Oakvillian

Not sure how relevant this is, though? By its very nature, a convenience store exists for the convenience of its patrons rather than because it's cheap.

You may have a point in some low-income neighbourhoods, where every last cent is counted carefully - but I don't think it holds city-wide and certainly not across the wider GTA.

The marginal pricing difference between buying through the OKBA co-op and any other wholesaler is surely outweighed by the laziness of most reasonably-well-off Torontonians who would rather pay an extra few cents for their chips and chocolate than walk (or drive) the extra 3 blocks to the next store?

dbd33

I'm not suggesting that the convenience stores are cheap, just that stores with access to cheaper supplies will make more money than others. They have a competitive advantage. A cute feature of living in the country is that the convenience stores are run by Indians, you don't see that in the city anymore, I find it charmingly nostalgic.

Whoever above suggested that the police are not generally racist wants to give his head a shake, they don't dump druken white people out in the snow to freeze to death very often.

Stuarty

If you are looking to settle in a progressive and forward thinking, non judgemental, anti racist utopia - then avoid rural northen Alberta at all costs. Really nice people but the vast majority are white anglo saxons like myself with outdated views. I have pulled up several friends on their racist comments and following discussions they realise that nobody has ever questioned them on their attitudes which they acknowledge as being stupid at best (lots and lots of racist jokes, mostly from 70's Europe/U.S.)). My kids have been horrified at the prevailing racist and extremely sexist attitude of very many of kids at their high school.
I am not including their attitude towards the Natives which is a whole different ballgame, just towards any non-white except possibly the Chinese. The irony is of course that the majority of non-white people up here are professionals with high earning white collar occupations.
Stuarty

bazzz

How dare you talk about our Brave Boys in Blue like that. I'm shocked. Shocked and appalled.

Oakvillian

Boys in Blue? I thought the mounties all went round in those smart red coats and funny hats and trousers with a stripe down the side, like that guy in Due South. You're telling me this isn't their working uniform? Better not tell the wife, she'll be most disappointed - she was wondering why we hadn't seen any galloping down the streets...

iaink

They dont do it to native people very often either, and its rather churlish to paint the whole organisation with the same brush as the people who did this in Edmonton or wherever it was.

Steve_P

Saskatoon.

live to ski

Slight outsider syndrome, so you'd need to put a bit of a bit of effort in to start with.

Although I've never lived in CP or PR

annabella

I lived up on the Alaska Highway a couple of years ago. We had to regularly call the police to remove drunken aboriginals from our garden. We had observed that they were being supplied with booze but not by their own folk. They would crawl into our garden in the snow in the winter and pass out. We have many times observed them being picked up by the police. I have never seen them treated, and I am talking about frequent occasions, by anything but the utmost consideration.

R I C H

<snigger> I get a sense of some wierd reversed deja vu

hot wasabi peas

Me first.

montreal mike

My guess is it would be no different than how Whites are received in India. There are racists to be found worldwide and Canada is no exception. It is difficult to provide a precise answer and the responses on this thread so far have pretty well summed up the situation.

As a matter of interest one thing I find noticeaby absent in this country is that there doesn't seen to be a disdain for 'half breeds'. I know that the term is not politically correct nowadays but I will use it anyways. I saw quite a bit of this attitude in Calcutta in the mid-fifties. Anglo Indians were shunned by brown skinned Indians whereas whites were mostly well accepted or at least tolerated.

I recall as case in point: One young lady, white, married a man, also white, and their first newborn turned out quite dark. This was a nasty shock to the young couple. I recall the mother crying her eyes out as she told me she had given birth to an Indian baby. The couple were both Anglo-Indians who looked like me, perfectly caucasian but mother nature played a cruel trick on them. At least that is what they perceived. They gave up the kid for adoption, moved away to Bombay, had another one who, to their relief, turned out perfectly White.

Rather sad really!

dingbat

Worry about it? No. Accept that it is here in shovel loads - yes. In both of those places you will have to deal with the Aboriginal/White issue more than anything else. To be honest, after a while you tend to just ignore the bigots as there are way too many to challenge in small towns like CP and PR, particularly if you want to work in the local community.

dingbat

This is still going on... for obvious reasons I cannot elaborate, but lets just say this example hit a nerve with me. :curse:

MB-Realtor

Biiink is quite correct about the racism against the Natives in Winnipeg.

Natives are 80% of the local prison population. Most of the street crime is Native on Native. Most of the cars are stolen by young Native males, etc. etc. etc. A lot of people here are frightened of them, and fear breeds hatred.

Their lives are mostly crappy at best. Without doubt the "White Man" caused the problems that go back so many years. Though our generation is doing its best to try to remedy the situation, there are many entrenched positions among people in power (both Native and others) who don't want to change the status quo.

I think the Natives are doomed to form the Underclass of Canadian society for many years to come.