You don't have enough information about their situation vs someone else's. If, like me, they had nothing in the UK , no kids, arrived with a backpack , return ticket and rented accommodation it would be a no brainer going home. But what about those that sold everything, spent every last dime getting here, they would have invested too much to not give it a reasonable go. 6 weeks is lunacy. I had a hard go of it for the first 18 months or so - sure glad I stuck it out though.

And eveyone's situation is different - you find it ok - i love it. We tend to generalize about Canada vs UK in reality is should be Vancouver vs Manchester or where ever. Bit naive for me to say Canada is awesome when I've only lived here and Regina (Manchester wins over Regina by the way).

Agreed (here in NB). Childish almost

Any yet, I would guess you enjoy not seeing drunken people vomiting on the roadside, smashed beers bottles scattered around your children's playgrounds etc

Why would being able to buy beer in supermarkets cause that?

Personally I resent the state dictating that I can't enjoy a beer on the beach, or buy a bottle of wine in safeway. The people that vomit on the roadside are not me - so why should what they do effect what I can and cannot do.

That is the inference I drew from that - I apologise if I was wrong

So leave the country then. Personally, I am not so desperate for alcohol that I cannot enjoy the beach without it, nor does it take much effort to go from the supermaket to the liquor store which, in Calgary, are usually very near the supermakets in any event. It is not a huge issue for me, although I accept it may be for others.

I am sure you have never murdered anyone either, do you propose that murder be removed from the Criminal Code as well?

IMHO they have the balance right in Canada and totally wrong in the UK - I appreciate that everyone may not agree with me

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I understand your position, but I don't agree.

Your murder example is wrong - the crimes you are complaing about are vomiting on the roadside. Totally happy for drunk and disorderly to be a crime if property or people are being affected. To take your example further - why not ban cars because some people kill people with them?

Come to Guelph downtown on any Saturday that the University crowd are visiting and you'll get all nostalgic about this.

it is a pretty big jump from alcohol sales in supermarkets to binge drinking youths vomiting and littering everywhere.

I don't totally disagree with you and I see where easy access to alcohol can lead down to the binge drinking road. I think it isnt the easy access that has led to binge drinkers, more the low cost of spirits such as vodka/Rum etc...

When I was a lad (I hear you all groaning) we used to drink bitter and mild because it was affordable. You would hear men groan when their dates asked for Port and Lemon or Rum and Black because of the high cost of higher proof spirits in comparison.

Before we left all the teenagers seemed to be drinking Vodka with something rather than beer. Little wonder they get completely wasted.

Sure, I agree with you. As I said earlier, I thought the reference to supermarkets was due to the price factor, rather than the convenience one. I apologise.

I have to admit to being very comforable with the "parochial" laws regarding alcohol over here. Having lived here for the time that I have, I do wonder why I ever thought it was acceptable to be able to have an alcoholic drink virtually anywhere. I am glad that, for the most part, consumption of alcohol in Canada is confined to the areas that it is.

I think the fact is that the way alcohol is sold here it's much easier to control who buys it and steals it for that matter - is that a price to pay for convenience? Perhaps. The UK booze is very easy to get your hands on and is way too cheap in some instances.

There are way, way less issues with pubic intoxication here and the police have effective powers to detain, arrest and search - again some sacrifices for the overall good.

As long as there continues to be a balance between how and who it is sold to , I'm okay with it being in supermarkets etc, but I can't say it bothers me that much.

It doesn't affect me that much either (certainly not enough to make me leave Mr Almost Canadian) - there are enough offies around to make getting beer easy enough etc.

However, you know my views on state interference in peoples lives, and especially when it's due to some activity X which is harmless even tho some people then do activity Y because of it. I say clamp down on the criminals doing Y and not innocent people doing X. I accept however that some people are happy with state control of things like this - but what worries me is the set of X's that aren't allowed just gets bigger and bigger all the time.

Actually if we are going to discuss the fact that Britain sells achohol in its supermarkets leads to youths vomiting on the pavements then that is absolute tosh.

That little trick is entirely British and little to do with how easy it is to get achohol.

For instance, most of europe sell achohol from supermarkets, not so supermarkets, corner shops, kiosks even but do they have the same issue that we have in Britian.... err no or at least if they do its not as well documented.

However if you ever see those documentaries about some of the crazier places to go on holiday for the young uns, its always British people who are causing the trouble.

I was in Amsterdam the weekend before last. I managed to see some plonker jump into the canal and swim accross whilst so hammered that some poor fella in a boat had to go rescue him. When he finally got out he jumped straight back in - He was British. I saw some youth trying to start a fight with a bemused Dutchman - He was British. I saw mobs of very loud fella's behaving like idiots - Guess what nation they were from ? Yep

So to come back to the point. I feel that the issue is British and its got there from years of abuse that nobody has done anything about combined with a declining social network

Nothing to do with selling achohol in supermarkets though !

This is a staggeringly bad example of the evils of alcohol. Yes there are streets with lots of bars, I'm working in one, but the excesses of even the aggies is short lived rowdiness. The same street by day is littered with prone or semi-prone druggies. I don't know that one can reasonably argue that a country with a puritanical attitude to alcohol but such an open drugs policy that, in at least two provinces, marijuana is the primary cash crop, has any sort of balance sorted.

Maybe if bc bud was included in the GDP statistics we wouldn't be in recession

Sounds like your friends are stupid mithering moaning English twits that should have never left their mothers apron strings and Canada does not need them
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