Posted on 12/12/2003 10:03:20 AM PST by quidnunc
It has been said that Seattle mirrors Canada in its tolerant attitudes, but there is a dark side to this utopia across the border.
My husband and I left Canada six years ago to start a new life in the United States. Tens of thousands of university-educated, middle-class Canadians leave Canada for the U.S. every year. The Canadian government even has a name for us — "The Brain Drain."
Why do we leave?
Taxes – Ever wonder why you see so many rusty cars up north? It's not just because they salt the roads in the wintertime. People can't afford new ones.
Fifty percent of the Canadian paycheck goes to taxes. And, in Ontario, for example, there's a 15-percent tax at the cash register. Think about paying that every time you buy a car, a fridge or clothes. The Canadian middle class has almost been taxed out of existence.
Official bilingualism – This is what most of the taxes pay for.
Learning and speaking another language may seem like fun to most Americans. Forget about that textbook Parisian you learned in high school. My husband speaks French fluently but not by Canadian government standards. He'd be passed over in employment by someone who speaks a government-approved level of French.
Canada is officially bilingual and that means everything must be in French and English. Everything. It's the law.
If you or your company do not comply with regulations then the official language "police" will be at your door. If you want to pursue a career in retail, the police, the post office, government, business and even the military, you must be bilingual.
The U.S. has its issues with African Americans and Canada has its issues with French Canadians. Affirmative action in the name of official bilingualism has resulted in a great deal of conflict.
Employment – If you are English-speaking in Canada, it's difficult to find a job.
Salaries are much lower than in the U.S. When we moved to the U.S., my husband almost tripled his salary.
Our standard of living is beyond what we could have ever achieved in a lifetime living in Canada. Our relatives can't believe how well average, middle-class Americans live. Our son, who has a learning disability, is getting the best education ever in an American public school.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
I use the 1787 version. Not the Revised Constitution of 1933. If I argued that Constitution, I'd lose.
I found this to be a remarkable book, because I think it helps explain why the underlying attitudes of Canadians towards people in positions of authority are so different than the attitudes of Americans in this regard.
By some of the replies on this thread, it appears that more and more Americans will tolerate increasingly more gubbamint - even FReepers.
O, how long will our free republic survive?
Ah, but the second language would be Spanish. I suppose that is better.
Will there ever be a separate Canadian identity?
Modern application of 'tolerance' is the government's encroaching on one group of people's rights to allow the spread of another group's decadence. Far from true benevolence, this type of 'tolerance' is the systematic extermination of Christian morality under the two headed beast they have named "civil rights" and "tolerance".
There is nothing 'civil' about homosexual unions, abortion, pornography, feminism, no-fault divorce, and irreligion. It's uncivility posing as freedom. Notice that with the ascendency of 'tolerance' comes the public prohibition of Christianity. Evil has become good, and good has become evil. What we need is another Emporer Constantine.
It's also worth noting that higher education in Canada is far more selective than it is here in the U.S. -- they don't operate under the silly notion that any 18 year-old with a heartbeat and a moderate ability to respond to light and heat is a candidate for college admissions. I was quite started at the capabilities of my peers in Canada, so much so that I determined that Canadian schools in general are one level "above" their American counterparts (i.e., a typical Canadian with a high school diploma is roughly the equivalent of your average American with a bachelor's degree, etc.)
I wonder, if you asked this question of the Founding Fathers and early American pioneers, if they wouldn't tell you that American freedom is in the late stages of terminal illness, if not already lying the grave? At least as they understood freedom, that is.
Ever wonder why you see so many rusty cars up north? It's not just because they salt the roads in the wintertime. People can't afford new ones.
140,000 new vehicle sales in Sept 2003 according to Statistics Canada. Off 3.3% from year before but still historically strong.
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/031113/d031113b.htm
Fifty percent of the Canadian paycheck goes to taxes. And, in Ontario, for example, there's a 15-percent tax at the cash register. Think about paying that every time you buy a car, a fridge or clothes.
I'm in the top marginal tax bracket. My combined federal and provincial taxes equal about 40% of my gross income before deductions for things like retirement plan contributions, charity, and other allowable deductions. Still far too high in my opinion, but it's not 50%.
As for the "15& tax in Ontario" that's the combined 8& provincial sales tax plus the 7% federal sales tax (GST). The GST replaced a 12.5% manufacturers tax that was hidden. All provinces pay this amount except Albertal as they don't have a provincial sales tax. Other provinces individual taxes may be higher or lower by a point or two that the 8% in Ontario. We have no municipal or county levied taxes for retail sales. Property taxes are high in Toronto, but not out of line for any major North American city. Smaller cities and towns tax far less. For example, I pay as much property tax on a 650 sq. ft. condo as my parents do on a large ranch style home on a 1/4 acre lot in a small Ontario city.
Official bilingualism — This is what most of the taxes pay for.
No. It eats up a lot but nowhere near the largest chunk. Health Care (socialized), debt servicing and Aboriginal Affairs eat up more. Not good, but again the article is innacurate.
Canada is officially bilingual and that means everything must be in French and English. Everything. It's the law.
Yes, we are a bilingual nation, but the level of services and depth of committment is determined by the individual province. Retail packaging must be English/French with the exception of really ethnic foods, etc. Quebec is another matter, and is the only place where "language police" exists. They are a pain but the province is majority French speaking and the willingness to bend to these often silly demands has a history going back to the conquest of New France by the British in 1759.
The U.S. has its issues with African Americans and Canada has its issues with French Canadians. Affirmative action in the name of official bilingualism has resulted in a great deal of conflict.
Great deal of conflict? I'm 42 and don't recall any language riots causing major urban centers to burn and drive affluent citizens out of town abandoning the inner cities to the slumlords. A lot of noses out of joint and yes, difficulty getting a good job in the civil service if you're English only, but that's about it frankly.
Employment — If you are English-speaking in Canada, it's difficult to find a job.
Utter Barbara Streisand. In the civil service yes, but outside of Quebec (an majority French speaking province) this dog don't hunt.
Salaries are much lower than in the U.S. When we moved to the U.S., my husband almost tripled his salary.
In some professions this is no doubt true, and mortgage interest deductability would be nice (we don't have it) but in the main earnings are similar outside of some professions like medicine (where the U.S. is much higher).
Our son, who has a learning disability, is getting the best education ever in an American public school.
This person loves the public school system. Alarm bells. Our is probably not much better, but from what I regularly read here it's not any worse on the whole.
Meanwhile, it is the norm for Canadian schools to have at least 40 kids per class — that is, if the teachers are not on strike.
Well, I can't speak for British Columbia (our "left coast"...mired in labour strife regularly) but I have numerous friends who teach high school in central Toronto and class sizes are in the 25-35 range...about the same it was when I was in high school in the 1970's. To be sure, teacher's unions are nightmares wherever you encounter them.
Hospitals are miserable. There are long waiting lists for the most basic treatments and operations.
While our Health Care system is strained it's far from on the verge of collapse. Recently, and I'll spare everyone the details, I needed some outpatient surgery for an unpleasant but in no way life threatening issue. My specialist saw me the same day I consulted my family GP and I had the surgery the next day at aprivately run (but taxpayer paid for) outpatient clinic. I'm nobody with any special connections except a long term relationship with my GP. Is the U.S. system better? I'd say yes without question, and I have several family members who are American doctors. That said, it's a give and take thing with most Canucks.
In Canada, there is one system of health care for everyone — except the elite or government bureaucrats, who go to the U.S. and pay for decent health care.
We absolutely should allow private medical delivery to bleed the excees off the public system if one can afford it but we stubbornly don't, on this I'm consistant. Still it's not just the "elites" that can go to the States. My Dad, in no way an elite (except to me that is) recently had an MRI in Michigan because he didn't want to have to wait the few months it would have taken here. His life was not in danger, BTW, it was just to check for complications to an event that he had that passed.
The last bit about Chretien and the Libs rings true, but the political right shot itself in the foot in the 1990's...we'll see if things change with the new unitied Conservative party. That said, I recall the Dems holding control of congress for a lot more than 10 years over the past century. Corrections welcome if I'm wrong.
Look, my country is NOT utopia, but then nothing is. It's got too much Euro baggage in it's history and we try too often to be all things to all people here when the government should stop the social engineering and just keep the lights on and the armories full. Maybe we'll learn, I don't know. But the author sounds like someone to me who will be making an endless list of complaints and whines about her adopted nation in a few years just like she does today about Canuckistan.
There's a lot I don't like about Canada and the way it's run but this article is innacurate, exaggerated and often plain wrong. Enjoy this person...I doubt you've heard the last of her.
Unfortunately, we may end up with the Mahdi instead.
In fact, after living there for a few years I determined that your country isn't really a "country" at all by modern standards -- it's actually very close to what the Founding Fathers of the United States envisioned when the United States was created!
I'll dig up a famous quote from the past, which got a lot of laughs from co-workers who wanted to know why someone from the U.S. would move there:
"I didn't move to Canada -- I moved to Alberta."
;-)
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