This world would be a much better place if only the US could be more like Canada: safe, clean, socially responsible, environmentally aware, unhurriedly enjoying life rather driving itself into the ground working and playing hard. Leading by example and taking care of its own citizens rather than spending trillions on military power to bully the world.
Canada has the best of North America – a lot space, good system and material comfort, only in Canada wealth is more evenly spread across the population. Freedom of enterprise here however happily coexists with basic needs guaranteed to everyone. Tight arms control, quality education and comprehensive healthcare for everyone, public transportation not limited to airplanes make Canada closer to Western Europe than to its southern neighbour. Never segregated, Canada enjoys the degree of racial harmony unthinkable south of the border. Yet Canadians are more on the move, egalitarian and less bogged in tradition than Europeans. Best of the two worlds, indeed.
Downtown areas in all US cities except a few are deserted after dark - it may be a perceived threat but it is definitely out there. Shuttered windows, bums at the bus stops and litter blown along by the wind is a American US after the sunset. Multi-million luxury condos surrounding New York's Central Park overlook the nightly bumorama and drugapalooza right in the heart of the city. On the Strip in Las Vegas ostentatious luxury sits right next to gun-wielding poverty. Canada could not be more different - it does not know walled communities that are an established lifestyle down south. Downtown in Canada boasts smart shops, restaurants and just nice public areas for urbanites to kick back after work.
The founding fathers did envisage the agri-pastoral pattern for their country: focus on agriculture, civil freedoms and local self-government, no assertive international policies. Many other New World colonist societies followed it: Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Brazil and Australia. However for the USA things took a different turn: industrial boom brought hunger for resources, labour and markets and the countries' history became a corporate history: expansion, merger, acquisition, hostile takeover. Uniquely even, US law treats corporations live people.
That said, Canada has certainly benefited from having the USA as their only neighbour but Canadians have also managed to turn it to their best vantage, letting the best in and keeping the worst out.
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- Toronto - Hip And Laid-Back
- Ottawa - A Marriage Of Convenience
- Montreal - Paris Of The Sub-Arctic
- Quebec - The Most European City In North America
- Quebec's Tipping Point: Change Becomes Unstoppable
- Down The St. Lawrence - Quebec Countryside
- Acadia, New Brunswick
- Nova Scotia - Canada's Ocean Playground
- America’s Love Affair With The Automobile
- Maine: Acadia N.P. & Asticou Azalea Garden
- Amsterdam, NY - How Could We Have Missed That?
- Niagara Falls - Big American Disappointment
- Do You Really Know American Food?
- Niagara-on-the-Lake - Possibly The Twee'est Town On Earth
- Yes, Canadian Wine!
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