THANK YOU AMERICA!

Sitting up here in the "Great White North" I can ruminate about how the United States has been a never-ending source of amusement for the past eight years... and it doesn't show any sign of letting up in the foreseeable future!

This picture is one of the best examples of what we are subjected to for all hours of the night and day!

An even better example is what Robin Williams said about Canada a few years ago! 

"Canada is a nice, warm, cozy and safe apartment that's situated above a METH-LAB!!!!

CANADA!

 Why do people in Canada claim that Canada is a better place to live than the United States!

Allan:

As an American living in Canada, I can verify that Canada is, in fact, a better place to live.

Number of School Shootings in 2023: US - 131 / Canada - 0

The average cost of a four-year degree: US - $102,828 / Canada - $34,587

Average life span: US - 77.28 years / Canada - 81.75 years

This is on top of the fact that same-sex marriage and abortion are legal in Canada. 

There are laws against hate speech. 

And Americans are quick to scream “BUT THE GUNS!” but we are actually allowed to own guns in Canada too - we just have laws in place to make sure they’re restricted to doing what they’re intended for and not just given out over the counter at your corner Walmart.

In terms of diversity, equality, and inclusion, Canada is far more free than the United States. 

In terms of safety, Canada is far more safe than the United States. 

As far as healthcare is concerned, I don’t have to worry about my family if I’m out of a job or if I’m poor.

“BUT THE TAXES!” Americans will also scream. 

Our tax tables are a PARAGRAPH…two if you count the provincial tax tables. And you don’t hit the 50% tax bracket until you’re making more than $220,000 per year. And to be honest, if you can’t make ends meet taking home $110,000 per year - well…maybe you deserve to live in a third-world country like the United States.

Also, we have the world’s only reserve of Maple Syrup. 

In yo face Vermont!

Will Anderson

MOVE TO CANADA!

 What is it about Canada that American liberals are not getting? Suppose I'm an American liberal and successfully and legally moved to Canada; what would be my first unexpected and biggest surprise? Why? What is the biggest distortion about Canada?

As an American liberal who legally moved to Canada in 2004, here were my biggest surprises:

“Canada, it’s like a whole other country!” — As dumb as it sounds, and as educated and informed as I felt like I was at the time I moved, I still drastically underestimated the impacts of an international move in general:

• All the paperwork to apply for all those documents you’ve “always had” in the States, like Social Insurance Number and vehicle registration and driver’s license and brand new bank accounts and so on, in addition to the standard moving stuff like apartment hunting and setting up electricity and internet. Not to mention it’s just a lot of work reapplying for all those things all at the same time when you had 30+ years to accumulate them the first time.
• It’s suddenly an international call to talk to friends and family in the US. Unless you want to pay crazy US roaming fees forever, you’re going to want to switch to a Canadian mobility provider ASAP, which may also mean you need to pay off your remaining device balance. A pain when the move itself is already expensive.
• If your car isn’t paid off, most auto loans explicitly forbid you from skipping the country with it unless you settle up or sell it. This was a huge unexpected expense for me. I elected to pay it off and ship it. In retrospect, I should have just sold it. Either way, it’s a big cash investment.
• Also, all your life savings? It’s in the wrong currency now. Start coming up with a plan for that.
• Oh, and credit rating? Back to zero. It’s like you just turned 18 again. Buying a house is about the only thing lenders will check foreign credit history for; otherwise, you’re starting from nothing. And until you’re at least a permanent resident, be prepared to be asked for a Canadian co-signer to be approved for home loans. You probably take your current credit cards for granted, but they’re in the wrong currency too (conversion fee to use them and second fee to pay them). Without any credit history, your first Canadian one will likely require a security deposit, and it will take at least a year before you’re trusted with an unsecured one. (By the way, find a way to somehow keep at least one US card with a US billing address. Another mistake I made.)
• All your favourite products and services you’ve spent a lifetime in the US developing habits around? They’re all “imports” now. Unless you’re made of money, you’ll have to change your buying habits to figure out the Canadian-owned department stores, clothes retailers, hardware stores, etc. Even California wine and Jack Daniels whiskey are now found in the “imports” section, too, and priced accordingly (yes, of course, many people still drink them, but a lot fewer when they suddenly cost so much more than similar quality local products). The Banana Republic pants that were my default nice work wear jumped from $ 70 USD a pair to $ 120 CAD a pair. When I was already cash-strapped from the move, it was time to find some Canadian pants I liked fast.
• Similarly, many online services (Pandora, Hulu, certain Youtube videos) aren’t licensed to work here at all, and many e-commerce sites (that never say “US-only” anywhere on them) don’t ship here, or, at best, the international shipping costs are prohibitive. You don’t even figure out some of them until you’ve gone through the entire shopping and checkout process, only to have it choke on your shipping address or postal code. You’ll learn to love any websites with a .ca at the end because at least you’ll know they work here.
• If you follow politics (as most Americans interested in becoming ex-pats for political reasons do), you’ll find the parliamentary system in Canada very different. Expect to understand very little of the political news until you’ve had a chance to learn how it works.
• And generally, stuff just feels *different*, and the general sense of alienation you feel at first is palpable. No one thing is hugely different, but a relentless flood of thousands of things is at least a little bit different all the time, giving you a constant Twilight Zone feeling for the first year or so. If you moved to China, the differences would be no surprise, but for some reason, Americans moving to Canada assume that things will be way more the same than they are.

And then there are all the more fundamental differences:

• You’re an immigrant now. People will point out your American-looking clothes (you don’t believe me, but I’m serious), your funny figures of speech, and your strange proclivity for imperial / US customary instead of metric units. Government processes will point out at every opportunity that you’re a newcomer here. Until you obtain permanent residence and citizenship, remind yourself not to get too comfortable since you’re only a visitor. You know all those Americans constantly asking, “I don’t know why those people don’t just go back where they came from…” and “They’re taking our jobs…” and so on? At least many of “those people” were fleeing poverty and famine, and war. Now you’re one of those people who don’t really have a compelling life-and-death reason for being here. The vast majority of people are nice about it, but a few aren’t, especially if they’re unemployed or have an axe to grind, and all it takes is one of those comments every few days (even if it wasn’t even aimed at you specifically) to make you wonder if you’re really welcome here. Some Canadians seem to be bitter at Americans in general, so you have to have a thick skin and realize it’s not personal. A lot of the time, they’re just criticizing Americans in general for the same things you already criticize right-wing Americans for.
• “Once you’re here, you’re here.” Every visit to the States is an international trip, and your initial immigration status (especially if it’s a work permit visa) may place limitations on when and how you can cross the border, and your income taxes definitely place a limitation on how many days you can spend out of the country and/or specifically in the US. Prepare to feel a little bit trapped at first. At some points of the immigration process, you’re not allowed to leave the country for several weeks or months. I always feared Murphy’s Law would mean a family crisis would choose exactly one of those times. Oh, also, the US is one of only two countries in the world that requires you to file income taxes for life, in addition to FBAR financial reporting requirements for practically every dollar you own outside the US — you’ll come to resent this quickly, but it’s a good horror story to tell Canadians thinking about US citizenship.
• Others mentioned the metric system, and it wasn’t that per se (the adjustment from Fahrenheit to Celsius for weather reports and thermostats being the hardest, but otherwise, most Americans know some metric from school), but the approach for some measurements, in general, is really different. Like how car mileage is measured in L/100Km instead of miles per gallon, so it’s a total upside down, with good fuel economy being a LOWER number, like 10, and bad economy being 20, rather than the other way around. Gas prices in $CAD/Litre also take some getting used to, especially since the prices are much higher too — you basically just have to learn what’s good again (“$1.25/Litre? I need to remember that place!”) EDIT: It’s been pointed out to me that 10L/100Km is still pretty bad. See? I’m still struggling with this one.
• If you’re a gun aficionado, frankly, just forget it. When Americans rail on about gun ownership being a right, many Canadians view that almost as barbaric and backward as saying slave ownership is a “right” or forcing your daughter to marry the person of your choice is a “right.” Yes, there’s a well-defined process for legally owning a firearm, and a not insignificant number of Canadians do, but gun ownership is just talked about differently here; if anything, it’s more of a practical necessity (like if you live in the Yukon and have to fend off bears), and therefore the Canadians who do own guns mostly view it as a dangerous and special privilege. And from a practical consideration, getting licensed to own and handle a gun in Canada is something that happens before you’re allowed to own your first gun, not after, so it’s no big deal for anyone who grew up here, but a total reset for someone who’s a new arrival: you’d have to sell most or all of your collection until you got your paperwork in order and could buy a gun again, would feel really uncomfortable with all the sudden regulatory hoops, and even after that constantly feel like you had a hobby that a lot of Canadians considered sort of “dirty.” I can’t imagine any dedicated American gun fan feeling happy with the consequences of moving to Canada, and it’s the one American demographic for whom I think it’s a non-starter.
• Winters are long and dark. Coming from many places in the US, the latitude difference is significant. I never even realized I suffered from SAD until I moved here. Now it’s a challenge that haunts me 3–4 months out of every year. Especially in Vancouver, it’s not the winter cold that gets you — it’s the only 8 hours a day of daylight, most of those even being covered by relentless thick clouds for days or weeks at a time. It’s worth visiting in the winter first to see how the weather and the darkness affect you because it’s hard (and costly) to change your mind after you’ve moved.
• No matter what you think, you ARE a racist and sexist, and Canada will prove it to you. You may be the nicest, most open-minded American you know, but immediately after you arrive in Canada, it will strike you as “odd” that so many public leaders and people running for office in Canada or even faces on realtor signs are women, people of colour, recent immigrants, or people whose clothes make it clear they’re members of non-Christian religions. And you’ll wonder why. And then you’ll realize that even in urban, liberal constituencies in the US, the huge majority of people in power are old white Protestant Christian males. Your whole life, you’ve accepted that as what people in power simply look like. But that’s part of why you’re here: It will make you a better person and readjust your assumptions about what makes an “average” person. But learning this about yourself can feel shameful and depressing initially, especially if you pride yourself on being open-minded. It happened to me.
• But on the flip side, Canada really gets it right — the things that many American liberals dream of. There are some “honeymoon is over” moments when you realize paperwork is always annoying no matter what country you live in, but generally, things here are good. After the first little while of fighting through the healthcare registration process, for example, you’ll find the actual experience pretty nice (especially emergency room visits — no paperwork at all other than your health card and no bill at the end). You’ll be genuinely baffled by conservative Canadians who claim they’d like it better the American way. Those are often fun conversations (“And then in the US your private insurance company gives you a book or website with the list of the 30% or so doctors in town that are eligible for you to go to under their specific plan, and even then, your insurance may just decide it doesn’t want to pay them half the time and there’s almost nothing you can do about it….”) Same goes for government, schools, labyrinthine American income taxes versus the simpler Canadian ones, and so on. It’s not black and white, but on average, things up here are definitely better. Just definitely different.

Best of luck

Matt Musselman

Why do 56% of Canadians have a negative view of the US?

So why do so many Canadians have a negative attitude toward America?

Americans are proud of being American, and Canadians are proud of not being American!

Most Americans, even most conservative Americans, have a high opinion of Canada because we’re similar. We share a language, a culture, and a history. We had one war back in 1812, before Canada was technically a country, and have been at peace ever since, with a border that might as well not be there. And we are part of the same military alliance, NATO, and the same trade agreement, USMCA.

America and Canada are about as close as any two countries can get, and the American attitude toward Canada reflects this.

It’s because Canada is always the weaker partner in any dealing with America. Canada is part of NATO, which is America’s military alliance. Canada is part of USMCA, which is America’s economic alliance.

Canada is dwarfed by America in terms of GDP, population, and technological and cultural output. Canadian artists go to America to become famous. Canadian inventors go to America to become rich.

Canada was founded after America, became independent after America, and spent most of its history as a British agrarian colony that was forcibly prevented from industrializing. So that when they did, their industry, culture and government were built up along American lines.

In a genuine sense, there is no uniquely Canadian culture. There is no founding myth. There are no great statesmen. The only unique thing that binds Canadians together is the desire to not be Americans. But they haven’t figured out what they want to be beyond that.

And this has given rise to a very strange nationalism among Canadians. They’re not proud of being Canadian because they don’t understand what that means. They’re just proud of not being American.

Is it wise for an American to move to Canada?

Allan:

Is it wise for an American to move to Canada?

Siloo Kapadia

***

Yes if you can do it. But why Americanos have this idea that they can just “move to Canada” is beyond me. 

Canada is (try not to faint) an independent country, and not a state of USA. Therefore, all foreigners including those from USA (yes you are a foreigner in Canada) will need the legal right to go there (a visa or permanent residency status) to live. 

However that right is not simply for the asking.

I suggest those wanting to go contact a good Canadian immigration attorney. 

I would guess that most Americans will not qualify to simply “mosey up on North” the way they seem to think is possible. 

For tourism yes, but to live, I think not.

The recent events in USA are not temporary “once only” events. The USA is on the way down as I have been warning for well over a decade. And NO, Trump or Biden will not stop the decline. 

This is also why I have been warning that those who should leave..., leave while the exits are still open!

Again, contact a good Canadian immigration attorney. 

Also research job availability. 

See all the aspects of what your chances are of actually making the move, then plan accordingly.

What increased military spending may mean for Canada’s budget.

 Guest Post by Trevor Tombe:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended the geopolitical landscape for many countries, including Canada. 

It has also reinforced the value of NATO and the importance of ensuring the armed forces of these allied countries are well resourced—with a target agreed to in the 2014 “Defence Investment Pledge” for each country to spend at least 2 percent of GDP by 2024.

Currently, many countries fall short. Canada ranks 25th out of 30. This may soon change.

At the March 24 meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government, the allies all agreed “to accelerate our efforts to fulfil our commitment to the Defence Investment Pledge in its entirety”.

Several countries have already committed to increases. Poland will increase military spending to 3 percent of its GDP, Romania to 2.5 percent, Germany to more than 2 percent, and Italy, Spain, Denmark, and potentially the Netherlands to 2 percent. The Slovak Republic not only agrees but goes further to say 2 percent should be the base, rather than the target. The commitments of these eight countries are equivalent to 0.6 percentage points of their overall GDP—similar to what Canada needs to also achieve the target.

Before going further, let me be perfectly clear: I’m an economist, not a defence policy expert. I don’t know what the optimal level of military spending is or how it should be allocated. I also don’t know whether Canada’s problematic procurement systems can effectively absorb such an increase. 

Instead, my aim is to map out the fiscal choices available to fund Canada’s increases. And as I’ll show below, there are many reasonable options.

The fiscal context

Canada has already increased military spending from one percent of GDP in 2014, when the NATO Pledge was made, to 1.4 percent in 2021. And current policy under the Defence Investment Plan is set to increase this further, potentially reaching 1.5 percent by 2024 but declining slightly thereafter. 

Achieving a 2 percent of GDP spending level by 2024, therefore, represents an increase of 0.5 percentage points of GDP above the current policy. This would mean a military budget of $58 billion by 2024—nearly 70 percent higher than was spent in 2021. 

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest this may be infeasible (or at least unwise), given the challenges of procurement, recruitment, etc. Increasing to 1.5 percent in 2023 and by 0.1 percentage points annually thereafter might be more reasonable. This would lead to a 2 percent military spending level by 2028 and is consistent with a recommendation made in a 2017 Senate of Canada report suggesting this be the target.

Whatever the pace of growth, important fiscal choices are required to support it.

Lower other spending

Increasing defence spending could be offset by decreasing spending elsewhere.

For perspective, meeting the 2 percent target is equivalent to an across the board 10 percent reduction in direct federal operating expenses—returning such spending to its 2016-17 level. Lowering transfers to provinces by roughly 15 percent could also create the necessary room.

But sudden reductions in any area are not necessary. 

If the increase in military spending is phased in by 2028, then other federal spending could still increase—just at a slower rate. I estimate program spending (excluding the incremental boost to military spending) could grow over the five years from 2023 to 2028 by an average of 1.8 percent per year to accommodate reaching the 2 percent target.

One option could do much of the heavy lifting: make elderly benefits less generous.

As Canada’s population ages, spending on elderly benefits is set to rise dramatically. Indeed, the increase in military spending required to reach the 2 percent target is less than the projected increase in OAS and GIS payments by 2030.

Re-establishing the previously planned increase in the age of OAS eligibility to 67 (over the period 2023 to 2029), which was cancelled in 2016, would fund roughly half of the military spending increase. And reversing recent increases to OAS could be worth another 0.12 percentage points of GDP. 

There are obvious political challenges with this, and one can certainly disagree with its merits. But as our population ages, it’s a conversation we shouldn’t shy away from.

Raise taxes

We could also increase government revenue. There are countless options here. 

Returning the GST to 7 percent, for example, increases revenues by roughly two-thirds of a percent of GDP—more than enough to cover the military spending increase.

Alternatively, we could increase marginal personal income tax rates by roughly 1.5 percentage points across all tax brackets. Importantly, increasing rates on only the highest-income Canadians wouldn’t get you very far. Each percentage-point increase in the top tax rate, for example, may yield roughly $370 million per year. And increasing the corporate tax rate dramatically to 20 percent might get you halfway to the target.

A sensible route might be to modestly increase several tax rates and fees. For perspective, reaching the 2 percent target by 2028 could be covered by increasing total federal tax revenues by approximately 5 percent across the board.

Combined with modest spending growth restraint, revenue increases could be even less.

Borrow the money

A third option requires neither (current) tax increases nor spending reductions: borrow the money.

This may sound irresponsible (and there are certainly tradeoffs to this option, and I’m not personally a fan) but it’s a feasible option. The federal government’s long-run fiscal capacity is large. A declining debt-to-GDP ratio is a strong indicator of long-run fiscal sustainability, and the federal debt ratio is set to decline consistently in the coming years. 

Using the PBO’s latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook, I estimate that the federal government has room to increase spending by approximately 1 percent of GDP while maintaining its current net-debt-to-GDP ratio. And over a longer-term horizon, as illustrated by the Finances of the Nation’s Debt Sustainability Simulator, it has even more room to maneuver. 

This is a risky option, to be clear. Adverse moves in future interest rates or economic growth would be more difficult to manage. It also erodes the fiscal room that may be required to assist provincial governments facing unsustainable finances. But it is a feasible option that, at the very least, may be required in the short term.

A budget to watch

This is anything but an exhaustive list of options available to boost Canada’s military spending. But it hopefully illustrates that accommodating increased military spending, even relatively rapid increases, is entirely manageable from a narrow fiscal perspective. 

Pressure to increase military spending is mounting. The NATO Secretary General recently called on Canada to do just that. And former Deputy Prime Minister and current Conservative Party leadership candidate Jean Charest made a strong case in an article for The Line. The government’s own defence minister, Anita Anand, is currently exploring “aggressive” options but will need support in Cabinet to move any plan forward.

Polling suggests Canadians may “marginally favour” increased defence spending, though there is little agreement on how best to fund it. Luckily, there are many options.

The upcoming federal budget may provide an indication of what the government has in mind. For this and so many other reasons, it will be an important budget to watch.

Only in Canada, eh!

 If ya really want to see the difference between Canada and the United States..., I've got a perfect example for you!

This "truckers protest" in Alberta, Ottawa and Windsor was all about a perceived loss of  civil liberties by pseudo Trump supporters..., who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground!   

This "civil liberties" campaign could have taken place just as easily down in the U.S.  as up here folks..., but how it would be handled  shows the vast distance between Canadian and American societies..., and their response to certain situations!

Down in the States things could very easily have sunk to their lowest common denominator in a hurry as authorities decided to flex a bit of muscle by sending in the Army to fix things up!

So, while people would be getting shot in that southern disturbance ..., up here in the Great White North politicians decided to freeze the bank accounts of the major protestors! 

Then, the only thing left to talk about is..., how this would affect their credit rating!

Only in Canada!

The way I see it anyway!

What's it All About?

Why does Canada keep inviting immigrants when housing is already too expensive?

 Allan:

Well, first of all, the Canadian birth rate is too low to maintain the population, and Canada needs young and ambitious people to pay the taxes to support old and retired people like me. That is the primary reason for inviting in more immigrants.

Second, the high housing prices are confined to a few very large and congested Canadian cities, notably Toronto and Vancouver. If you look at the prices of housing in all cities over 1 million, they are:

• Vancouver $1,175,000
• Toronto $1,090,000
• Ottawa $660,000
• Montreal $515,000
• Calgary $494,000
• Edmonton $398,000

Once you are out of the overpopulated regions of Southern Ontario and Coastal BC, prices fall to half or less of the two top cities, and prices in Edmonton are not more than 1/3 the price of houses in Vancouver. Once you get out of the million+ cities, prices fall even farther. Winnipeg is only $369,000 and smaller cities like Regina, Saskatoon, and Halifax are even lower.

We just need immigrants to move to less congested parts of the country, of which we have lots. Most of this country is nearly completely empty — we have fewer people than California in an area larger than the entire US, and 80% of the country’s farmland is in the less populated prairies. We could pass laws forcing immigrants to go there and take housing pressure off the most highly congested cities which are attracting them now. They would just have to put up with somewhat colder weather than Vancouver or Toronto.

Maybe we could make “cold tolerance” one of the criteria of the immigration points system. Send them to Winnipeg and give them all down parkas, toques, and mukluks. They can get used to the weather and they’ll blend right in.

Winter in Winnipeg. Calgary and Edmonton are much warmer than this.

New cold tolerance test for immigrants

These are actually researchers acclimatizing to the cold in Antarctica, but you get the general concept.

David Moe