Even as we speak, I am racking my brain to come up with a suitable punishment for Newfoundlaners who have never been "Away." Ditto for the forty-ish man whom my friend met who had never left Salt Spring Island.

That's not what I've heard. Apart from needing medical insurance what are the day-to-day differences between life in the US and life in a comparable setting (if there is one) in Canada?

In Canada you're less likely to come across neighbours, associates and politicians packing guns.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/...ngressman.gun/

According to Michael Moore (BforC), Canada has the highest per capita gun ownership in the world. I know my neighbours in Canada have guns. And, as it happens, I know the Americans I know who live in America do not.

Still, since the Canadians don't carry their guns to the pub and the Americans don't have any to start with, it's not really a day-to-day difference.

dbd33:

Well, off the top of my head, and based on my having spent at least 50 percent of each month in the USA, for a 5 year period, here goes........

Racial tensions. When was the last time that you heard of a "race riot" in Canada? Never. Are you old enough to remember the riots in Los Angeles, in the 90's, or the ones following the murder of Martin Luther King, in the 60's ?

Rampant crime. I live in Toronto, the largest city in Canada, in the core, and I'm not afraid to walk down any street, at any time. In the USA, in even small towns, the locals are either locked up in the their homes , behind burglar bars and triple door locks, or they are carrying a hand gun in their pocket or purse. You have lived in Canada long enough to know that is NOT the way Canadians live, is it ?

Bigotry. As a Canadian, travelling for business in the USA, I was insulted and made fun of, on a very regular baisis, by Americans. Just try to hold an intelligent conversation with them about any "world knowledge "subject and find out how really insulated and ignorant they are, about anything outside of their little town or city. Not only do they "not know " about many subjects, they are proud of "not knowing".

Urban decay. At night many US cities are empty, with few people on the streets, because those that work there during the day, flee to the suburbs at 5pm. The only people to be seen are the poor, who cannot afford to live anywhere else, and the drug dealers who feed their addictions.

Corruption. It is on such a large scale that many Americans cannot believe that any country can be free of it. This colours their perceptions about other nations, who they asuume are going to be "just as corrupt as they are ". At the same time, the same Americans are repeating the phrase' We are the best country in the world to live in ". and my all time favourite....Everyone wants to live in America". In fact most people in other countries, when asked by pollsters, say thay don't want to live in America, at all.

SO , yes, the USA is not at all like Canada, and I'm glad to be living here, not there.

Jim Bunting. Toronto.

My neighbour must certainly have a gun. I can think of no other reason for the severed head of a moose I saw in the back of his pick-up last Fall.

Nice guy but I don't intend to piss him off.

I was in LA for the Rodney King riots. Close enough? Halifax had a race riot though the details escape me now. In either case, racial tensions are an every day concern in big cities in either country (and Europe for that matter).
Regina might be a good place to consider the lack of racial tensions in Canada.

I am. Not all of the streets, of course, but how about Mutual St by the Harm Reduction Centre at 2:00 am? How about Queen and Sherbourne at 5:30am? How about Driftwood any time of day?

Yesterday morning (6:45 Jarvis and Queen) while I was stopped at the traffic lights, a woman who was actively dabbing at blood that streamed from her mouth offered me a suck for a smoke. Delightful, that never happened to me in America! A daughter of mine , who was a lifeguard at the pool at Regents Park had the job of working the metal detector. Why one wonders do people bring guns to the swimming pool if there's no crime?

Oh don't be silly. I stay often in NoVa, suburban Washington, it's like Pickering. My oh's parents live in small town USA, they don't have a gun, they don't lock their doors etc. etc. It's not the country but the local environment that counts. If you don't think local environment is critical compare the murder rate for Parkdale with that for Maine.

It's not the way anyone lives though people in the Malvern area of Toronto and in great chunks of Detroit sleep away from the windows.

I'm not seeing the point here. Canadians mock Americans in the same way Americans (those who notice Canadians) mock Canadians. Neither Canadians nor Americans know very much about anywhere except America.

I thought you said you lived in Toronto. Look at Allan Gardens at 4:00am. Look at London ON or Calgary AB, both cities where the core is deserted at night, contrast with NYC or San Francisco. The model of offices at the core and then a donut of decay is not exclusive to the USA. We might say that it's true of Toronto; Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke contain the rotten bits and the centre is just offices.

Toronto is the home of the WCB and the municpal computer leasing scandal. Canada's recent Prime Ministers have included Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien. Talk about living in a glass house.

My overall argument is that the differences between the countries are neglible and that life varies more by region within the countries than it does between them. The great Canadian struggle for an identity is, to me, like the great Dakotan struggle for identity.

I can't say I care that the neighbours in the country have guns, I suppose they're just for hunting, it did bother me though that in the Beach I knew of three hand guns just on our street. (And yes I know I have a bunny blaster and it should probably be licensed but it's hardly a weapon for killing people).

We saw more evidence of rampant gun ownership in Germany than we've ever noticed over here.

Now THAT is scary: German's with guns

My (primary) ex is Swiss. Her family got to take their military weapons home and they all had guns. One brother was in the bicycle troops and not only had custody of a gun but, in case of invasion, he had control of a military bicycle!

Yeah, look what happened last time we let them play with guns.

That's not rampant crime, its rampant paranoia, fed by the media.

simply more americans around. as a percentage canadians can be just as ignorant. its not a red neck free zone.


way to go with the stereotypes. have you visited small town canada....the out of town malls have effectively killed off all life in the downtown after 6pm, and there are no shortage of drug addicts, alcohol abusers, stoners etc in Canada too.



Oh give us a break, were you asleep during the last election that was effectively a referendum on the sponsorship scandal. What about the long gun registry, where did that money go? Canada has one of the worst cases of the "best country in the world" jingoism out there, even though it hasn't been true for many years now. I'm not sure where you are living, it sounds like a different planet to me. When you look outside does everything have a pink tint to it?

Canada and the US are so culturally similar its hard to tell them apart, there are far larger differences travelling East to West than North to South. The major difference is in the political system / balance, and in the more socially liberal attitude of Canadians to social welfare and public services rather than military might. That and the bilingual labeling.

Caledonia.

Not Caledonia in Scotland but the ongoing example of racial tension leading to disorderly behaviour just outside Toronto. Whether or not the scuffles there can be considered a riot is iffy but it's certainly a red neck police force trying to quell a population of another ethnicity. If the cops start shooting, as they used to when that Mike Harris was in charge, it could get really ugly. It's not everyday life in Toronto but Waco wasn't everyday life in Texas.

I think thats a bit of a stretch to get from baricade to race riot.

Maybe you were thinking of Ipperwash or Oka?

I had Ipperwash and Oka in mind as examples of the police shooting people (if Ipperwash was the one in Western Ontario recently subject to an inquiry). I cite Caledonia as an example of racial tension in Canada similar to that one might see in the US. Whether or not it'll ultimately become a riot is, as I said "iffy", however since it's a current story (at least it was when I withdrew to the boonies) I thought it a good example of how we're not actually all that much superior up here.