Are most Canadians happy with Canada?

[Hecate]

Nouvellecosse

Originally Posted by esquire

I get that this matters greatly to Hecate and I sympathize with his predicament, but the idea that the entire country is broken because his spouse couldn't get citizenship is a little hard to swallow.

The above statement is very much a direct criticism towards me. A passive aggressive one. I can imagine the eye rolling that would have accompanied his thoughts after reading what I initially wrote.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Hecate

Up until five years ago I had a lot of respect for this country.... when they denied my spouse entrance to the country after seven years of being together, I lost all respect. I had two choices. Move to Venezuela or end my relationship. Hardest thing I ever had to do. I had amazing people helping me fight this. Indigenous elders, cannonized priests and government officials, lawyers too. But our border services agency refused to allow him back into the country. . It’s okay for people to sponsor and bring over their useless relatives who can’t speak English, or do anything but serve coffee. but an educated trilingual South American with money.... they refuse. I hate Canada.

I suspect you're not giving us the full story here. Immigration doesn't just randomly refuse people entry.

Also, stereotyping other immigrants says a lot about you....

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

While we could do better, we could fare much worse. Canada has that tension between wanting to be like the most progressive parts of Northern Europe, while being partially constrained by the competition we inevitably find ourselves in with America (which unfortunately has parts that are engaged in a furious race to the bottom for social services and taxation rates.

This is true. But we do a piss poor job managing that competition. We could invest a lot more infrastructure. We could invest in social services which have a better return than the US could deliver from the private sector (childcare, pharmacare), etc. Our healthcare system is an economic advantage against the US. Wish we were smart enough to build on that.

[MolsonExport]

^you will get no arguments from me on these issues.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

This is true. But we do a piss poor job managing that competition. We could invest a lot more infrastructure. We could invest in social services which have a better return than the US could deliver from the private sector (childcare, pharmacare), etc. Our healthcare system is an economic advantage against the US. Wish we were smart enough to build on that.

I agree as well. It's too bad that we have a fair number of politicians in Canada who think that the best thing for us is becoming more like the U.S.. Those politicians tend to be the right-leaning ones in parts of Southern Ontario and in the Western provinces.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by Loco101

I agree as well. It's too bad that we have a fair number of politicians in Canada who think that the best thing for us is becoming more like the U.S.. Those politicians tend to be the right-leaning ones in parts of Southern Ontario and in the Western provinces.

Or are you more comfortable with the creeping americanism touted by the Liberal-DNC Cabal that is ensconced throughout the halls of political and corporate power in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal Iron Triangle!

(where is the tin foil hat emoji )

[svlt]

Originally Posted by isaidso

I'm generally very happy with Canada. It's the best country in the world but, like all places, there are things that irritate me about it.

The culture is too conservative, too timid, too risk averse, and too ignorant of its own history/culture. The winter is 6 weeks too long and the population too small to be globally influential economically, politically, and culturally. It's also too small to capitalize on its geography. Perhaps 80 years from now and at 100 million people most of these things will have moved to the wayside. Too late for me but Canada has a very bright future.

Pretty much my take for me and my family. It's just too cold and almost has too vast of a geography base for its population density. My line of work allows me to move anywhere in the country, but I cannot imagine anywhere else in this huge expanse I would want to live in besides southwestern BC. It's basically just cold and colder (I've lived in Alberta and Ontario, but originally come from a much warmer climate). With no aspiration it's basically just...forced contentment? Or I reinvent my entire career.

That being said, I take great pride in being Canadian. I've embraced the culture, symbolism, behaviors and social norms of the country. We've been taken well care of by its health system. The multiculturalism, especially in Vancouver and Toronto is great. The politics are signficantly less insane than south of the border.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

Or are you more comfortable with the creeping americanism touted by the Liberal-DNC Cabal that is ensconced throughout the halls of political and corporate power in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal Iron Triangle!

(where is the tin foil hat emoji )

What’s leading you to believe that the Liberal party power brokers in Outremont and Rosedale are in bed with the US Democratic Party?

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

What’s leading you to believe that the Liberal party power brokers in Outremont and Rosedale are in bed with the US Democratic Party?

They outwardly support the Democrats in their elections, use Democratic tactics and operatives in our elections. Some of Obama's crew was in Canada for the 2015 election and many Liberals headed south to work in both the Obama and Clinton campaign.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...n_winning.html

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/omalle...iden-1.5576287

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/axel...ents-1.3892003

The Liberals always seem to get a free pass on these arrangement while the Conservatives get all sorts of tut tuts from the Liberals and NDP when a Republican operative is spotted with them.

[hipster duck]

I’m actually more of a Red Tory, so I don’t support the Liberal party in general, but if it comes to campaign tactics, I’d rather that any of our parties get assistance from the Democratic Party than the Republican Party.

Ideology aside, the Republican strategy centres on things like lying, gerrymandering, voter suppression and tacitly seeking foreign interference in elections.

I want the Conservative party to have a shot at forming government, but I absolutely do not want them to use Republican Party tactics to do so.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

The Liberals always seem to get a free pass on these arrangement while the Conservatives get all sorts of tut tuts from the Liberals and NDP when a Republican operative is spotted with them.

Agreed, but that makes sense. The Republican Party is not yet electable in Canada, it’s further right than our Conservative Party and more closely reflects the fringe elements, or the former Reform/Alliance crowd. Canada’s right wing has to do much more appealing to the middle than the Americans do, so pointing out the boogeyman of Republican operatives makes sense for Canada’s left wing because it can attract votes from the middle, the average Canadian who doesn’t long for Republican-style conservatism.

The reverse doesn’t work for Canada’s right-wing because the average Canadian isn’t afraid of Democrats. They’re a little right of our Liberals, but comfortably in the range of what a majority of Canadians left and right want from their government. Democratic boogeyman won’t win votes for the Conservative Party the same way, and if they’re not bringing it up, it consequently doesn’t get mentioned as much.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I’m actually more of a Red Tory, so I don’t support the Liberal party in general, but if it comes to campaign tactics, I’d rather that any of our parties get assistance from the Democratic Party than the Republican Party.

Ideology aside, the Republican strategy centres on things like lying, gerrymandering, voter suppression and tacitly seeking foreign interference in elections.

I want the Conservative party to have a shot at forming government, but I absolutely do not want them to use Republican Party tactics to do so.

Hmm, many times the Democrats have had control of the House, Senate and Oval Office and they have yet to pass laws to reform voting district boundaries, or reform federal voting laws in general. The foreign influence has been a Trump initiative and I decry the Republican's duplicity in the Presidents actions.

The entire US Federal Political system is a giant Ponzi scheme that ensures the two parties share power, money and influence and limits any attempt by a 3rd party to give Americans another option beyond the two parties.


As for Republican connections with the Cons in the last elections the Conservatives had this guy:

DUSTIN VAN VUGT, DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER (HEADQUARTERS)
Mr. Van Vugt will be based in the campaign headquarters for the election and has the task of overseeing the day-to-day operations, including the party’s target seats that map a Tory path to victory.

This is the most senior role Mr. Van Vugt has held on a national campaign but he’s a veteran of campaigns at the federal and provincial levels and also in the United States, where he worked on Republican campaigns, including for Arnold Schwarzenegger in California.

Since 2014, he has served at the Conservative Party’s executive director. After the 2015 election loss, he was given the task of touring the country to hear what went wrong from a grassroots perspective and present his findings at the 2016 convention.


Sounds like he worked on Republican campaigns before Trump.

[davee930]

Originally Posted by Bcasey25raptor

Labour laws, social services, safety net, healthcare, etc are all garbage compared with northern and western europe, and we as a country should be ashamed for it.

Exactly. I think Canada is overrated honestly. I guess I need therapy.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Hecate

Nouvellecosse



The above statement is very much a direct criticism towards me. A passive aggressive one. I can imagine the eye rolling that would have accompanied his thoughts after reading what I initially wrote.

I kinda agree with esquire. Bureaucratic and administrative BS exists everywhere. I sympathize with your situation, and our immigration department does seem to make particularly senseless insensitive decisions sometimes. (Though I have no idea of the details of your case of course.) A friend of mine who was an immigrant themselves had a hell of a time bringing over a spouse from their homeland. They are both happily settled here today and love both Quebec and Canada. But they still curse the federal immigration department to this day.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by davee930

Exactly. I think Canada is overrated honestly. I guess I need therapy.

I guess I am somewhere in the middle. Canada does get overrated sometimes because it's only compared to the U.S. in areas like guns, crime, access to post-secondary education, basic universal health care, etc. We're not that great compared to our other OECD peers when comes a lot of this stuff.

Though we actually do quite well relative to almost everyone when it comes to stuff like child poverty, socio-economic mobility between classes, and even education in general (though that can vary from province to province).

It's definitely not all bad.

[esquire]

^ I find that the Nordics verge on the insufferable when it comes to those types of measures. They love to toot their own horn.

But then, as they say, it isn't bragging if you can back it up and that is something they certainly do. There is a large faction of conservatives in Canada who think that we can tax cut our way to prosperity... I wish more Canadians looked at the countries that are attaining more success by taking other paths than the US.

[davee930]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I guess I am somewhere in the middle. Canada does get overrated sometimes because it's only compared to the U.S. in areas like guns, crime, access to post-secondary education, basic universal health care, etc. We're not that great compared to our other OECD peers when comes a lot of this stuff.

Though we actually do quite well relative to almost everyone when it comes to stuff like child poverty, socio-economic mobility between classes, and even education in general (though that can vary from province to province).

It's definitely not all bad.

No definitely not all bad. I'm just tired of Canada always being in between Europe and the States on most issues.

Worst of all, architecturally. It's so lacking here and it actually really bothers me. We copy the states in all the wrong ways and have hardly any of the beautiful old stuff. The quality and standards in Europe compared to North America is night and day.

I know its apples to oranges and I can't compare Canada to Europe or the states architecturally. Just makes me sad

[urbandreamer]

Yeah especially since the 1980s Canada's SFH architecture has been embarrassingly bad. WTF is up with this fake grey stone/grey brick/beige accents in today's new suburbs? Makes me wanna puke when I compare to what's happening in England, Germany and Holland. Here's a very conservative English architecture firm specializing in SFH developments: https://www.nparchitects.co.uk/portfolio/ Where in Canada can you find new suburbs that look like https://www.nparchitects.co.uk/portf...oad-cambridge/ or https://www.nparchitects.co.uk/portf...rton-3-houses/ or https://www.nparchitects.co.uk/portfolios/mill-common/ ?

Builders here struggle to get the basic proportions right!

I feel like Canada's turning into a cheap suburb of the third world instead of a suburb of London or Glasgow.

[davee930]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Yeah especially since the 1980s Canada's SFH architecture has been embarrassingly bad. WTF is up with this fake grey stone/grey brick/beige accents in today's new suburbs? Makes me wanna puke when I compare to what's happening in England, Germany and Holland. Here's a very conservative English architecture firm specializing in SFH developments: https://www.nparchitects.co.uk/portfolio/ Where in Canada can you find new suburbs that look like https://www.nparchitects.co.uk/portf...oad-cambridge/ or https://www.nparchitects.co.uk/portf...rton-3-houses/ or https://www.nparchitects.co.uk/portfolios/mill-common/ ?

Builders here struggle to get the basic proportions right!

I feel like Canada's turning into a cheap suburb of the third world instead of a suburb of London or Glasgow.

My thoughts exactly. 3rd world is what I think of too. It's disgusting and embarrassing. I'm working for a respected builder in the lower mainland and I'm only allowed to make the front of the houses nice. I was shocked when I learned that all the houses I design will have 3 sides decorated with vinyl siding and no trim or bottom board! That is the norm and everybody just accepts it.

Go to Germany, look at their cars, machines, buildings. Such high quality. We're all just satisfied with mediocre crap. EXPENSIVE CRAP. All these damn bylaws controlling how you design anything. Yet you can cover a house with flimsy plastic that melts with a hot reflection. No complaints at all in Canada.

Littered all over the country.

[giallo]

While I find urbandreamer's European examples bland and depressing, I do agree that Canada has forgotten how to build a SFH. There some nice examples in Kelowna and Vancouver that I've seen recently, but otherwise, it's pretty bad.

Lowrise to highrise residential architecture is far better in Canada than most other countries. Residential buildings in Asia make the stuff going up in Vancouver look like the Milan Cathedral Duomo.