Steve_

#1 - well geography and population size obviously, sea to sea to sea;

#2 - official languages, yes a lot of people speak French but official languages are recognized in the Constitution;

#3 - state recognition of religion, mainly in order to protect Catholicism;

#4 - power is more centralized in the Federal government (as it was formed not long after the US Civil War). As a result the Criminal Code for example is federal (although provinces can make laws governing crimes involving property). Provinces are unicameral;

#5 - Parliamentary form of government with the Queen as head of state and a member of the Commonwealth;

#6 - Canada Health Act - doesn't actually mandate nationalized healthcare, but to get Federal money you have to provide the insured services the Act lists. Also bulk contracts by provinces make prescription drugs much cheaper;

#7 - Metric system - not as mandated as you might think, but in far more common use than in the US;

#8 - taxes: Canada has a value-added tax (GST/HST) and much lower corporate and payroll taxes than the US. Also no estate tax. However it does have a "deemed disposition" capital gains tax on death or departure;

#9 - financial regulation, might sound unimportant but it's not given the importance to the economy and you can see the results with the recent recession. Obviously Canada uses a different currency too;

#10 - much smaller military, even on a per capita basis Canada is behind the UK and Australia let alone the US.

Some of the biggest myths:

#1 - less crime, well overall nationally yes, but there are plenty of large jurisdictions in the US with similar crime rates;

#2 - weather, plenty of places in the US with Canadian-like weather;

#3 - guns: plenty of places in the US with similar gun ownership levels and also gun laws that are similar or more restrictive (e.g. New York and California);

#4 - accents - yes there are some English accents that are identified with Canada but they're not confined solely to Canada, not the major ones anyway;

#5 - Canada is geographically larger than the US - it is, but not in a major way and the US has a larger total land area than Canada. (US = 9,414,362 sq. km of land and Canada has 9,094,037 sq. km of land).

Oink

Thank you, that's very helpful.

ultrarunner

Wow....just ten eh?

Well...don't know why this is on the list? Considering Canada only has 30 million people, compared to the US with 300 odd million people. The UK has 60 odd million people, and OZ has what?

The US has a bigger budget for it's military, and some of the reserve units/ national guard have more resources than the Canadian military put together.

I know this because I have been on exercises and deployments with the US, UK, AUS et al forces

iaink

You do know what "per capita" means, right?


In practical day to day terms Im not even sure I could get to 10 differences.

No need to get independent health insurance...

Best to go shopping cross border to get the best prices, and fill up on gas on the way back...

No need to go invading oil rich middle eastern states as we have enough of our own oil?

Not quite so ridiculously paranoid about the obscene gap between rich and poor that we feel the need to sleep with a loaded gun under the pillow and have a shoot first ask questions later mindset.

Not quite so married to the ridiuclous lie that is the "American Dream" that anyone prepared to work hard can become a captain of industry.

No need for kids to learn spanish in order to deal with minimum wage workers...

er

I'm thinking.

no, thats about it.

Steve_

Whether it be in military force numbers or spending, Canada is behind the US, Australia and the UK on a per capita basis. Assuming the stats I'm looking at are correct.

iaink

And how do the relative economic deficit numbers look. I wonder if there is a parallel between rampant military spending and national debt...

ultrarunner

yes thank you...Latin for per individual . You do understand what .....the US has a larger budget than Canada means right? Comparing Canada to the US 'per capita' is ludicrous

Nobody has jumped on # 3 yet....it's only a matter of time am guessing

Oink

That's bit rich isn't it given your whole national security policy is predicated on our military spending while you employ a token ceremonial force that basically beats up its Indians and rescues cats.

iaink

Its not at all ludicrous. Canada has a large area with a small population so if anything I would expect it to have to spend more per person to defend/ monitor its territory if logic had any place, which of course it doesn't.

US spending in terms of % of GPD is insane, totally out of line with all but a handful of other nations (Russia and the Saudis). The saudis are swimming in cash, The Russians have an economic surplus of 3% of GDP, while the US runs the largest defecit on the G8 at nearly 10% of GDP. They are not under direct attack or at war with their neighbours, but as the last remaining "superpower" its military to me comes over as something of an ego boosting vanity project, even if the end result is that the US owes more money to China than can possibly by healthy (or if you prefer enough that it creates a threat to national security)

China is the real economic superpower as a result, and the reason the US was able to be a decisive factor in the last two world wars and came out on top of in cold war was because of its economic strength and manufacturing ability as much as its military might.

iaink

Who is "you" and "our" here???

Why would the canadians need a force capable of more than beating up indians and rescuing cats anyway?

Canada has oil and fresh water, and when the US runs short any canadian military would be hopelessly outgunned to stop them taking it anyway, so why cripple an economy in order to even try.

Canada plays its part in NATO and UN events as well as most of the other partners. Canada will have to spend in order to keep its equipment from being obsolete, but there is no need for it to pretend its a superpower.

The canadian military has some very handy elite units that can and do stand side by side with the best the US and UK have to offer. What it doesnt have is 10 active aircraft carriers and fleets of hundreds of stealth aircraft.

Oakvillian

Here we go again. UR, you should read more carefully (or perhaps take a little more time to digest what you have read) before mouthing off.

Of course the US has a larger budget - orders of magnitude larger - than Canada's. It also has a larger population. The concept of comparing numbers on a per capita ("for each head") basis is to take the total size of budget and population out of the equation. It's one of few ways of comparing expenditures that is not, in fact, ludicrous.

The US spent $2141 for every person on its military in 2009. In the same year, Canada spent $560 per person. That's about a quarter as much.

If you don't like the per capita numbers, consider percentage of GDP - another way of normalising the numbers for different countries with different-sized economies and populations. In 2009 Canada's military expenditure was around 1.4% of GDP. The US's was around 4.8% of GDP. Again, that's roughly four times as large for the US as for Canada.

All the numbers are here http://milexdata.sipri.org/

dbd33

What's to jump on?

Oink

It was the rampant bit that I objected to. Part of the US "rampant" spending, effectively protects Canada and allows them to be smug, self-satisfied gits they're famed for being.

ultrarunner

That we do, and the countries we end up going to, love us for it. When I was in Kuwait, the US folks couldn't go into town in uniform, we on the other hand could with no problem whatsoever

It's the same in Sudan, Egypt and Isreal

Oink

A choirboy?