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Old 12-17-2010, 09:41 AM
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helbent4 helbent4 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by natehale1971 View Post
I know Tony, i went with Commonwealth of Canada since it's several hundred years (and post Twilight War) some things have changed. Canada became a commonwealth instead of a 'Dominion'
Nate,

I don't particularly see the political logic or linguistic/historical rationale. The "Commonwealth" is something Canada would be a part of, it's not usually considered a term for a state in and of itself, albeit rarely. (Except for some American states, even less reason to call ourselves a Commonwealth.)

Canada, as a confederation, already contains the nation of Quebec, so there was no reason to change from a Dominion to anything else merely to signify a return to the historical status quo. I can easily see Canada remaining a confederation of provinces and territories.

If the British-led Commonwealth is somehow strengthened in the postwar world (and I don't really have a problem with this) then the members of the commonwealth that are constitutional monarchies will already generally be referred to as Dominions. Renaming Canada a Commonwealth merely seems redundant if not linguistically clumsy. Right now, the Dominion of Canada is a confederation that is part of the Commonwealth, instead of being a commonwealth that is part of the Commonwealth.

Besides, electing a Governor General from a list of choices given by the Crown hardly seems like a true republic in any sense of the word! For that matter, it means even less political control for Canadians, as currently Canada specifically tells the Crown who to pick, not the other way around. If the Crown were to start exercising political control over Canada then it makes even more sense to call Canada a Dominion.

The USA has gone through serious political changes since its founding as a republic, but ya'all haven't changed what you call yourselves because historical and cultural continuity is important. Such things would be even more important, I believe, after the Twilight War.

But hey, if you just personally like the name "Commonwealth", then there it is. I just like our name as it is, so I can't hold that against you all that much!

Tony
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