These people in Canada, commonsense forbids me from calling them Canadians, who seek to remake this country in the image of America don't seem to understand that just copying them in style of government and currency isn't going to give us their success.

The American economy succeeds because of the driving force of the American character. We could replace every Maple Leaf with a Star and Stripe but still fall short because we will never be American. Nor should we want to be.

They say that with awesome power comes awesome responsibility but as we've seen recently such power creates awesome expectations too, expectations that can never be lived up to and will frequently result in the most powerful nations becoming weaker state's scapegoats.

Considering Canada has a population base roughly equal to that of California we are continually out-performing ourselves and all this while being spread over 60 percent of a continent.

And with so many parts of this country so heavily influenced by the Monarchy (Alberta, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Prince Rupert, Regina and even Victoriaville Quebec) it is ludicrous that we could even consider copying the dog and pony show that is visible around the world in electing a head of state.

And if we copied the American system Jean Cretien would be not be our Leader but our head of state as well.   That alone should be enough of an argument to keep the current system in place for generations.

We are in an age of inclusion and we come to this already in the grace of a grand historic relationship.

To distance ourselves from a Monarchy that costs us nothing, graces our money, anchors us to a history millennia older than our own, and cranks up our economy with every visit is to think too narrowly unless you believe that the Prime Minister visiting your town would be an economic benefit.