The Canadian Comparison: Part 1

There’s an old joke: The definition of a Canadian is an unarmed American with health care.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Over the past few months I have been asked about Canada—about atheism, health care and gun control in particular. None of these issues can be addressed in isolation, so a comparison benchmark is required.

Americans, as the primary readers, understand America best, so America becomes the benchmark.

As we can see from Table 6, the Canada/US ratio is approximately ten-to-one for both population and GDP. The GDP per capita is approximately the same.

What this means is that, in general, anything that occurs in the U.S. should occur at about one tenth that rate in Canada or, occurring Canada, at about ten times the rate in the U.S. As a rule of thumb, this holds in many cases. It does not come close to holding in some areas, as we will see below.

There’s an old joke: The definition of a Canadian is an unarmed American with health care.

Everyone in Canada has health care coverage. No one in Canada has ever died because they lacked healthcare coverage. No Canadian has ever filed for bankruptcy or lost their home because of medical bills.

The Canadian health care system is imperfect. No one denies that. But no one would say that it is better than nothing. It is far more than nothing. The only people who want to take it apart are those who think they can make money from the system or, as supporters of the private market, believe that if it is a public good, someone should be making money from it.

The illogic of such privatizers makes me shake my head. Let us say, for the sake of argument, that the system costs $1 billion of taxpayer money. Then, let us privatize the system. The status quo still costs $1 billion, but for the private interests to make a profit one of two things (or both) must happen. Service must be reduced so that the savings can be diverted into private pockets. Or the fees for the service must be increased so there is additional money to be diverted into private pockets. Privatization is against the public interest and Canadians will not allow it.

Supreme Court of Canada Justice Emmett Hall was the key architect in designing Canada’s medicare system in the 1960s. Asked to review it in the late 1970s, he said in his 1980 report:

“Canadians…as a society, are aware that the trauma of illness, the pain of surgery, the slow decline to death, are burdens enough for the human being to bear without the added burden of medical or hospital bills penalizing the patient at the moment of vulnerability. The Canadian people determined that they should band together to pay medical bills and hospital bills when they were well and income earning. Health services were no longer items to be bought off the shelf and paid for at the checkout stand. Nor was their price to be bargained for at the time they are sought. They were a fundamental need, like education, which Canadians could meet collectively and pay for through taxes.”

Canadians are, overall, a caring society. If you are an American, what in Hall’s statement do you find objectionable?

Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede studied problem solving among IBM employees around the world. The result was “Hofstede’s Dimensions,” one dimension of which is an individualism/collectivism scale measuring how much a society expects individuals to look after themselves. The United States, not surprisingly, was at the top of the scale.

Of 53 countries across 5 continents he found the United States to be the most individualist country in the world along a continuum of individualism versus collectivism. No coincidence, the U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world that does not give its citizens access to universal health care. Even now, as the Obama administration is trying to pass a health care bill, there are millions of Americans against it.

I find this passing strange and when you think about it, it’s because money trumps health and welfare which goes against the Constitutional pursuit of “life”.

My challenge to the American individualist thesis is always the same. When a child is born, it should immediately be placed, naked (no blanket to weaken it), out of doors, summer or winter. Any child who lives to be a year old is obviously a rugged American individualist.

The lack of universal health care does two things. It prematurely kills people and, of those who live past childhood, it shortens their lives.

Compared to Canada, as we see in Table 3, the infant mortality rate in the U.S. is almost one quarter greater.

From Table 4 we see that the under five mortality rate is almost a third greater.

And from Table 5, we see that life expectancy for both males, females and overall is significantly greater in Canada. For those Americans who would argue that it is better to be “free”, they have, as a society, less life-time to be free than Canadians who are, American propaganda notwithstanding, equally free. We just don’t make a big deal of it.

Recently, there has been increasing interest from epidemiologists on the subject of economic inequality and its relation to the health of populations. There is a high correlation between socioeconomic status and health. This correlation suggests that it is not only the poor who tend to be sick when everyone else is healthy, but that there is a sliding scale, from the top to the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, relating status to health. This phenomenon is often called the "SES Gradient". Lower socioeconomic status has been linked to chronic stress, heart disease, ulcers, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, certain types of cancer, and premature aging.

Someone who called himself Kelly, said this in a comment: “I have noticed that some good headway is being made in Canada in the area of re-evaluating gun ownership. I will keep my fingers crossed that Canada comes up to speed with us and learns to legislate more logically. Maybe that would be a noteworthy exception for your country?”

I find this statement to be offensive and a good example of American arrogance and ignorance. There are billboards on the Texas Panhandle that proclaim: “GOD, GUNS AND GUTS MADE AMERICA FREE.”

In 1972 sociologist Alphonso Pinkney of New York’s Hunter College wrote in his book The American Way of Violence

“There are so many contradictions and inconsistencies in American life that frustration is a constant state of affairs for large segments of the population. Such cultural ideals as monetary success, freedom and democracy are mere myths which lose meaning in the face of widespread poverty and oppression. Violence frequently results from the frustration which individuals feel when they fail to satisfy legitimate aspirations. The society is generally an inhumane one.” (emphasis added)

Catherine Ford was, until her recent retirement, a columnist for the Calgary Herald, as well as member of the Editorial Board. She is a third generation Albertan so can speak authoritatively about the province. On gun control she wrote:

“Particularly in Alberta, particularly to urban Albertans, the angry voices of protest ring hollow: those doing the most public protesting about their treatment by various governments don’t seem to be those with the most to complain about. The loudest voices don’t come from the needy or disadvantaged, but from the opportunists who see in the politics of anger and discontent a chance to remake Canada. Small-town Alberta may support any protest against, for example, gun registration as yet another attempt by loafer-wearing city slickers to make life difficult for them, but the architects of their rebellion aren’t out on the back forty shooting coyotes that are preying on livestock. No, the protest is led by well-educated opportunists who believe might, right and money will buy anything. Despite bumper stickers to the contrary, what is being protested is not just gun-control legislation, the Kyoto Accord, same-sex marriage, and all the other right-wing bogeys, but Canadian values themselves. Of course, supporters of neo-conservatives don’t say that they are protesting values the majority of Canadians hold important, but insist they are fighting for ‘freedom’.”

Compared to the U.S. Canada is, overall, a non-violent society. Two main forms of violence are against the self and against others. As we see from Table 2, the suicide rates in both countries are virtually the same.

But, it’s when we look at societal violence we see the difference. The homicide rate in Table 1, shows homicides more than three times greater in the U.S.

Canada had 611 homicides in 2008; less than a third of which (200) were committed with firearms. Calgary, a city of a million, where I live, had 34 murders; 138 were gang-related, up from 118 in 2007. Topix.com reports that there were 16,272 homicides in America in 2008.

Concurrent with the homicide rate, the United States has the highest documented incarceration rate, and total documented prison population in the world. As of year-end 2007, a record 7.2 million people were behind bars, on probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.3 million were incarcerated. More than 1 in 100 American adults were incarcerated at the start of 2008. The People's Republic of China ranks second with 1.5 million, while having four times the population, thus having only about 18% of the US incarceration rate.

About 10.4% of all black males in the United States between the ages of 25 and 29 were sentenced and in prison, compared to 2.4% of Hispanic males and 1.3% of white males. Seventy percent of prisoners in the United States are non-whites.

In 2008, the most recent data available to Statistics Canada, there was an average of 38,348 inmates—36,330 adults and 2,018 youth. The figure translates to 117 people in prison out of 100,000 population—an increase of two per cent from 2007. The U.S. rate is 1,000 out of 100,000—8.5 times the Canadian rate.

A few years ago the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) released a report titled, “Incarceration in Canada”. One member, Kim Pate, released a dissenting report. He wrote:

“I cannot endorse this NCPC paper. To do so would be to participate in a fraudulent depiction of the problems of our current use of imprisonment. As one Australian prison administrator has stated:

"they are misused by society as an inappropriate means of social control... they are, in the main, inhuman and unnatural places; ... each year they take large numbers of hopeless people and turn them into bitter people;…they are part, among other things, of the systematic destruction of (Aboriginal peoples);...they institutionalize and make captive the people who work there...for hundreds of years the people who work in the system, the influential people in the criminal justice system as a whole—politicians and community leaders—have used prison to perpetuate the longest running biggest social fraud in the history of the modern world...that prisons serve a useful purpose in social control and crime prevention."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics In 2008, 12.4 percent of employed wage and salary workers were union members. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent—a decline of nearly two thirds in a quarter century.

In Canada in 2007, the union membership rate, according to Statistics Canada was estimated at 29.3%, 2.3 times greater than that of the U.S.

The interesting aspect of this is that union members make about 30% more than non-union members, yet Americans prefer to be poorer but free. Sounds like a cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face strategy.

Canada has the same range of religions as the U.S., but not the same issues of religious dysfunction. We, too, have our religious fundamentalists, but we have never allowed them to hijack the public discourse.

Abortion, as well, is an issue for some, but the man in Canada, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who has worked for the last forty years to make abortion safe for Canadian women, was on July 1, 2008, was awarded the Order of Canada for “for his commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations”.

He was twice acquitted by juries for performing illegal abortions, but on appeal the acquittals were overturned. He was finally acquitted by the Supreme Court of Canada which declared the law he was convicted under to be in violation of the Charter and thus unconstitutional. This ruling by Justice Brian Dickson essentially ended all statutory restrictions on abortion in Canada.

To further make my point, the last four or five Prime Ministers were Roman Catholic and I, as a political junkie, never knew this because the issue of religiosity was never raised. I know this now only because someone covered the issue a couple of years ago. The current Prime Minister is, I think, RC, but I’m not positive. That’s how little Canadians care about religion as a political litmus test.

We have also had a female prime minister who was defeated, not because she was a woman, but because her predecessor in office, Brian Mulroney, brought the Conservative Party so low that in the 1993 election, the Conservatives were reduced to only two seats (from 169) out of 308.

Only the current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, as a follower of the American Republican party, has taken to ending his speeches with “God bless Canada”. No other prime minister has ever done this.

On the basis of homicides, infant mortality, life expectancy, religious tolerance and security of the person, Canada is the safer, more tolerant and more civilized society—for all the many flaws this nation has. Many of the flaws, particularly here in Alberta, exist because of a distorting American influence.

Daniel Johnson was born near the midpoint of the twentieth century in Calgary, Alberta. In his teens he knew he was going to be a writer, which is why he was one of only a handful of boys in his high school typing class—a skill he knew was going to be necessary. He defines himself as a social reformer, not a left winger, the latter being an ideological label which, he says, is why he is not an ideologue. From 1975 to 1981 he was reporter, photographer, then editor of the weekly Airdrie Echo. For more than ten years after that he worked with Peter C. Newman, Canada’s top business writer (notably a series of books, The Canadian Establishment). Through this period Daniel also did some national radio and TV broadcasting. He gave up journalism in the early 1980s because he had no interest in being a hack writer for the mainstream media and became a software developer and programmer. He retired from computers last year and is now back to doing what he loves—writing and trying to make the world a better place

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Hadley November 24, 2009 8:36 am (Pacific time)

I see the author made some comments about "guns." It appears he has much research to do before he can comment on our 2nd Amendment in an informative way. A position based on bias is simply irrelevant. By the way Canada is relaxing many of their long gun draconian laws. Does the writer think it would be more humane to shoot the baby seals, or do you prefer beating their brains out with clubs? I guess we may have different values in regards to what is humane? Does the writer have any experince with any type of firearm? Also when you look at America's violent crime, break it down to it's individual demo stats, then compare it to Canada's and other European country's urban areas. It may surprise you, of course doing research as a trained researcher may not be easy for some to do objectively.

Give me facts that can be verified otherwise you're just spouting unsubstantiated mythology..

Second Amendment? It's written so poorly that not all Americans can even agree what it actually means. So much for the brilliance and prescience of the founding fathers.

Engle November 23, 2009 10:33 am (Pacific time)

To "Just a quick comment". I'm also glad. By the way are you familar with concepts such as "research" and "investing" for the future? Our space program has provided incalcuable benefits for not just Americans, but for all of mankind. Finding water on the moon will possibly create a paradigm shift in our space program, which regardless if it does or not, this program will continue to benefit all, especially in the areas of healthcare. Try reading about the medical advances the space program has developed. The Dark Ages had many causes, short-sighted thinking was no doubt one of them. Critical thinking skills seem to be such a foreign concept for far too many.

Just a quick comment November 21, 2009 9:52 pm (Pacific time)

Engle you say "Daniel did you see where are NASA personnel discovered water on the moon? and then shortly after "we know all about helping our fellow man, and that is what truely makes us exceptional," haha I had a good laugh at that why not take those millions spent on nasa finding water on the moon YAWN and actually help the american people by providing basic needs like I dunno know HEALTH CARE whew thank god I'm not american good article though

Johnson November 17, 2009 11:07 am (Pacific time)

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road. It is clear that we have gotten off track with regards to current economic policies and the immense government spending that is making things worse. We need jobs and the past models that show us how to create jobs is by reducing taxes and allowing our people loose. High taxes and fees have shown that this Keynesian process is an abject failure. Just look at states like California, New Jersey and New York to see what happens when you pursue a Keynsian model. Karl Marx of course would love to see what is happening, but then again he would not want to debate why the USSR and eastern bloc countries failed using an abbeviated model of this

Engle November 17, 2009 10:05 am (Pacific time)

Thank you for your input Mr. Ruark. My below comments were based on my experience, and of course my immense pride in America for what we have accomplished since our founding, along with our massive benefical contribution around the world. While we are certainly open to criticism for past bad acts, we still have internal processes provided by our founders (the U.S Constitution/Bill of Rights) to ameliorate our past wrongs and improve our future interactions with the world and within our borders. Life is a constant evaluation process. We still see an ongoing stream of immigrants who come here for a better life, so in regards to the "Ugly American" scenario, it has not abated that desire to immigrate here because that view is held by a tiny squeaky-wheel minority, in my opinion. In regards to "healthcare" being a "right", well I don't know anyone who does not want everyone to have the best possible health resources available for anyone who needs them. Of course we must also be realistic on what our national ability is to provide universal health care services. Example: Look at the VA system, very small compared to a projected national system, and their ongoing problems delivering timely healthcare. In terms of "Keynesian Action", this has not been a fruitful process, as history has clearly shown. If someone can point out some country where high government spending and high taxes has produced ongoing prosperity, then that would surely be the best kept secret in the history of the world. Example: Look at the Stimulus Bill and what it was to have accomplished, and what has hppened. My earlier comment to Daniel Johnson, I truely enjoy reading his views, regarding the loss of medical doctors and medical staff, provides a dismal look into Canada's health of their national healthcare system. My prayers are that they find a solution, for it would benefit all nations. Daniel I thought what Judge Hall said was what all well-intentioned people would like to see occur. No doubt it is quite a complex process, and so far there have been no current national healthcare models that could cross over and work in America from what I've seen. It is public record that England and Canada have been increasing their private insurance presence in their healthcare systems. Bottom line people from around the world come here for medical treatments, medical equipment and RandD programs. Daniel, I am an optimist and feel confident that we will devise a superb health system here in America that will in turn be a model for the world to use. Both Canada and America are excellent problem-solvers Daniel Johnson. We are both exceptional nations and we become even better when we work in tandem.

Henry Ruark November 17, 2009 9:37 am (Pacific time)

With all due regard to friend D.J.: "Comparison" demands application of full-ranging choice-and-contrast by whomever does it. See def.: comparison (as in "examination") n. : examining resemblances or differences comparison (as in "relation") n. : relation based on similarities and differences comparison (as in "likeness") n. : qualities that are comparable; "no comparison between the two books"; "beyond compare" Obviously any projection of results is shaped, defined, unavoidably determined, by the choices-made by that person so-doing, despite intent,skill and/or other application. (I.e., one must really BE an "American" for understanding both our "exceptionalism" and its positive/negative impacts on us all,as still understood by millions.) Which is why such as Engle build agreeable, "positive", palatable and persuasive patterns for private purposes --here done well in advance of key second part, thus that much more revealing in true intent. Precisely the same desperate unavoidable differentiation doth inflict itself on all such insightful reports, thus forcing full application of all that is known about the person courageously offering valuable insight. Which is why one leading insight in communications is "ALWAYS know source and background". Perhaps protection from those who will distort/pervert for malign political/pandering purposes is needed; sometimes the revealing awkwardness often thus exposed may be helpful here in full appreciation of exceptional insights by D.J. I can hardly wait for that second-parter !!

Henry Ruark November 17, 2009 9:11 am (Pacific time)

For the record, the original "ugly American" in the classic novel was known-so for his physical appearance. He also it was who invented and popularized pedal-driven pump to facilitate water-use in Vietnam villages. Per far too much-similar incident-now, distortion for malign purposes has smeared original image, as in both "liberal" and "conservative" labels -- once worth their white/space. Point: Check out original source for meanings there; THEN update to current-time --as first step in workable analytic pattern. Among earliest relics of IBM rise to world leadership is an honored-award/plaque, used to perpetuate their approach via the award given for chosen publications, with the single word: THINK. "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity": Martin Luther King, Jr. "What is the hardest task in the world ? To think." --Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Henry Ruark November 15, 2009 10:17 am (Pacific time)

Engle et al: Your attitudes, thus your values, revealed strikingly and distressingly in what you wrote. No matter how-built or why, they damage open, honest dialog and reporting here, and this report deserves better from whole audience. Your "facts" clearly reflect ONLY personal perspective, are distorted/perverted to fit yr views. We long ago lost lead in essential phases of pharma. and healthcare, except for lush profits plundered by our broken "system". We remain the only nation without rational, reasonable provision by governance based on human-right due every citizen in "richest nation on earth." Do you contend healthcare NOT a "human right" ? IF SO, establish fact by documentation from world sources. PDF's offered you later include precise fact on that. Yrs re "investment" mirrors WSt. predator/approach, just demonstrated at cost of billions to middle class via perverted risk-reading, allasame as you propose for pharma. and healthcare now. Pseudo-joking/tone doth NOT disguise the distorted view of realities involved. That is too-clear reflection of "privatize profit, socialize risk" myth,long used for propagandizing/purposes -- same foundation behind every single classic capitalist "anomaly", now at curently painful international crisis levels --AGAIN !!. Every civilized nation and most of developing world has now again this time taken Keynesian action, (including China-changes in "communist" consequences !) and all are continuing to wriggle back from black hole brough on by massively malign, mistaken deregulation, privatization, and distorted world trade via perverted "globalization" --begun by Reagan,magnified by his largest-ever/then tax slashes heavily favoring the richest, never made up by corresponding fed-cost/cuts on expenditures side, clearly recognized as scam at the time by his own main-man. Yr "advice and counsel", for anyone historically informed, amounts to "heavy flow of effluent" flavoring every one of your awkward points.. some irrelevant, and obviously applied to sugarcoat and submerge real meanings in your response to this report. (By content analysis-applied.) ID-self to Editor with your working phone for direct PDF transmission documenting each and every point herein; where are yours supporting clearly malign-intended smear-job to obfuscate, avoid, and protect known facts, as per yours previous re FDR. Flat-out challenge, sir: Put up or shut up ! NO response, NO ID-now, when plainly sought publicly, simply reveals you as distorted/perverted source unable to provide foundation for your effluencies. THAT is open insult to our S-N open, honest, democratic channel devoted to open/honest sharing-learning,in support of what democratic dialog we may still maintain. (ANYone need translation for term "effluent" ?? !!)

Engle November 13, 2009 6:21 pm (Pacific time)

Daniel Johnson your very welcome for my positive comments about your beautiful country and people. They are based on my wonderful experiences with many Canadians over the years. Fortunately none of them I know hold your negative views about "Ugly American's", though my definition of true frustration is when one has no one else to blame but themslves. I believe that [frustration] rather than necessity is the true mother of invention. Suffice, the anti-American is well protected from being faced with true frustration in this scenario. As you may have noticed it was pointed out in my previous post, with link, that Canada is losing medical doctors at a fast clip, and your high achievers are avoiding your medical schools. You think that this will create even more problems for your healthcare system? Have you ever taken any search engines and tried looking up stories under say "problems with Canadian healthcare?" I would like to make a brief comment on the American pharmacutical industry. Though it enjoys a healthy profit margin, number three on the Fortune 500 list, it does produce the worlds lion share of new lifesaving drugs. Also our technology is the world leader in constantly producing new, innovative, and lifesaving medical equipment. You may be aware about our Tort legal system down here, but if not, the lawsuits, even when won, take a tremendous amount of revenue away from R and D and other production cost areas. Plus our FDA also puts many obstacles in the way for getting new drugs to market. It is a high risk busines, just like the insurance industry where the next natural catastrophe can bankrupt that industry, likewise for the drug manufacturers, the next major lawsuit may cause it's bankruptcy. With high risk comes high profit and of course, high losses. Our free market system here provides a rich environment for much technical advancement, and the world benefits from that to a very high degree. I imagine many of those who dislike, even hate America, would not turn down any of our products/services if it would save them or a loved one. Maybe it's jealousy and envy that these hater's really feel. I imagine many of these malcontents, going back to their childhoods, had pronounced inadequacies that have festered up into their adulthood. Thus their acting out is essentially the internal projection of a very unhappy person. Daniel did you see where are NASA personnel discovered water on the moon? So who do you think will be able to do something about that? America is all about the future and the world will always benefit from our leadership because though we are exceptional, we know all about helping our fellow man, and that is what truely makes us exceptional, plus we also have better hockey here in the states. Better food also.

Don’t misinterpret me. I am not anti-American. I am just anti- a lot of Americans who do hateful things and put profits before people. There are many fine Americans, millions of them, but it’s unfortunate that they get lumped in with the anti-human Americans. So I do distinguish between the two groups. BTW, you never thanked me for John Kenneth Galbraith—a friend and very close advisor to JFK who was a liberal economist at Harvard for forty years or so.

But talking about healthcare and your comment “we know all about helping our fellow man, and that is what truely makes us exceptional” raises one question for me. In my story I quoted Supreme Court Justice Emmett Hall who said in a 1980 report reviewing Canadian Medicare:

Obama and the Democrats are trying to pass universal health care in the U.S. and there is no guarantee that they will be able to do it, and if they do pass something, it may be so watered down, as to be awkward and ineffective. A lot of people are against universal health care. It's those kind of people about whom I am anti-. My question to you, Engle, is: What is there in Hall's statement that is objectionable to so many Americans? I sincerely would like to understand this.

Engle November 13, 2009 10:34 am (Pacific time)

Daniel Johnson for what it's worth I have a very high positive opinion of Canada. Many great memories traveling there going back decades to my early youth. Just outstanding people. That television show "Ice Road Truckers" is superb. Also thank you for Captain Kirk and Alex Trebek. It may not be well known but in a population proportion ratio, Canada has lost more soldiers in Afghanistan than any other country. Of course it would be of considerable benefit if your military upgraded the personal weapons for your soldiers. Daniel have you ever served in your military? If not, then you may not have a practical understanding of the need to be able to have weapons at least as good as those who are shooting at you. The M-1 is good, but there are superior small arms available. With all those oil profits and healthcare savings certainly you have the money. You are very fortunate to be a citizen there, but like all countries, each one has their problems and Canada certainly has their share. Fortunately you have a form of government coupled with some brilliant leaders where you can solve any problems you face in my opinion. I have been pressed for time and do appreciate the stats you provided. Are you aware that "after many years of public health care with mandatory coverage, so many Canadian doctors have left the practice and so many young people have entered other fields that Canada ranks 26th of 28 developed nations in its ratio of physicians to population. Once, Canada ranked among the leaders in the number of physicians — but that was before government health care drove doctors out of the practice in droves." www.daveweinbaum.com. This stat does not bode well for providing timely healthcare, hopefully things will turn around as your government becomes more in tuned with this problem, and others. Appears that the Canadian voter is getting their act together and putting in better leaders as reflected in recent elections.

Thank you, Engle for your positive comments. No, I have never been in the military and have never given it any thought. We are not a military nation. I am well aware that soldiers need to be as well equipped as possible. I was not aware that our soldiers were ill-equipped. Oil profits. For some reason they keep getting frittered away here in Alberta. It’s what happens when you have the same bunch of bozos running the government over 38 years. And the sheeple? I gave up on the Alberta voter long ago.

Thomas Fitch November 12, 2009 12:21 pm (Pacific time)

Much of the data you used to compare the United States with Canada is quite misleading. I find it interesting that someone from Canada feels the need to berate my country from the safety afforded behind your keyboard while my resources provide a security umbrella over you. What happened to you, were you visiting down here and got mugged? I see from some of your past articles that you are quite liberal, while the province you live in makes one of your ideology a distict minority. In fact your country is tracking conservative, I imagine that is upsetting for you. Is that why you are projecting and striking out at my country? By the way if you break down our murder/violence rates on a demographic level, as our justice department does, how do you see those numbers? Compare and contrast with countries in europe. So how does your tax rate compare with ours when it comes to take home income? How much of your GDP is spent on defense? Of course that would require some real research (50 states 50 different tax dynamics) that may be beyond your personal resources. No doubt we are the dominant culture and Canada generally follows our lead. But people should be aware that Canada leads the world in "Meth production and distribution" which rains death to so many people and their families. If one would like that sourced I can do.!.

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to bring up the security issue. You forget that if we weren't neighbors geographically, defense wouldn't be an issue. So, Mr. Fitch, you can go on believing that America is the world's saviour, rather than the world's (blinded by ideology/mythology) bully. I like the way America has treated a little island called Cuba over the last 60 years. I'm not a supporter of communism as it has been practiced there, but in the world of realpolitik America's foreign policy is largely misguided. Unless it was cynical foreign policy like in Orwell's 1984, always have an enemy at hand to distract the booboisie.

Canada spends about $19 billion/year on defense which is about three times what Norway and Sweden each spend. Spain and Turkey spend about the same as Canada. Canada has soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan.

You accuse me of berating your country. You're probably unaware that the majority, probably the vast majority, of people on earth feel even more strongly than I do. The term "Ugly American" ring a bell for you?

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The Canadian Comparison: Part 1

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