant. Or maybe, going by gut instincts, and feelings is all that matters. Maybe old folk tales and ancient books transcribed from older oral traditions capture all what one needs to ‘live’.

So its easier (they think) to follow the crowd. Maybe such people don’t have the inclination, maybe they’ve been browbeaten in the past and mocked when they expressed themselves. What could be clearer ? I supposed for some, this is very hard. Yes, that’s a verb that exhorts others to, well, think.

Yes folks, calling on people to think critically for themselves was construed to be an offensive recommendation! Let’s parse this very short statement: It starts with THINK.

But then one person took it as an offense. A friend called it my motto and that’s fine by me. It is after all my primary tag line, and the default signature on my email. This is an apt subject for my first blog post.
