Yes, and I'm chauvinistic on that point, craig. We would all be Canadians. Covid is being managed similarly. Depending on circumstances, our provincial and federal political leaders discuss regularly whether to ease and tighten lockdowns through consensus. Public safety comes before politics.
Your point of philosophers has merit, not so much as an elite power group---the essence of all politics, competing even within same parties---as part of our culture and national character. Canada developed without slavery and free labour, a Wild West or devastating civil war of consequences felt today.
On your point of inanimate objects and marketing, is Canada's decision to arbitrarily rid itself of ARs different from the United States imposing after 9/11 draconian limits to liberty and privacy of the Patriot Act and electronic surveillance of its entire citizenry as any country in the world?
