[americanSoul]

Bilingualism:

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.

[Levante]

"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."

Where do the junior officers, NCOs and rank-and-file troops go for healthcare? This is surprising because we have two large military hospitals in the Washington, DC area, and, while they do serve the nation's leaders, they also take care of rank-and-file troops and military retirees, regardless of rank.