Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy6
Certainly the personal and family ties between Canada and the U.S. were considerably closer in 1900 than they are today. Just thinking of my own 5 great-grandparents who were Canadian born (mainly in the 1850s) or came here before marriage, each of them had at least one sibling who moved to the United States, and all but one had several. I think that was true of almost everyone in Canada back then -- even in French Canada, where most people would have had a sister or an aunt in Woonsocket or Pawtucket or some place like that. Today that is less common other (perhaps) than among upper class people with siblings in the professional classes.
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Indeed - the ties that bind are rapidly disappearing. It used to be so easy to cross the border to find work. Many people used to do in in the late 1800s and early part of the 1900s.
My own mother was born in Rumford ME in 1917. My grandfather moved down there to work in the pulp mill.
The family ties are disappearing. The feel of our cities are different (ours are better). The cultural and ethnic differences are increasing with time (more south and east Asians in Canada, more blacks and Hispanics in the States). Our political philosophies and the nature of our social welfare states is becoming entirely dissimilar - we are nordic Europe, they are a world unto their own.
Only the business ties really remain to bind Canada and the US together.........