Ask any Canadian right now if they are proud of the direction of their country, I suspect if they could allow themselves to be honest and resist the automatic self-censoring we all engage in, it would be an emphatic no. The Trudeau Liberals have bankrupted and divided the country full stop. This disillusionment is turning into a slow seething anger that is uncharacteristic of the Canadian psyche. Truss do not look to Canada unless the Liberals are defeated. I fear for my children’s future in what is becoming a dystopian, woke, authoritarian nightmare under Trudeau.
You don’t have a clue what it means to live in an authoritarian country. Saying that the current Canadian gov is a dystopian dictatorship is a slap in the face to the millions of immigrants that have moved to Canada looking for a better life
They read the predominantly right-wing press and get brainwashed by the bullshit. There’s alot of ignorance out there, but because of Con ideology ther’s also an unwillingness to recognize the great things that are going on. The economy is doing better than many other similar countries, the political system is still sound. But the same forces that prop up Trump are infiltrating and making alot of noise — they’re far from a majority.
“Predominantly right wing”? I’m a Canadian and I assure you that nearly every media outlet in Canada is mindlessly left-wing. One of Trudeau’s many Soviet-style shockers has been to actually subsidize media that support his agenda. My country is a nightmare, headed for (as Aeurback says, above) a self-inflicted disaster.
Straw man logical fallacy – people are comparing Canada with other, comparable, liberal democracies to which, right now, it compares unfavourably on issues like constitutional vandalism and authoritarianism. Shockingly so to those of us who hitherto held Canada up as an exemplar of moderate, sober, good government.
… but if Syria is your go-to point of comparison (which you’ll note no one else mentioned), then go you!
Compared to the civilised, cohesive, developed, stable, politically mature, prosperous country is should be. Jesus! You are happy to give the disgusting, narcissistic blow-dried Maoist nepotist Turdeau marks for Canada – Canada! – not yet being in as bad a state as Pakistan or Syria or Venezuela? You are one sick puppy.
Well, give him another five years: he’s getting there fast.
Ni La if this helps you sleep at night, please believe the comment you wrote. Please list for us all the great things you are witnessing? This is not about Trump. I’m so sick of hearing that man’s name but it is all the Left has now. If your policies are working for the majority of citizens Trump is a non-Entity. But if you are failing spectacularly then he’s a great scapegoat.
The Conservative Party in Canada has won the popular vote in the last two elections. So we are – in fact – the majority. Our press is not predominantly right wing – it is the opposite – with the CBC and it’s $2B in funding promoting every progressive cause.
“They read the predominantly right-wing press and get brainwashed by the bullshit”
Really? Right wing? I suggest that you are using the term right wing as a childish term of abuse, devoid of real meaning.
She used the word “becoming” – so as to indicate the direction of travel. And the signs of creeping authoritarianism in Canada are all around us. If ‘the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’ then all of these things must be called out and resisted. Not doing so would be the ‘slap in the face’ to those who came here for a better life.
Sorry you are using this as a badge of honour? Really? I guess if you had lived in an authoritarian country like people I met at the Freedom Convoy you would be anxious like they were to warn those of us born in Canada about the signs of what is to come if we do not stand up now.
Javier having lived in the Middle East for over a decade I have every clue. I’m glad you’ve moved here but if you think Canada is moving in the right direction you are sorely mistaken. Government accountability is a myth under the current Liberal leadership. A Prime Minister who actively divides the country to pit its citizens against each other is an unskilled and dangerous person. There is much to be said here and I am glad you have found a better life but don’t count on your standard of living improving or your children’s futures being assured.
Gays getting beheaded; politicians too, or disappeared. If you lived in the Middle East for 10 years and think Canada is an authoritarian dictatorship, then it’s time for you to get your tinfoil hat.
Ian is there something about the word becoming that is hard to understand? I’d be the first person to be critical of the inner workings of that whole region. Government control of media and censorship are the pillars of their control. Silencing, jailing, and maligning their political opposition is another pillar. You don’t think this going on to a lesser degree in Canada? Its a matter of degree. I’m not in the practice of insulting commenters on here and I prefer to elicit honest feedback. Do you you think our government should be in the business of providing 2 billion dollars a year to the CBC? How does this provide an impartial media landscape? Do you think our government should be in control of what you see on the internet, the paper or on TV? Do you think that we should allow these elected people to legislate freedom of thought? If you do, I’d love to know why? If you are ok with this are you just as ok with this when the political opposition is in power and using these same levers?
Perhaps it’s a matter particularly close to your heart – but there’s a lot more avenues to dictatorship than chopping the heads off homosexuals and a lot more to democracy, freedom and the rule of law than going to the other extreme. Canada is now a country where you can be jailed for ‘misgendering’ someone. If a man in a wig says he’s a woman and you don’t agree, well, that’s now a crime. Jesus…
Ignore the downvotes. You’re right, the bulk of Unherds readership has no clue what authoritarianism is like to live under. They like to pontificate on here with their extreme views of how awful their first world life is, like everybody else in the west currently does on social media. Well called out!
That’s a terrible comment to make and really doesn’t add anything to the discourse here. Ian what is your experience with government structures and other systems of government on this planet? There are danger signs all around that Western Liberal democracies are moving in authoritarian directions and using catastrophe to further agendas that aren’t benefitting the broader populace.
On the one hand Ian tells us to shut up when our mouth is full; and on the other he wants to persuade us not to worry: one can get accustomed to anything. Thank you Ian!
There is often a problem of people over-dramatising on here. There may be aspects of modern Canada which veer towards undemocratic actions, and these should be resisted, but to talk about a dystopian, authoritarian nightmare is over the top, as those who have really lived under such rule can attest. Given Canada or Afghanistan or Venezuela I know where I would choose to live.
If Covid taught us anything it is that keeping your freedom requires constant vigilance. Trudeau has shown that one man can pervert an entire party and undermine 150 years of progress in a few short years.
This is 2022 not 1985– wake up. Uh huh– it is all comparative. No we aren’t being killed physically but we are having our businesses shut down, arrested if we protest , have our bank accounts frozen, have political prisoners– just like maybe your country did before the killing/war/poverty started. Wake up.
Would you like a reality check? Perhaps we can peruse the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to see if our freedom is holding up. As one example, every citizen in Canada has the constitutional right to enter, leave and remain in Canada and the right to pursue a living in any part of Canada. So what happened when governments imposed travel bans (including some checkpoints at provincial borders) and then vaccine mandates? Nothing. No court held up the Charter and said the governments had broken the law. You can do the same analysis under multiple headings of rights and freedoms. We have established from a legal perspective (and yes I am a Canadian lawyer) that the constitutional rights we put on paper can be ignored by simply declaring some kind of ‘emergency’. Canadian courts cowered before the government/media onslaught. And so there are emergencies everywhere you look now. Lots of people are just fine with that because they agree with the result – but the problem with dismantling your entire legal framework of protection is that once its gone, its gone. And when they come for a freedom you really do care about, it will be too late.
The courts have been supine during Covid – and they are so pathetically slow that whatever they decide won’t manner anyway. Constitutional issues should be fast tracked and heard immediately.
Mary H. has a great article up about how we are losing the capacity for thinking through issues as “deep reading” of the print age is replaced with “continuous partial attention” of the digital age. You should read it. Deeply.
Master Roper: Now you give the Devil benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes, what would you do? Cut a road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: Yes. I'd cut down every law in England to do that.
More: And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted with laws from coast to coast...
Roper: ...Man'slaws, not God’s.
More: And if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the wind that would blow then? Yes. I give the Devil benefit of law for my own safety's sake.
Your characterization here is unfair I would suggest that posters on here are passionate because they see exactly how lucky we are and how quickly and easily it can be damaged. The freedom we have enjoyed is not a given nor is it the norm historically and geographically. I am grateful every day for my birth country but I struggle with a government that is more interested in ideology than what benefits the broadest swathe of its citizens. I have never seen a more inept and ineffectual government whilst at the same time so insanely sanctimonious about their non-record.
Ni La writes «You live in..». Implicite: she live elsewhere: what does she know?!.. But «Reality» is on NL side 🙂 and Canadians surely are crying «Wolf!»
CANADA HAS FALLEN: The once-free nation is now under UN occupation and globalist control, with no mechanism remaining for peaceful return to democracy. The USA will be next…soon!!!
A friend in Calgary calls him Zippy the Wonder Sock because his political intellect doesn’t extend much further than his choice of colourful hosiery.
… he also calls him an entitled, trust fund princeling, born with a silver shovel in his mouth and grifting on his daddy’s reputation. Say what you like about Papa Pierre, but he was a serious intellectual and a formidable politician, whether one agreed with him or not.
Justin not yet on par; but coming!
At this stage we need a survey to rank the actual most disgraceful leader in the Western Alliance: Biden, Trudeau, Macron, Johnson, Schultz, ….
So there were no truckers from ONT and QUÉ; and the Province of BC opposed Trudeau. What is this agenda?
R Wright
1 year ago
Canada is a country which uses bank account freezes against its own citizens. It should be considered a model only for countries like Myanmar or Saudi Arabia.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Canada is a country that shines brightly as the finest global example, outside Africa of dismal economic, financial, industrial and cultural failure despite the advantages of having the world’s biggest economy next door, large natural resources on tap, and a massive agricultural sector… socio anthropologists might just see an interesting parallel with Northern Ireland?!!!
NI costs the UK (English) Taxpayer about £10 billion per annum, considerably more than even greedy Scotland!
Does anyone subsidise Canada on such a scale?
I would have said that title belongs to Argentina, but Canada is making up for lost time.
Aaron James
1 year ago
UK’s problems are 100% the fault of Boris and his minions.
The covid response Disaster, and Boris was the leader of that. He began with the herd immunity thing, the only sane policy, and then lost his nerve. It is comparable to Churchill surrendering to the Germans before the Battle of Britain.
The Insane War in Ukraine – not British Business – if Boris (and his compatriot Biden) had kept out it would have left Ukraine intact, (but held by Russia, for some years – but jobs to go to, schools still functioning, farms and mines working), and no Global energy mess – which is going to kill UK.
The Green Deal. Boris fallowed the Thurnberg child like the youth of Europe during the ‘Children’s Crusade’ where they all fallowed a charismatic child with visions of how to save the world and marched to retake Jerusalem. All of them were sold into slavery before touching North Africa. This is where Boris led Britain by fallowing Thurmberg on the Carbon Crusade. Energy and fiscal Poverty.
Truss says these were the things she admired about Boris….. You all are Doomed.
Absolutely correct, sadly.
Boris & Co are ‘guilty as charged’ as you say, but given his mercurial nature there is still hope. After all his ‘hero’ Churchill was infamous for ‘changing direction’ was he not?
I can’t follow the link to the 2018 instagram post but “pioneer spirit” suggests to me that Truss’s experiences were not in the woke and left wing urban areas that all straddle the US border (and where the vast majority of the population live). There’s another Canada – its the second largest country in the world by land mass after all – that most of its own population aren’t even familiar with. The northern towns and rural communities where all of our commodities are mined or harvested. Much more in common with US flyover states / red states, culturally and politically.
That’s a really good point. However it looks like the Canada she is referring to being in is a suburb of Vancouver, which (correct me if I’m wrong) I would imagine follows along with the other big cities ideologically.
Even in an area much smaller like Wisconsin where I live, it feels like an entirely different country in the farmland as opposed to something like Milwaukee or Madison. I used to work in a big city, and though my coworkers were all in the same profession as me and around the same age, I did not share almost anything in common with them. Now I’m in a more rural area, and I have a far better connection with my coworkers who are all in different jobs and sometimes decades apart in age. Strange how that works.
Once you leave Vancouver the character and views of the people change radically. BC is not progressive – just Vancouver and the lower half of Vancouver Island. Unfortunately that is enough to win a government. Like the rest of the Pacific Northwest you have two opposing cultures here – the cities and everyone else.
Indeed. It was either in the Vancouver or Victoria areas where grateful, Branch-Covidian woke dupes actually substituted one of the three wise men with a statue of St. Bonnie Henry in a Christmas nativity scene in Christmas 2020.
Last edited 1 year ago by Derek Bryce
Carol Jones
1 year ago
Good article. Couple of points. First John Charest is a political opportunist. He was a Liberal Premier of Quebec and then switched to the Conservatives when his career took a nose dive. He is a journeyman politician. He had been out of politics for many many years until Soros etc. bankrolled him to make a bid for the Tory leadership. He is deeply involved (as is half of the Federal govt ministers) with the WEF. He is seen as a Trojan horse in Tory circles.
As a former federal and provincial economist who worked on the Equalization Payments through both Finance Ministries, someone needs to tell Ms. Truss that they are not any kind of panacea. They are easily manipulated– politically through the federal changes to their “formulas”. They are always a bone of contention amongst provinces (she got more than me etc.) they encourage genuflecting to the very centralized federal govt. Note that much of the supporting govt legislation to these “equalization” programs rig the limits to which they can be revenue equalizing.
Its also impt to note that given the Division of Powers in Canada the cards are stacked against anyone but the federal govt for using power, money and influence to move any kind of real policy change forward.
That translates into the municipal/local level of govt is literally aa subject of the Provincial govt and can be changed re jigged anytime they want. Note Doug Ford did to the City of Toronto 6? years ago. That applies to the Provincial Level (Ontario) as well– mainly through funding. Yes Provinces control Health but when the feds collect most of the revenues in Canada, they get to decide how to distribute them. I learned this very well being on the Constitutional Division of Powers (Constitutional Challenge) group during the Bob Rae years. My eyes were opened.
Also note how old we are 155 years old. Babies. We need to grow up.
Speaking of Doug Ford: full respect to him for the bee incident. He handled that well.
Last edited 1 year ago by Derek Bryce
Dominic S
1 year ago
Canada has changed dramatically from what it was, even as recently as 2018.
S Stlrose
1 year ago
Regarding energy: yes, use your nat gas and your oil but use them as you transition to nuclear. Wind and solar are a fools game, environmentally problematic, require fossil fuel back up, need lots of land and will always be expensive. Nuclear is clean, constant and can be cost competitive without subsidy.
Bernardo 0
1 year ago
Eventually the progressive policies move from push to shove, as we saw with the Canadian trucker protests this past winter. The climate policies will result in higher energy bills in the UK and perhaps even in resource rich Canada. If a large number of people turn out to protest, these governments will then make a call on how to respond. Watch as these protests are against the current in vogue culture and may not be tolerated, as say a protest against “racism.”
Ian Stewart
1 year ago
You exploited the mass stabbing in Saskatchewan as part of your social diagnosis of Canada. Wow – a nice piece of cynical opportunism, since it’s totally irrelevant to your piece.
Occasional mass murderers, unless they are political terrorists, are not symptomatic of anything. Rather distasteful that you used this really.
There are many details needed to make an informed assessment, but preliminary information suggests that this mass stabbing was symptomatic of larger issues in the Canadian criminal justice system. Why was a multi-recidivist, with a long history of violent crimes, running free on indigenous lands? The likely answer is the Supreme Court of Canada decision of R v Gladue (1999).
This comment’s end with a perfectly good solution to the UK dilemma. But I’d prefer it if you read my thoughts on this article.
I read the comments and have to remind myself that this is primarily conservative media. It attracts conservatives. You just have to look at the photo at the start of the article and wonder, what? If conservative, you laugh. If not, you wonder. There’s no connection between the photo and the article. And that, my friend, is a glaring red flag.
Another interesting observation in the comments is hate. Now, you may wonder where all this hate noise has to do with the article. But there it is. Namecalling, blaming and hate. Conservatives have been in power before. Why, then, is Canada still in need of improvement? Word to the wise, it takes two to hate. This hate buys you nothing at all. And again, another red flag.
On energy, do you know what a molten salt nuclear reactor is? The article doesn’t seem to know. It is one of the safest sources of electricity using nuclear power and solves the “what to do with the upgraded fuel” problem. I’ll provide a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor Burning carbon fuels contributes to global warming.
While in the Wiki link, read the part about Canada as well. You may also google about Canada’s prototype that is almost completed at the Chalk River nuclear research facility a few clicks from Ottawa on the Ottawa river. When this is completed, the provinces will start building their own. Nothing is holding the UK back from using Canadian technology too. It sounds like good news, yet the article left it out. Red Flag.
Has anyone heard of the Keystone Pipeline? It’s a pipeline transporting crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to the American southern port close to New Orleans. It started with one American administration, stopped by the next, restarted with Trump and stopped again by Biden. Canada is the largest source of oil for Americans using old worn-out pipes. Well, there’s some logic in there, somewhere. Was it in Canada’s control? No. So it wasn’t mentioned. Red Flag.
Freedom can be quantified. Did you know that? You can quantify freedom per nation and see where everyone fits in. Where do you think The United States of America sits? First place? 5th? Possibly 15th? Where does Canada sit? The UK? or Australia? Freedom House, an organization started by Eleanor Roosevelt and others in the 1940s, does just that. You may google the organization for verification. This links to the list of countries, starting with those with the most freedom. https://tinyurl.com/y798kheh At the time of this writing, three countries are tied for first place, one in second and Canada in third. The United States is in the 62nd slot. The UK is in the 25th slot. So this achievement for Canada is a fluke? It’s true that Canada has issues. All countries have issues. The Americans have real issues. Yet Canada’s governing placed it in third place. It’s telling. Red Flag.
I can go on. Critical thinking is most important. Critical thinking will question what is presented. Canada fought and spilled blood for her independence, freedom, and form of government. From the Battle of Quebec in 1774 to the War of 1812. And the arch-enemy was the United States. After the American Civil War and Lincoln’s threats to invade, Canada was officially born in 1867. America even had plans to attack the UK and Canada. War Plan Red in the 1930s. Google it. Living next to this country can be challenging. Canada’s history, challenges and barriers differ from the UK’s. It is a logical fallacy to equate Canada’s development to the UK’s for the purpose of attacking the new Prime Minister.
On the other hand, there is a perfectly logical solution. A unification of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. The new alliance would be called CANZUK. More information on the soft sell is here. https://www.canzukinternational.com
It’s time to think outside the box.
Andrew Wise
1 year ago
Is your whole argument built on “an Instagram post from 2018” compared to a 5 minute speech outside No 10 last night?
Try a little harder please… that’s very thin gruel
I don’t think that’s fair to say. The point of the article is both nations have similar issues to tackle and she should not follow the Trudeau government’s game plan.
Yeah I thought that too. A writer exploiting one little message of no great consequence on which to base an article.
Ken Baker
1 year ago
If you want to find inspiration from the current Canadian gov’t I suggest you watch closely what Justin Trudeau does. Then do the opposite…
Peter Barker
1 year ago
“Leaving aside the broader debate as to whether the dangers of man-made climate change have been confounded with natural weather and climate variability, …” That should be easy! There is isn’t one.
SIMON WOLF
1 year ago
Do not know how anyone claim as this article does that Britains problems are not self inflicted :Net Zero ,unthought out Brexit strategy,extreme Covid Lockdown,getting rid of 20000 police officers .HS2,etc
Marcel Ste-MARIE
1 year ago
ok!
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
NO!!! please, not the west’s single largest most inert economic failure! Even Africa cannot match Canada’s achievement of, despite being the neighbour of the world’s largest and richest market, with flowing natural resources, and massive agricultural resources, home to no leading business, industry or corporation? No great invention, academe, art modern or old, music?… anything?…
The socio anthropological links to Northern Ireland are not just co-incidence?…
What rubbish. Canada has its problems but they are minor and solvable. Crime rates low, unemployment low, health care ok, centre-left government with plans for universal day care, etc. Right-wingers want to install a loonie who wants to install Bitcoin. Look at liveable cities rankings: Canadian cities among the top ten. Canadian students smartest in the world. And so on.
Really? do you live here? Crime rates are rising, unemployment is way up(which measure the real one or the one that has just had its definition of employment rejigged once again). Health care is NOT ok- read any current paper here– Ford (Ont) is trying again to fix the year long waits once again. BTW Cdn cities are NOT among the top ten. People are leaving Toronto, people are moving out of the country. Yes you are right what rubbish (your comments) indeed.
Carol, I am Canadian and I’ve lived the past 33 years in the United States. I have a home in Gatineau, Quebec and I’m there now.
Walter’s description is quite accurate. Compared to the United States, Canada’s crime rate is low. The UK doesn’t have a country as large and as imposing as the US. So it is remarkable that Canada doesn’t follow that trend. The killing last week is an example. American news made a point to mention that it is rare in Canada, no guns were used, and the remaining suspect was caught alive.
Unemployment can be an issue. However, you can gauge it by the unemployment checks going out per region, such as cities, and use the US as a benchmark. Here, Canada is about on the same footing as the US.
No system is perfect. The difference is what actions are taken to recognise the shortcomings and what is being done to fix them. First, all countries are showing stress, especially the United States. Canada is well aware, by provinces, that there are issues/provinces. The Americans do not. And no state governor mentions anything about their health care. And each province has sent representatives to Nova Scotia to discuss them and to work out solutions. The pandemic has been very stressful. The US comes nowhere close to this recognition and solving policy, and costs are skyrocketing. In one city, American nurses, went on strike to bring the urgency to the public’s attention. I had a hard time finding primary care doctors in Boston and Orlando under my insurance plan.
Canadian cities are among the top ten. Google this, “Best cities to live in.” You get this. Here’s the rest of the top 10 best places to live
Zurich, Switzerland.
Calgary, Canada.
Vancouver, Canada.
Geneva, Switzerland.
Frankfurt, Germany.
Toronto, Canada.
Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Osaka, Japan and Melbourne, Australia (tie)
There has always been a “brain drain” to the States because of Canada’s proximity to the US. Americans love to hire Canadians because they are identical. However, this past year has seen a major increase in American permanent residence applications to Canada. Seems the once happy place in the States is no more. I’m one of them.
I agree about Poilievre, who thinks libertarianism (not conservatism) is the answer to everything. Mistaking the two has been a huge error, unthinking liberalism (but not liberal thought!)is what is damaging both the left and right. But things in Canada are not so great as you think, there is still some social trust which is good, but there is also a kind of passivity which is not, and a lot of that infrastructure, like health and education, are in a bad way.
I love how everyone calls Polievre a radical – but a Prime Minister who is systematically destroying our most valuable industry – and now is attacking farming – is never discussed in the press using those terms. I genuinely think Canada needs to split into two countries.
Trudeau is awful, but it’s difficult to think of him as a radical, he’s just so mundane. He reminds me of every Upper Canadian private school boy I’ve ever met (notwithstanding he’s from Quebec.)
I’m not sure I’d call Polievre a radical either, more like a monomaniac.
Canadian students the smartest? Certainly not most of the indifferent to downright incompetent Canadian exchange students I’ve taught at the university in the UK where I work. Quite embarrassing given I am a product of the Canadian HE system which, back in the day anyway, was first class. I always have such high hopes of them. Maybe just a couple of bad batches.
I think you have misunderstood what Walter has said. The population is the most educated in the world. Which, by definition, would increase the odds that that young Canadian person is smarter than that American person. Googled this…. “Most educated country in the world.” Here’s one result, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-educated-countries
In that link, you will find this. The Top 10 Most-Educated Countries (OECD 2018)
You will find others that are similar.
In your limited experience, you made the error of extrapolating your limited sampling to represent the entire country. I would fail you in my statistics class. I used to teach nuclear power plant failure analysis in the United States.
Walter quite clearly wrote, ‘Canadian students smartest in the world’ not ‘Canada is the most educated country in the world’. I responded to the former.
Oh, and on your remark that Healthcare is ‘OK’. Yeah, for some … just. My mother in the Okanagan is lucky to even have a GP so short in supply are they. Many of her elderly neighbours are not so fortunate and there’s a lot of retirees in her part of the country. By the way, my mother’s partner died in the early stages of the lockdowns, not from Covid but from brain cancer left undiagnosed, then misdiagnosed because his GP refused to see him in person (just following govt lockdown advice and ‘the science!’) until it was too late. I wonder if he thought the health care system in BC, to which he contributed his whole working life, was ‘OK’. BC’s public ‘health’ sociopath in chief, Dr Bonnie ‘Gloryhole’ Henry, has a lot to answer for.
Same situation in Nova Scotia…..approximately 70,000 without a GP, shortage of doctors ,nurses technicians etc. Waiting lists for hospital appointments as long as your arm; I could go on but I’m actually boring myself to death writing about it all.
Yep and exactly the same in the U.K. where I live. I’m very proud to be a Canadian citizen but the idea that Canada is the land of milk and honey in every respect jumped the shark years ago. Doesn’t make it a terrible place – in many respects it’s still wonderful – but it’s a country with problems, like so many others.
A woman friend of ours had to come too Cape Town for an urgent knee replacement. The earliest appointment she could get in Canada was 18 months. As soon as the Covid restrictions were slightly lifted she fled back to darkest Africa for a very successful operation.
Unfortunately many of our finest doctors are also about to leave due to the insane policies of the ANC regime.
The want to nationalize private health services and incorporate them into the disastrous National Health Service.
Complete bollox. You need to do some major revision mate.
Ni La
1 year ago
What an absolute load of rubbish. If you think the stabbings were somehow “symptomatic” of the general social conditions here, what you know about Canada could fit into the tip of Botstein’s baton. No one has any need for a mouthpiece spouting unhelpful and distorted perceptions of Canada for an American audience who might sensibly be jealous of our way of living here. Read more; you sound like David Brooks after he’s had one of his ‘enlightening’ chats with an Alberta cabdriver on the way to the airport back to NY.
Why assume the article is for an American audience when the author is clearly concerned with the new British PM?
The article itself may be a little confused, in that the author seems to be saying that Liz Truss might consider adopting (or adapting) some Canadian policies in the fields of energy, materials and regional distribution of wealth whilst starting with the premise that she’s got a naive view of Canada. I’m pretty sure Truss will have learned a thing or two during the years she’s spent in senior government positions, following her earlier work in the energy field with Shell.
We all may have had transformative ecperiences in our youth – it’s to be hoped so! – but hardly need advising after further decades of experience with regard to their current relevance.
The regrettable Canadian chip on shoulder about the US and any and all international criticism rears it’s parochial head again. It really is one of the most tiresome but persistent features of a country which, in many other respects, has much to recommend it.
Were you really unaware that this site is produced in the UK and that this piece concerned the new British PM?
At least you may comfort yourself that someone (anyone!) outside Canada has noticed that it exists – as defining a feature of that country’s citizenry* as their is.
You call it a chip; I call it calling out bollocks. I didn’t address his notions about Truss, I was talking about the bizarre way he’s characterizing Canada based on the stabbings. He cites Polievre as if he’s got some kind of serious party when they are the lunatic fringe minority. Canada is democratic and largely gun-free. Saying we have an inferiority complex is decades out of date. I don’t need to ‘comfort myself’ — we have health care and so much more to do that. And it’s hardly ‘parochial’ to know our quality of life outstrips the US by a mile, the whole world regularly recognizes that fact. But yeah, knock yourself out if you need to denigrate Canada, they’re doing it all over the west; it’s a knee-jerk reaction.
It has the closest place I’ve seen to paradise: the Okanagan Valley where I am right now. It has the acerbic journalism of the mighty Rex Murphy and the wisdom of Jordan Peterson. Oh, and Montreal bagels, Newfie cod tongues, Rush and Celine Dion (the woman’s a goddess – won’t hear a word said against her ).
Please tell me where this largely gun free Canada is. I live here and just this morning read an article that the Toronto police are very frustrated about the increasing guns being smuggled over the US border. You are SO out of date that you must be a troll. BTW the Tory party here is the oldest political party in Canada. And as you know (as a Canadian which I suspect you are not) it is our founding Prime Ministers Party. Troll.
Quality of life in Canada pretty much mirrors that of the rest of the western world and with most of the same problems, e.g. unaffordable housing for young people, supply chain problems, inflation, a disconnected political class and unaccountable woke bureaucracy. Parochial Canadians like you really need to grow up and get over yourselves. We are not exceptional.
It is irritating especially when one considers that Canada can hold its head high amongst its international peers in almost every respect other than (for too many of its citizens) self-awareness and the ability to accept legitimate outside criticism with grace and maturity.
Ni La — seriously? Who is paying you to write these lies. Ah yes pulling out the old anti-American thing. SO 1980s– wake up globalist. Smug self satisfied– wow
Ask any Canadian right now if they are proud of the direction of their country, I suspect if they could allow themselves to be honest and resist the automatic self-censoring we all engage in, it would be an emphatic no. The Trudeau Liberals have bankrupted and divided the country full stop. This disillusionment is turning into a slow seething anger that is uncharacteristic of the Canadian psyche. Truss do not look to Canada unless the Liberals are defeated. I fear for my children’s future in what is becoming a dystopian, woke, authoritarian nightmare under Trudeau.
You don’t have a clue what it means to live in an authoritarian country. Saying that the current Canadian gov is a dystopian dictatorship is a slap in the face to the millions of immigrants that have moved to Canada looking for a better life
They read the predominantly right-wing press and get brainwashed by the bullshit. There’s alot of ignorance out there, but because of Con ideology ther’s also an unwillingness to recognize the great things that are going on. The economy is doing better than many other similar countries, the political system is still sound. But the same forces that prop up Trump are infiltrating and making alot of noise — they’re far from a majority.
“Predominantly right wing”? I’m a Canadian and I assure you that nearly every media outlet in Canada is mindlessly left-wing. One of Trudeau’s many Soviet-style shockers has been to actually subsidize media that support his agenda. My country is a nightmare, headed for (as Aeurback says, above) a self-inflicted disaster.
A disaster? Compared to what? Pakistan, Syria, Ukraine; maybe South Africa or Venezuela; or even Italy or Turkey?
You’ve got it good.
Straw man logical fallacy – people are comparing Canada with other, comparable, liberal democracies to which, right now, it compares unfavourably on issues like constitutional vandalism and authoritarianism. Shockingly so to those of us who hitherto held Canada up as an exemplar of moderate, sober, good government.
… but if Syria is your go-to point of comparison (which you’ll note no one else mentioned), then go you!
Yes! disastrous compared to countries worthy of the name; not compared to Hell-on-Earth.
Compared to the civilised, cohesive, developed, stable, politically mature, prosperous country is should be. Jesus! You are happy to give the disgusting, narcissistic blow-dried Maoist nepotist Turdeau marks for Canada – Canada! – not yet being in as bad a state as Pakistan or Syria or Venezuela? You are one sick puppy.
Well, give him another five years: he’s getting there fast.
Yes! we do have it good. For now. “Headed for” something else, as we squander our wealth and freedom.
The Canadian Conventional Press [CCP ] is entirely under Trudeau’s fist and financing: Period.
Ni La if this helps you sleep at night, please believe the comment you wrote. Please list for us all the great things you are witnessing? This is not about Trump. I’m so sick of hearing that man’s name but it is all the Left has now. If your policies are working for the majority of citizens Trump is a non-Entity. But if you are failing spectacularly then he’s a great scapegoat.
The Conservative Party in Canada has won the popular vote in the last two elections. So we are – in fact – the majority. Our press is not predominantly right wing – it is the opposite – with the CBC and it’s $2B in funding promoting every progressive cause.
“They read the predominantly right-wing press and get brainwashed by the bullshit”
Really? Right wing? I suggest that you are using the term right wing as a childish term of abuse, devoid of real meaning.
She used the word “becoming” – so as to indicate the direction of travel. And the signs of creeping authoritarianism in Canada are all around us. If ‘the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’ then all of these things must be called out and resisted. Not doing so would be the ‘slap in the face’ to those who came here for a better life.
Nicely stated and 100% true.
Sorry you are using this as a badge of honour? Really? I guess if you had lived in an authoritarian country like people I met at the Freedom Convoy you would be anxious like they were to warn those of us born in Canada about the signs of what is to come if we do not stand up now.
Javier having lived in the Middle East for over a decade I have every clue. I’m glad you’ve moved here but if you think Canada is moving in the right direction you are sorely mistaken. Government accountability is a myth under the current Liberal leadership. A Prime Minister who actively divides the country to pit its citizens against each other is an unskilled and dangerous person. There is much to be said here and I am glad you have found a better life but don’t count on your standard of living improving or your children’s futures being assured.
Gays getting beheaded; politicians too, or disappeared. If you lived in the Middle East for 10 years and think Canada is an authoritarian dictatorship, then it’s time for you to get your tinfoil hat.
Ian is there something about the word becoming that is hard to understand? I’d be the first person to be critical of the inner workings of that whole region. Government control of media and censorship are the pillars of their control. Silencing, jailing, and maligning their political opposition is another pillar. You don’t think this going on to a lesser degree in Canada? Its a matter of degree. I’m not in the practice of insulting commenters on here and I prefer to elicit honest feedback. Do you you think our government should be in the business of providing 2 billion dollars a year to the CBC? How does this provide an impartial media landscape? Do you think our government should be in control of what you see on the internet, the paper or on TV? Do you think that we should allow these elected people to legislate freedom of thought? If you do, I’d love to know why? If you are ok with this are you just as ok with this when the political opposition is in power and using these same levers?
Tyranny evolves like cancer: at start it is rather small, but….
Perhaps it’s a matter particularly close to your heart – but there’s a lot more avenues to dictatorship than chopping the heads off homosexuals and a lot more to democracy, freedom and the rule of law than going to the other extreme. Canada is now a country where you can be jailed for ‘misgendering’ someone. If a man in a wig says he’s a woman and you don’t agree, well, that’s now a crime. Jesus…
Ignore the downvotes. You’re right, the bulk of Unherds readership has no clue what authoritarianism is like to live under. They like to pontificate on here with their extreme views of how awful their first world life is, like everybody else in the west currently does on social media. Well called out!
That’s a terrible comment to make and really doesn’t add anything to the discourse here. Ian what is your experience with government structures and other systems of government on this planet? There are danger signs all around that Western Liberal democracies are moving in authoritarian directions and using catastrophe to further agendas that aren’t benefitting the broader populace.
On the one hand Ian tells us to shut up when our mouth is full; and on the other he wants to persuade us not to worry: one can get accustomed to anything. Thank you Ian!
There is often a problem of people over-dramatising on here. There may be aspects of modern Canada which veer towards undemocratic actions, and these should be resisted, but to talk about a dystopian, authoritarian nightmare is over the top, as those who have really lived under such rule can attest. Given Canada or Afghanistan or Venezuela I know where I would choose to live.
Given Canada, Sweden, Barbados, France what would you choose?
May be it is you JM that don’t what a free country ought to be ?….
You live in one of the freest countries on the planet. Reality check, please.
Not as free as it used to be sadly.
If Covid taught us anything it is that keeping your freedom requires constant vigilance. Trudeau has shown that one man can pervert an entire party and undermine 150 years of progress in a few short years.
This is 2022 not 1985– wake up. Uh huh– it is all comparative. No we aren’t being killed physically but we are having our businesses shut down, arrested if we protest , have our bank accounts frozen, have political prisoners– just like maybe your country did before the killing/war/poverty started. Wake up.
And those who seek to preach Christ are being hounded, as are those who seek to farm as they have done for decades.
Would you like a reality check? Perhaps we can peruse the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to see if our freedom is holding up. As one example, every citizen in Canada has the constitutional right to enter, leave and remain in Canada and the right to pursue a living in any part of Canada. So what happened when governments imposed travel bans (including some checkpoints at provincial borders) and then vaccine mandates? Nothing. No court held up the Charter and said the governments had broken the law. You can do the same analysis under multiple headings of rights and freedoms. We have established from a legal perspective (and yes I am a Canadian lawyer) that the constitutional rights we put on paper can be ignored by simply declaring some kind of ‘emergency’. Canadian courts cowered before the government/media onslaught. And so there are emergencies everywhere you look now. Lots of people are just fine with that because they agree with the result – but the problem with dismantling your entire legal framework of protection is that once its gone, its gone. And when they come for a freedom you really do care about, it will be too late.
Hear hear!!! Continue to fight the good fight
The courts have been supine during Covid – and they are so pathetically slow that whatever they decide won’t manner anyway. Constitutional issues should be fast tracked and heard immediately.
Oh my god you’re right! You’d better move out fast before it crashes to disaster!
Mary H. has a great article up about how we are losing the capacity for thinking through issues as “deep reading” of the print age is replaced with “continuous partial attention” of the digital age. You should read it. Deeply.
This is just an ad hominem remark.
They’d have nothing to come on here to whinge about if they realised how lucky they are Ni.
Your characterization here is unfair I would suggest that posters on here are passionate because they see exactly how lucky we are and how quickly and easily it can be damaged. The freedom we have enjoyed is not a given nor is it the norm historically and geographically. I am grateful every day for my birth country but I struggle with a government that is more interested in ideology than what benefits the broadest swathe of its citizens. I have never seen a more inept and ineffectual government whilst at the same time so insanely sanctimonious about their non-record.
He’s not trying to be fair or engage in intelligent discussion: he’s a troll.
Mr Stewart is not a troll, he is merely someone giving an opposing view point, which seems to be anathema to some on this site.
No, he’s just a snarky idiot.
That’s no «reply» to Ni La. Your a troll!:-)
Utter rubbish.
Ni La writes «You live in..». Implicite: she live elsewhere: what does she know?!.. But «Reality» is on NL side 🙂 and Canadians surely are crying «Wolf!»
CANADA HAS FALLEN: The once-free nation is now under UN occupation and globalist control, with no mechanism remaining for peaceful return to democracy. The USA will be next…soon!!!
«UN Occupation»:I love it! 🙂
Fascist Trudeau wasn’t the surprise, the support he got from the eastern provinces as he abused western truckers was the surprise.
ahh Trudeau… the only politician with 5 fathers…. Mick, Bill, Charlie….
A friend in Calgary calls him Zippy the Wonder Sock because his political intellect doesn’t extend much further than his choice of colourful hosiery.
… he also calls him an entitled, trust fund princeling, born with a silver shovel in his mouth and grifting on his daddy’s reputation. Say what you like about Papa Pierre, but he was a serious intellectual and a formidable politician, whether one agreed with him or not.
He’s a Castro. The evidence is overwhelming.
Disgraceful!!! As a Canadian, I am disgusted that you “forgot” to include Fidel in that august list. Do you hate hispanics, you vile bigot!?!!
Wow so Trudeau is on a par with Hitler and Mussolini?
Pretty much or haven’t you being paying attention!
Justin not yet on par; but coming!
At this stage we need a survey to rank the actual most disgraceful leader in the Western Alliance: Biden, Trudeau, Macron, Johnson, Schultz, ….
So there were no truckers from ONT and QUÉ; and the Province of BC opposed Trudeau. What is this agenda?
Canada is a country which uses bank account freezes against its own citizens. It should be considered a model only for countries like Myanmar or Saudi Arabia.
Canada is a country that shines brightly as the finest global example, outside Africa of dismal economic, financial, industrial and cultural failure despite the advantages of having the world’s biggest economy next door, large natural resources on tap, and a massive agricultural sector… socio anthropologists might just see an interesting parallel with Northern Ireland?!!!
NI costs the UK (English) Taxpayer about £10 billion per annum, considerably more than even greedy Scotland!
Does anyone subsidise Canada on such a scale?
The CCP keeps us afloat, that and the vertible treasure trove of natural resources we were fortunate enough to be born on top of.
How very fortunate, thank you.
I would have said that title belongs to Argentina, but Canada is making up for lost time.
UK’s problems are 100% the fault of Boris and his minions.
The covid response Disaster, and Boris was the leader of that. He began with the herd immunity thing, the only sane policy, and then lost his nerve. It is comparable to Churchill surrendering to the Germans before the Battle of Britain.
The Insane War in Ukraine – not British Business – if Boris (and his compatriot Biden) had kept out it would have left Ukraine intact, (but held by Russia, for some years – but jobs to go to, schools still functioning, farms and mines working), and no Global energy mess – which is going to kill UK.
The Green Deal. Boris fallowed the Thurnberg child like the youth of Europe during the ‘Children’s Crusade’ where they all fallowed a charismatic child with visions of how to save the world and marched to retake Jerusalem. All of them were sold into slavery before touching North Africa. This is where Boris led Britain by fallowing Thurmberg on the Carbon Crusade. Energy and fiscal Poverty.
Truss says these were the things she admired about Boris….. You all are Doomed.
Absolutely correct, sadly.
Boris & Co are ‘guilty as charged’ as you say, but given his mercurial nature there is still hope. After all his ‘hero’ Churchill was infamous for ‘changing direction’ was he not?
Did you play the part of a Scottish reservist in Dad’s Army?
Private Frazer?
I can’t follow the link to the 2018 instagram post but “pioneer spirit” suggests to me that Truss’s experiences were not in the woke and left wing urban areas that all straddle the US border (and where the vast majority of the population live). There’s another Canada – its the second largest country in the world by land mass after all – that most of its own population aren’t even familiar with. The northern towns and rural communities where all of our commodities are mined or harvested. Much more in common with US flyover states / red states, culturally and politically.
That’s a really good point. However it looks like the Canada she is referring to being in is a suburb of Vancouver, which (correct me if I’m wrong) I would imagine follows along with the other big cities ideologically.
Even in an area much smaller like Wisconsin where I live, it feels like an entirely different country in the farmland as opposed to something like Milwaukee or Madison. I used to work in a big city, and though my coworkers were all in the same profession as me and around the same age, I did not share almost anything in common with them. Now I’m in a more rural area, and I have a far better connection with my coworkers who are all in different jobs and sometimes decades apart in age. Strange how that works.
Once you leave Vancouver the character and views of the people change radically. BC is not progressive – just Vancouver and the lower half of Vancouver Island. Unfortunately that is enough to win a government. Like the rest of the Pacific Northwest you have two opposing cultures here – the cities and everyone else.
Good grief – “Pioneer spirit” in a suburb of Vancouver?! That’s Canada’s version Portland.
Indeed. It was either in the Vancouver or Victoria areas where grateful, Branch-Covidian woke dupes actually substituted one of the three wise men with a statue of St. Bonnie Henry in a Christmas nativity scene in Christmas 2020.
Good article. Couple of points. First John Charest is a political opportunist. He was a Liberal Premier of Quebec and then switched to the Conservatives when his career took a nose dive. He is a journeyman politician. He had been out of politics for many many years until Soros etc. bankrolled him to make a bid for the Tory leadership. He is deeply involved (as is half of the Federal govt ministers) with the WEF. He is seen as a Trojan horse in Tory circles.
As a former federal and provincial economist who worked on the Equalization Payments through both Finance Ministries, someone needs to tell Ms. Truss that they are not any kind of panacea. They are easily manipulated– politically through the federal changes to their “formulas”. They are always a bone of contention amongst provinces (she got more than me etc.) they encourage genuflecting to the very centralized federal govt. Note that much of the supporting govt legislation to these “equalization” programs rig the limits to which they can be revenue equalizing.
Its also impt to note that given the Division of Powers in Canada the cards are stacked against anyone but the federal govt for using power, money and influence to move any kind of real policy change forward.
That translates into the municipal/local level of govt is literally aa subject of the Provincial govt and can be changed re jigged anytime they want. Note Doug Ford did to the City of Toronto 6? years ago. That applies to the Provincial Level (Ontario) as well– mainly through funding. Yes Provinces control Health but when the feds collect most of the revenues in Canada, they get to decide how to distribute them. I learned this very well being on the Constitutional Division of Powers (Constitutional Challenge) group during the Bob Rae years. My eyes were opened.
Also note how old we are 155 years old. Babies. We need to grow up.
Speaking of Doug Ford: full respect to him for the bee incident. He handled that well.
Canada has changed dramatically from what it was, even as recently as 2018.
Regarding energy: yes, use your nat gas and your oil but use them as you transition to nuclear. Wind and solar are a fools game, environmentally problematic, require fossil fuel back up, need lots of land and will always be expensive. Nuclear is clean, constant and can be cost competitive without subsidy.
Eventually the progressive policies move from push to shove, as we saw with the Canadian trucker protests this past winter. The climate policies will result in higher energy bills in the UK and perhaps even in resource rich Canada. If a large number of people turn out to protest, these governments will then make a call on how to respond. Watch as these protests are against the current in vogue culture and may not be tolerated, as say a protest against “racism.”
You exploited the mass stabbing in Saskatchewan as part of your social diagnosis of Canada. Wow – a nice piece of cynical opportunism, since it’s totally irrelevant to your piece.
Occasional mass murderers, unless they are political terrorists, are not symptomatic of anything. Rather distasteful that you used this really.
There are many details needed to make an informed assessment, but preliminary information suggests that this mass stabbing was symptomatic of larger issues in the Canadian criminal justice system. Why was a multi-recidivist, with a long history of violent crimes, running free on indigenous lands? The likely answer is the Supreme Court of Canada decision of R v Gladue (1999).
Great scot for a Scot you are a real whiner!
This comment’s end with a perfectly good solution to the UK dilemma. But I’d prefer it if you read my thoughts on this article.
I read the comments and have to remind myself that this is primarily conservative media. It attracts conservatives. You just have to look at the photo at the start of the article and wonder, what? If conservative, you laugh. If not, you wonder. There’s no connection between the photo and the article. And that, my friend, is a glaring red flag.
Another interesting observation in the comments is hate. Now, you may wonder where all this hate noise has to do with the article. But there it is. Namecalling, blaming and hate. Conservatives have been in power before. Why, then, is Canada still in need of improvement? Word to the wise, it takes two to hate. This hate buys you nothing at all. And again, another red flag.
On energy, do you know what a molten salt nuclear reactor is? The article doesn’t seem to know. It is one of the safest sources of electricity using nuclear power and solves the “what to do with the upgraded fuel” problem. I’ll provide a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor Burning carbon fuels contributes to global warming.
While in the Wiki link, read the part about Canada as well. You may also google about Canada’s prototype that is almost completed at the Chalk River nuclear research facility a few clicks from Ottawa on the Ottawa river. When this is completed, the provinces will start building their own. Nothing is holding the UK back from using Canadian technology too. It sounds like good news, yet the article left it out. Red Flag.
Has anyone heard of the Keystone Pipeline? It’s a pipeline transporting crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to the American southern port close to New Orleans. It started with one American administration, stopped by the next, restarted with Trump and stopped again by Biden. Canada is the largest source of oil for Americans using old worn-out pipes. Well, there’s some logic in there, somewhere. Was it in Canada’s control? No. So it wasn’t mentioned. Red Flag.
Freedom can be quantified. Did you know that? You can quantify freedom per nation and see where everyone fits in. Where do you think The United States of America sits? First place? 5th? Possibly 15th? Where does Canada sit? The UK? or Australia? Freedom House, an organization started by Eleanor Roosevelt and others in the 1940s, does just that. You may google the organization for verification. This links to the list of countries, starting with those with the most freedom. https://tinyurl.com/y798kheh At the time of this writing, three countries are tied for first place, one in second and Canada in third. The United States is in the 62nd slot. The UK is in the 25th slot. So this achievement for Canada is a fluke? It’s true that Canada has issues. All countries have issues. The Americans have real issues. Yet Canada’s governing placed it in third place. It’s telling. Red Flag.
I can go on. Critical thinking is most important. Critical thinking will question what is presented. Canada fought and spilled blood for her independence, freedom, and form of government. From the Battle of Quebec in 1774 to the War of 1812. And the arch-enemy was the United States. After the American Civil War and Lincoln’s threats to invade, Canada was officially born in 1867. America even had plans to attack the UK and Canada. War Plan Red in the 1930s. Google it. Living next to this country can be challenging. Canada’s history, challenges and barriers differ from the UK’s. It is a logical fallacy to equate Canada’s development to the UK’s for the purpose of attacking the new Prime Minister.
On the other hand, there is a perfectly logical solution. A unification of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. The new alliance would be called CANZUK. More information on the soft sell is here. https://www.canzukinternational.com
It’s time to think outside the box.
Is your whole argument built on “an Instagram post from 2018” compared to a 5 minute speech outside No 10 last night?
Try a little harder please… that’s very thin gruel
I don’t think that’s fair to say. The point of the article is both nations have similar issues to tackle and she should not follow the Trudeau government’s game plan.
Yeah I thought that too. A writer exploiting one little message of no great consequence on which to base an article.
If you want to find inspiration from the current Canadian gov’t I suggest you watch closely what Justin Trudeau does. Then do the opposite…
“Leaving aside the broader debate as to whether the dangers of man-made climate change have been confounded with natural weather and climate variability, …” That should be easy! There is isn’t one.
Do not know how anyone claim as this article does that Britains problems are not self inflicted :Net Zero ,unthought out Brexit strategy,extreme Covid Lockdown,getting rid of 20000 police officers .HS2,etc
ok!
NO!!! please, not the west’s single largest most inert economic failure! Even Africa cannot match Canada’s achievement of, despite being the neighbour of the world’s largest and richest market, with flowing natural resources, and massive agricultural resources, home to no leading business, industry or corporation? No great invention, academe, art modern or old, music?… anything?…
The socio anthropological links to Northern Ireland are not just co-incidence?…
… But Canadian ladies are gorgeous.
What rubbish. Canada has its problems but they are minor and solvable. Crime rates low, unemployment low, health care ok, centre-left government with plans for universal day care, etc. Right-wingers want to install a loonie who wants to install Bitcoin. Look at liveable cities rankings: Canadian cities among the top ten. Canadian students smartest in the world. And so on.
Really? do you live here? Crime rates are rising, unemployment is way up(which measure the real one or the one that has just had its definition of employment rejigged once again). Health care is NOT ok- read any current paper here– Ford (Ont) is trying again to fix the year long waits once again. BTW Cdn cities are NOT among the top ten. People are leaving Toronto, people are moving out of the country. Yes you are right what rubbish (your comments) indeed.
Correct on every point madam.
Carol, I am Canadian and I’ve lived the past 33 years in the United States. I have a home in Gatineau, Quebec and I’m there now.
Walter’s description is quite accurate. Compared to the United States, Canada’s crime rate is low. The UK doesn’t have a country as large and as imposing as the US. So it is remarkable that Canada doesn’t follow that trend. The killing last week is an example. American news made a point to mention that it is rare in Canada, no guns were used, and the remaining suspect was caught alive.
Unemployment can be an issue. However, you can gauge it by the unemployment checks going out per region, such as cities, and use the US as a benchmark. Here, Canada is about on the same footing as the US.
No system is perfect. The difference is what actions are taken to recognise the shortcomings and what is being done to fix them. First, all countries are showing stress, especially the United States. Canada is well aware, by provinces, that there are issues/provinces. The Americans do not. And no state governor mentions anything about their health care. And each province has sent representatives to Nova Scotia to discuss them and to work out solutions. The pandemic has been very stressful. The US comes nowhere close to this recognition and solving policy, and costs are skyrocketing. In one city, American nurses, went on strike to bring the urgency to the public’s attention. I had a hard time finding primary care doctors in Boston and Orlando under my insurance plan.
Canadian cities are among the top ten. Google this, “Best cities to live in.” You get this.
Here’s the rest of the top 10 best places to live
There has always been a “brain drain” to the States because of Canada’s proximity to the US. Americans love to hire Canadians because they are identical. However, this past year has seen a major increase in American permanent residence applications to Canada. Seems the once happy place in the States is no more. I’m one of them.
Your country is being occupied by China.
I agree about Poilievre, who thinks libertarianism (not conservatism) is the answer to everything. Mistaking the two has been a huge error, unthinking liberalism (but not liberal thought!)is what is damaging both the left and right. But things in Canada are not so great as you think, there is still some social trust which is good, but there is also a kind of passivity which is not, and a lot of that infrastructure, like health and education, are in a bad way.
I love how everyone calls Polievre a radical – but a Prime Minister who is systematically destroying our most valuable industry – and now is attacking farming – is never discussed in the press using those terms. I genuinely think Canada needs to split into two countries.
Trudeau is awful, but it’s difficult to think of him as a radical, he’s just so mundane. He reminds me of every Upper Canadian private school boy I’ve ever met (notwithstanding he’s from Quebec.)
I’m not sure I’d call Polievre a radical either, more like a monomaniac.
Canadian students the smartest? Certainly not most of the indifferent to downright incompetent Canadian exchange students I’ve taught at the university in the UK where I work. Quite embarrassing given I am a product of the Canadian HE system which, back in the day anyway, was first class. I always have such high hopes of them. Maybe just a couple of bad batches.
I think you have misunderstood what Walter has said. The population is the most educated in the world. Which, by definition, would increase the odds that that young Canadian person is smarter than that American person. Googled this…. “Most educated country in the world.” Here’s one result, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-educated-countries
In that link, you will find this.
The Top 10 Most-Educated Countries (OECD 2018)
You will find others that are similar.
In your limited experience, you made the error of extrapolating your limited sampling to represent the entire country. I would fail you in my statistics class. I used to teach nuclear power plant failure analysis in the United States.
Walter quite clearly wrote, ‘Canadian students smartest in the world’ not ‘Canada is the most educated country in the world’. I responded to the former.
Students at Canadian universities are the same. “Most educated” doesn’t mean much when you have 4th year undergrads who can’t write a research paper.
Oh, and on your remark that Healthcare is ‘OK’. Yeah, for some … just. My mother in the Okanagan is lucky to even have a GP so short in supply are they. Many of her elderly neighbours are not so fortunate and there’s a lot of retirees in her part of the country. By the way, my mother’s partner died in the early stages of the lockdowns, not from Covid but from brain cancer left undiagnosed, then misdiagnosed because his GP refused to see him in person (just following govt lockdown advice and ‘the science!’) until it was too late. I wonder if he thought the health care system in BC, to which he contributed his whole working life, was ‘OK’. BC’s public ‘health’ sociopath in chief, Dr Bonnie ‘Gloryhole’ Henry, has a lot to answer for.
Same situation in Nova Scotia…..approximately 70,000 without a GP, shortage of doctors ,nurses technicians etc. Waiting lists for hospital appointments as long as your arm; I could go on but I’m actually boring myself to death writing about it all.
Yep and exactly the same in the U.K. where I live. I’m very proud to be a Canadian citizen but the idea that Canada is the land of milk and honey in every respect jumped the shark years ago. Doesn’t make it a terrible place – in many respects it’s still wonderful – but it’s a country with problems, like so many others.
A woman friend of ours had to come too Cape Town for an urgent knee replacement. The earliest appointment she could get in Canada was 18 months. As soon as the Covid restrictions were slightly lifted she fled back to darkest Africa for a very successful operation.
Unfortunately many of our finest doctors are also about to leave due to the insane policies of the ANC regime.
The want to nationalize private health services and incorporate them into the disastrous National Health Service.
Complete bollox. You need to do some major revision mate.
What an absolute load of rubbish. If you think the stabbings were somehow “symptomatic” of the general social conditions here, what you know about Canada could fit into the tip of Botstein’s baton. No one has any need for a mouthpiece spouting unhelpful and distorted perceptions of Canada for an American audience who might sensibly be jealous of our way of living here. Read more; you sound like David Brooks after he’s had one of his ‘enlightening’ chats with an Alberta cabdriver on the way to the airport back to NY.
I think you need to explain why this article is, in your opinion, rubbish. Note that I am not American and have no idea who David Brooks is.
Why assume the article is for an American audience when the author is clearly concerned with the new British PM?
The article itself may be a little confused, in that the author seems to be saying that Liz Truss might consider adopting (or adapting) some Canadian policies in the fields of energy, materials and regional distribution of wealth whilst starting with the premise that she’s got a naive view of Canada. I’m pretty sure Truss will have learned a thing or two during the years she’s spent in senior government positions, following her earlier work in the energy field with Shell.
We all may have had transformative ecperiences in our youth – it’s to be hoped so! – but hardly need advising after further decades of experience with regard to their current relevance.
The regrettable Canadian chip on shoulder about the US and any and all international criticism rears it’s parochial head again. It really is one of the most tiresome but persistent features of a country which, in many other respects, has much to recommend it.
Were you really unaware that this site is produced in the UK and that this piece concerned the new British PM?
At least you may comfort yourself that someone (anyone!) outside Canada has noticed that it exists – as defining a feature of that country’s citizenry* as their is.
*before you start, I’m one too.
You call it a chip; I call it calling out bollocks. I didn’t address his notions about Truss, I was talking about the bizarre way he’s characterizing Canada based on the stabbings. He cites Polievre as if he’s got some kind of serious party when they are the lunatic fringe minority. Canada is democratic and largely gun-free. Saying we have an inferiority complex is decades out of date. I don’t need to ‘comfort myself’ — we have health care and so much more to do that. And it’s hardly ‘parochial’ to know our quality of life outstrips the US by a mile, the whole world regularly recognizes that fact. But yeah, knock yourself out if you need to denigrate Canada, they’re doing it all over the west; it’s a knee-jerk reaction.
Canada does at least have gorgeous women, scenery…. err…. thats it..
Thank-you as a Canadian woman
It has the closest place I’ve seen to paradise: the Okanagan Valley where I am right now. It has the acerbic journalism of the mighty Rex Murphy and the wisdom of Jordan Peterson. Oh, and Montreal bagels, Newfie cod tongues, Rush and Celine Dion (the woman’s a goddess – won’t hear a word said against her ).
Please tell me where this largely gun free Canada is. I live here and just this morning read an article that the Toronto police are very frustrated about the increasing guns being smuggled over the US border. You are SO out of date that you must be a troll. BTW the Tory party here is the oldest political party in Canada. And as you know (as a Canadian which I suspect you are not) it is our founding Prime Ministers Party. Troll.
Quality of life in Canada pretty much mirrors that of the rest of the western world and with most of the same problems, e.g. unaffordable housing for young people, supply chain problems, inflation, a disconnected political class and unaccountable woke bureaucracy. Parochial Canadians like you really need to grow up and get over yourselves. We are not exceptional.
Derek, you have hit the nail on the head.
Nuff said!
Hear, hear!!! Thank you — from a Canadian who is SO tired of this knee jerk BS chip on the shoulder.
It is irritating especially when one considers that Canada can hold its head high amongst its international peers in almost every respect other than (for too many of its citizens) self-awareness and the ability to accept legitimate outside criticism with grace and maturity.
Ni La — seriously? Who is paying you to write these lies. Ah yes pulling out the old anti-American thing. SO 1980s– wake up globalist. Smug self satisfied– wow