is at this end of the line. I do not deal well with pithy aphorisms - and probably should not use them. As a listener, I tend to interpret them in my terms (which may or may not be what the pithy guy meant). As a babbler, I tend to think the listener will interpret them in my terms. Yes, I know - "ass u me".

I do better with concrete examples - which reduce the aphorism to practice.

Here are a couple of your quotes, with mine in between:

KW: I'm strongly opposed to bandaid solutions and am a devotee of the "get 'er done" school of social work.
....
JMM: Yup, the story is far from ended - but Canada could not have developed as it has via a quick fix solution (IMO).
....
KW: I was opposing a quick fix as I oppose most all of them, they rarely work.
To me, a "bandaid solution" is an inadequate solution motivated by a desire to do it on the cheap. Roughly what you mean ?

To me, "get 'er done" means pour on the coals, use all available assets, do it in a relatively short time (1 yr, 5 yrs, 10 yrs, in this context). So, to me that equates to a quick fix, which could be a bandaid or artificial life support, looking more at the timeframe than the extent of the treatment.

I understand the following,

IMO the occurrences in Canada of which we speak from 1760-1812 amounted to, in the grand scheme of things, a quick fix that haunts Canada -- and Quebec today.
but would not be likely to say it because 50+ years, to me, is not a quick fix.

I view Canada of the last 250 years (and for the first 50 years) as an evolutionary process (2 steps forward, one step back - as summed here), which seems to be heading in a positive direction (IMO). The views held by such as Marc and Rex would give a better pulse reading for the patient.

As to Chou:

As Chou En Lai said of the French Revolution "It is too soon to tell."
I'd ask him, "about what". As to Louis XVI, not too soon. As to his Bourbon relatives recreating the monarchy, too soon to tell since that is "possible" so long as one is alive. As to the evolutions of "liberty, equality and fraternity", always too soon to tell until there are no thinking beings to argue about those principles.

To paraphrase - the Internet is an imperfect means of communication.

If you are ever so inclined, you can send me a PM outlining your counterfactual history of what should have done to avoid "a quick fix that haunts Canada -- and Quebec today." Seriously, I'd be interested.

Frankly, my only reason for discussing Canada in this thread is that it is an example, to me, of just how difficult and time consuming "nation building" is - in the context of divergent ethnic, religious and political institutions.