"I find it really very difficult to fathom"
Just about sums it up, ey?
Ah. So that's why Seattle's such a little suck pot.
I've been here since 91 and now it all makes sense.
I think this statement is inaccurate. I lived in western Canada for three years, and the only French I ever saw (I never heard anyone actually speak it) was on road signs in national parks. Even the legal documents I signed were in English.
And if Tom Ridge has his way, we can enjoy this benefit too.
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.
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.
After a certain level in any Federal dept (military, civil service,...) there is a legal requirement for being bilingual. Since a frenchman is much more likely to speak English than the other way around, the result is that in a lot of departments, some 70% and more of the senior managers,commanders are french.
Health Care:
They have a top notch (equipment, personnel) Defense Dept. hospital in Ottawa - the catch: only senior military, civil servants, and politicians are allowed in! Shades of the Soviet Union.
Also, the universal access - oh yeah, looks good on paper, but you can die on the waiting list for service and the equipment is simply not there. To get to the front of the line, it's who you know.
It's been calculated that this taxpayer health care comes out to about $3000CDN per capita. You can get a lot of private insurance coverage for this amount in the US. So this health care is a false sacred cow.
"I find it really very difficult to fathom"