Joe Biden: Day One!

 

What reasons would a Canadian have NOT to move to the USA?

 Allan:

I grew up in the US, but have lived the majority of my adult life in Canada. I would never move back to live. Why?

• Health Care. This is a biggie. I was unexpectedly hospitalized a few years ago. I was joking around with one of my nurses when I was close to being discharged and she told me if I still lived in the US, I would have hit my lifetime million dollar mark on most insurance plans - no more coverage for me! Plus my reconstructive surgeries most likely wouldn’t have been covered. Nor the drugs I needed there and when I left the hospital. I have no interest in sudden bankruptcy over an unexpected illness. You don’t pay deductibles. You don’t pay overages or for things your doctor things you need that a bureaucrat in an insurance office doesn’t agree with. You pay less per capita for everyone here to have insurance than people in the US pay on their taxes just to take care of people on Medicare and Medicaid.
• Freedom. Yep, I feel freer here in Canada. I’m not afraid of people with guns. I’m not afraid of being mugged walking down the street (Granted, I grew up in Chicago which is a more dangerous part of the US). I’ve never had terrible stuff shouted at me while walking down the street, either because of being a female human or being overweight (both of which happened to me often in the US).
• Bootstrapping. This is what I call the attitude in the US of everyone wanting to look out for their own interests instead of one another. Welfare? Equally funded schools? And going back to my first point, health care for everyone? Those are second nature here. People don’t think their neighbors are worth less than them just because they have less money, a different religion or culture, or immigrated from elsewhere.
• Worker’s Rights. You get paid vacation here. You get paid maternity leave here. You get paid sick days here. It doesn’t depend on your employer. You just get it. Worker’s rights are taken much more seriously here than in the US. You don’t have to fight your employer or the government, because you know you’re being looked after. Retail worker being asked to work on a stat holiday? (Oh yeah, those don’t exist in the US either!) You get extra pay! Because here, people look out for each other.
• Prejudice. There’s still prejudice in Canada - don’t get me wrong - especially against our First Nations people. But there is significantly less of it here, and in general, it is expressed with less hatred and violence.
• Crime. Surely you’ve seen the viral story
   about the grocery store in Canada that was accidentally left unlocked on a holiday weekend and nothing was stolen.
• RCMP. They’re really nice. So are city police services. And I’m not just saying that because I have a boatload of white privilege (though I do, and acknowledge that!). I’ve been able to observe them in action with my friends of colour here and in the states and the difference is definitely remarkable.
• Politeness. This is such a cliche, but you know, cliches often have a basis in reality! People are just nicer - kinder - to one another here. I spent some time living in the US south where people are polite on the surface, but there’s an amazing amount of simmering rage beneath. Here, people are polite on the surface, and there’s an amazing amount of simmering kindness underneath. I once spent several minutes at the grocery store saying “You go ahead. No you go ahead” over the small single cart ramp off the curb when a lady was trying to go up to return her cart to the store while I was trying to go down to get to my car with my groceries. We both ended up laughing over it, exchanging names, discovering we had a mutual friend… that’s how things go here.

Katie Kenig