Habibi, you know a little too much about the Canadian prison system.

I'm too slick to tricked like that.

 

I want to thank you for starting this discussion but a lot of the stuff your saying doesn't agree with what I've been learning about Canada. It's like you are seeing your own country through rose colored glasses.

Especially the part about people getting the medical care they need. It's socialism and is like Russia. People who need serious medical care are more likely to die than get the surgery they need. It happens all the time and I'm sure you know a few people who have died while they were waiting to be treated. If it's so good, how come so many Canadians come to the U.S. to get medical care? I heard that is really common.

Also, the government controls your life there, from the time you are born, till you die. Socialism is not freedom and there is no incentive to work.

Also, you make it sound like not putting drug users in prison where they belong is a good thing. I bet your drug abuse is sky high. Also, more drug abuse equals more violent crime. And with the gun laws the way they there is no good way to defend yourself from all those drug addicts who are trying to scrape up some money for a fix. When people do bad things they need to be punished or society falls apart. But for some reason the real bad guys go free in Canada. We lock them up (mostly) so they can't hurt others again.

Socialism doesn't work but you make it sound like it's great.

 

Sorry this rubs me the wrong way so I may have a bit of shock and force in my response. I appreciate your input in this thread, and I welcome all discussions as this is the type of misconceptions I am trying to reverse.

By the way you talk, I would assume if you have spent any time at all up north, you at most have spent the weekend or two?

Health care; considering I have broken over 10 bones (between mountain biking, skateboarding, and snowboarding), my chronic asthma and my bacterial pneumonia last year, I have LOTS of experience with our medical system. Havent paid out once and have never been denied the care I need. You are right that canadians go south for SOME medical care. Most of it is non medical work (i.e. plastic surgery, or as I stated before about the people with conditions that are painful but not life threatening or will not get worse with time) usually go to the US to have their knee worked on. The ODD person goes to the US for MRI work as we dont have MRI's in smaller towns so the wait times can be long. NONE OF THIS I HAVE NEGLECTED TO MENTION.

The government controls your life too, dont think otherwise. Also I have LOTS of incentive to work, how does that even make sense? We fire people all the time because they cant get their **** together. I am sorry but that doesnt even make sense to me.

Our drug abuse is actually less than the US. Also I have never ONCE said I dont agree with putting drug users and sellers to jail. Our two worse places in Canada for drug use and homelessness is in Toronto and in Hastings in Vancouver. I have friends from Jersey who we walked at the intersection of Hastings and Main, most canadians are afraid to go there, and they said that some of the places in NY are much worse and scary. We dont have slums like the US does. Things like that.

Just some more on socialism. Definition;
- political theory advocating state ownership of industry
- an economic system based on state ownership of capital
- Any of various political philosophies that support social and economic equality, collective decision-making, and public control of productive capital and natural resources, as advocated by socialists; The socialist political philosophies as a group, including Marxism, libertarian socialism ...


Canada has a stock exchange (same as NYM, ours is the TSX)
Canada does not own ANY Industry. My industry is owned by shareholders and traded on the TSX. link = http://www.stockhouse.com/tools/?pag...26table%3DLIST
There is no public control of natural resources (look at our oil and gas and logging industries for example).
We do not have economic equality, industry is free to sent whatever wages it wishes. Businesses go under. People make money based on their education and worth to the company.
The closest we have to socialism is a VERY small independent political party that I think has won one seat... ever.


So no we are NOT socialist, we are defined as a capitalist nation.



I guess my question for you would be this.

1.) Why do you think Canada is socialist?
2.) Why do you think I am making it sound rosey? Do you have anything to suggest I am exaggerating?
3.) Can you show me exactly HOW the government controls my life MORE than a resident of the US. I know people who will not GO to the US because of the internal intelligence they collect. The homeland security issue has a lot of Canadians worried about how much information (invasively too) they collect.
4.) I would like some proof that your 'war on drugs' is actually more effective at stopping trafficking and addiction that our approach.

 

Save your energy Cosworth, obviously this guy has his mind made up and nothing you say is going to change it.
It's quite apparent from his absurd claims which he never provided cites for.

I find it amusing how someone who hasn't been to Canada can argue a position based solely on what they heard from someone else, and argue it as undisputed fact.

If you're going to make a claim, then at least have the decency to provide a cite to support your position.
"My neighbour told me" doesn't count.

 

Oh the trials of the message board....

 

your right, just drives me nuts. Makes me feel like I should be talking about how in MOTHER RUSSIA CAR DRIVES YOU!



Give you an example, my best friends volleyball team went down to Arizona and the lady at the front was making a comment on how hot it must be for us down there (it was like 20?) and one of the guys got on to a 10 minute rant about how crazy hot it was, how he doenst understand how their igloos would stand up and how it was really hard this time to find some people to watch the sled dogs. Thank god inukshuk was able to do it. Haha


by the way inukshuk is a native piece of art that is now on a flag of our newest territory.


So I am sure crap like that people pull doesnt help.

 

You know you love it big guy
On a positive note Stealth, I know enough Americans to know that "real" doesn't represent the collective voice of the average American.

We have lots of guys up here too that are clued out, so that kind of makes us even.

 

dont get me wrong, I dont think that REAL represents most people. Unfortunately most people like that seem to be the most vocal and that is 50% of the reason I started this thread. I am tired of hearing about it.

I have LOTS of friends from the US, who moved to the us, or go to school in the US. Christ I even have friends in Georgia So I am not going Rah Rah Rah Canada, Bo Bo Bo US.

 

Yep. But ignoring the goons makes things so much more fun, eh?

Though it's always nice to be able to poke fun at the goons we tolerate.

 

I love the USA and enjoying going there at any opportunity.
As a matter of fact, wifey and I drove to Watertown, NY this afternoon just to have a nice little day trip. 62 miles from my front door to the parking lot at Cracker Barrel)

We had dinner at Cracker Barrel, went strolling through the Salmon Run Mall, and I filled the truck up with that nice cheap gas they have there (Sunoco 93, only $3.09 a gallon)

I do find it weird having to pay for my gas before I pump it, we don't do that here yet. (surprising with all the criminals we have running loose up here)

 

I never said I had spent a lot of time in Canada but that doesn't mean that I can't form an accurate impression from listening to reputable news sources from people who know how the system works.

What you did neglect to mention is all the people who die up there when the government decides they don't have the resources to spend on someone (like if they are older or mentally retarded). The last thing I want is the government coming between me and my doctor and that's how it is with government controlled health care. Why did you not mention all the people who die early because they can't get the treatments they need?

The government doesn't control my life as much as it would if I lived in a socialist country like Canada. I am free to live in whatever state I want and I'm not forced to learn French in public school. I assume you do know about French history or did your government spin that too?

Well maybe you have fewer drug adicts but that's only because there are fewer people in Canada over all. I'm talking per capita. If you don't put drug users in prison then it's pretty obvious there will be more drug users. As far as slums, sure, there are a few poor areas but that's one of the great things about a free country, if you don't want to live in a slum you are free to live somewhere else.

That's not what I hear on the news just about every week.

I don't agree with the way you have tried to dodge the socialism question with fancy definitions and whatnot. Maybe I should have said Canada was socialistic leaning like France and the rest of europe. That's like communism. Canada has some government regulated private logging, mining, oil and gas and stuff but most of the economy is socialistic. The government does just about everything. Look at your healthcare, unemployment insurance, fire protection, libraries, police, education, transportation, water and sewer, garbage, etc, it's all run by the government. And if you want to take your family to the great outdoors, where do you go? Yep, one of those Provincial Parks, government provided, of course. I'm surprised your taxes aren't higher than what you've let on. Probably because much of it is hidden taxation. Private industry could provide all those services more cheaply and employ more people at a lower cost.






1) Because I listen to fair and balanced news sources and it's common knowledge that Canada is socialist leaning.
2) It's rosey because you are ignoring all the negatives I hear reported on almost every week about Canada's socialistic system.
3) The goverment controls your life more because you don't get to choose who you doctor is and whether you get the healthcare you might need.
4) Making drug use illegal doesn't stop all drug use but the proof that it's effective? Look at all the drug users in prison. That's all the proof I need. They can't get drugs when their locked up.

Don't take this personally because you seem pretty nice but are all Canadians as reluctant to open there eyes and see what's really going on? Do you even get real news like Fox News up there or does the government control all the news stations? We only have public broadcasting on one channel down here and if that's all I watched we might agree on more things. I know we don't always have news you can rely on but at least the most popular news network in the US is fair and balanced and not afraid to tell it how it is.

Have you ever been to the USA for more than a week or or two?

 

It's not what I heard from my neighbor, it's from some of the most highly respected and knowlegable news sources of all, with a proven track record for accuracy. The kind of sources who come right out and admit there occasional mistakes without hesitation.

 

You keep saying respectable news sources but you never say exactly which ones. Please elaborate?

 

That right there proves you don't know what the heck you're talking about.

No drugs in prison? LOL, yeah ok, that's seriously laughable.
American and Canadian prisons are infested with every drug imaginable, and if you believe otherwise, you are living in a dream world.

It's usually a good idea to know what you're talking about before you start posting about things you obviously have no knowledge about.

 

this guy has no clue

you really think the government does all this?, we are not "forced" to learn french...its optional like spanish is in US
we are free to live in any province we like as well....
our parks are "provided" by the government? ummmm no...they are PROTECTED by the government to keep them undisturbed and beautifull
If things like forestry werent regulated do you think that would be a good thing? HELL NO do you like the air you breathe?
I can find something wrong with anything you say but I dont have the time...