Close Reading

I would not, could not, EVER accept that some @$$hat felt the need to open carry any calibre of weapon to stand in line to order a soft ice cream. \n\nTyler, do you have any idea how obscene this image is to people from anywhere else in the world? I’d not even be able to imagine that scenario if I lived in a nation under siege but your nation just lives this way for shits and giggles. \n\nIt’s not normal. It’s not acceptable. \nWho would chose it, never mind just accept it.\n\nAlso, your experience that there are plenty of areas in the US that are “golly gosh, safe as can be”, could that maybe be that you don’t fit the profile of someone who wouldn’t be so fortunate to find safety and comfort…do you really believe that a small town in the US would be the first place someone of colour, or who flies that LGBTQ flag proudly, would also chose to move to so that they could feel just as comfortable and safe?? We have small towns, too…they like things to stay the same.

Don't listen to the naysayers... I am moving to the US next month and I CAN'T WAIT to get out of Canada! Everything you buy is too expensive, and that's AFTER the tax rate which is nothing short of grand robbery. Health Care was already abysmal with waitlists over a year for certain procedures, but in the last 3 years it fell apart even further. Crime is on the rise everywhere and government just releases everyone regardless of public risk (read into Saskatchewan mass shooting from last year).\n\nI am set to make $20,000 more in salary, without even taking exchange rate into account, and that is going from Vancouver which has among the highest salary average in Canada to a small American country side town.

i’m canadian and i would never move to the states, my dad often says he won’t even visit again. the school shooting concern? maybe it’s just our news media but that’s literally the only time we hear of elementary schools at all in the states, and it often happens in places we’ve never heard of before, aka small town usa, so: it can literally happen anywhere in the states to me. for more gun violence here’s a story, i recently had a coworker go down the west coast usa with their family and almost immediately walk into a mall shooting, it really happens so much down there that it didn’t even make the news up here. i work in a mall and i’m never afraid for my life. i’m not being naive, we have guns here, and i work next to a passport photo counter and i see how many people in my town apply for PAL (possession and acquisition license) and it’s more than i would think and still i feel safe

I am from Brazil, moved to Canada 9 years ago, now I am Canadian citizen. I was once asked by a American colleague why did I not immigrated to the USA, the answer is: it was not even in the list of possible countries. In fact it is on my top list of places not to move to. \n\nYou have a good insurance through your job? That only means you have one more reason to fear losing it or stay on a particularly bad one if you don’t have anything lined up, if you have a chronic health condition, then you are straight out hostage to your employer. Even if you do have good insurance your bills may one day go beyond the maximum and you still risk bankruptcy. \n\nIf you do go bankrupt, in any civilized country you can’t go to jail for debt, in the USA you can, the country with the highest incarcerated population in the world in absolute numbers and relative too. To add salt to the injury it is a country that did not completely make slave work illegal, it is still legal if you are not a free citizen and your prison system exploit that.\n\nSo it is a country that you can become slave because you got sick.\n\nThen there are the guns… the fact you think you are exempt of school shootings says it all, if you live in a small city it would not affect you? Are you really saying mass shootings never occur in small cities?! This is an excerpt:\n\n“The massacre that killed 10 people at a high school in Texas last week was just the latest to happen in a small or suburban city. Of the 10 deadliest school shootings in the U.S., all but one took place in a town with fewer than 75,000 residents and the vast majority of them were in cities with fewer than 50,000 people.”\n\nIt is all part of the gun culture, the absurd of making guns easily available and viewing guns as toys, a culture were people think taking your life is a proportional response to trespassing. \n\nIt is all closely tied with all the warmongering you are ok with all the taxes you pay going to your military to kill people outside your country yet you take exception in using a fraction of that to save your own citizens lives.\n\nIt is a place which put low value in the human life and well being, favour punishment instead of prevention and rehabilitation, keeps most of its population in a constant sense of despair and helplessness…\n\nIt is no wonder the USA has the highest number of psychopaths(over than 3000 versus the second next at 166), have kids going nuts and shooting others at school.\n\nIt is not a sane culture, it is not a good place to live and if you are well informed you won’t.

Aren’t we fortunate in the US to have **none** of these problems!\n\nWe have no homeless here!\n\nTake a look at SF, LA (where all “solutions” are rooted in Bolshevism; “Hi, we’re from the government and will be taking over half of your front yard for homeless yurts (Ok, tents)--true story. Take a gander at any large, medium, and even a few small cities.\n\nHave you ever heard of Detroit (once proud home of my beloved Motown music), Baltimore (complete devastation), or Chicago (my home town—don’t make me cry)?\n\nThe entire homeless situation started when mental hospitals were snake pits and certain factions demanded that people be released.\n\nSure, it sounds humanitarian but they didn't bother to consider what would happen to mentally ill patients suddenly left to their own devices on the streets.\n\nThe do gooders actually were foolish enough to believe that the seriously ill patients (schizophrenic, bipolar, borderline, and plenty of others) would take their meds on their own. It doesn't work that way for patients who are not in contact with reality.\n\nNow we add extreme drugs (crack, meth, heroine, ketamine, whatever they hand out at parties, etc) and severe cases of PTSD/PTSS. It's obscene that we have veterans on the streets.\n\nHeath care--?. Pre Obamacare it wasn’t terrible but medicine had become a CYA project. We are so litigious (side eye to John Edwards ) that doctors practice defensive medicine and carry high limit malpractice insurance (guess who pays for that?). Every decision is driven by avoiding lawsuits, not proper patient care.\n\nPost Obamacare, US health care is an unmitigated disaster at every level. We’re short on doctors, too. Many quit and students are losing interest—medicine won’t pay enough anymore to justify $500K in loans.\n\nWe could repeal every bit of Obamacare tomorrow and still not be able to fix it. The leviathan grew tentacles that released toxins into every nook and cranny of the system. Now that they have buried themselves in critical layers, it would be impossible to yank them out.\n\nI have a good PCP who is booked 6-8 weeks out. Specialists? Hah. GI, neuro, and derm? Four to six month wait post referral.\n\nI never thought I would say such a thing but I would probably swap the Serial Sexual Predator occupying the WH for your Little Lord Fauntleroy.\n\nCan Canada compete with us in corruption? Government employees seriously tried to topple a sitting president and not only were there no consequences, they were able to retire on fat pensions that we citizens work hard to provide for them.\n\nOur government is run entirely by K Street lobbyists; our “representatives” don’t even draft legislation, that’s done for them by K ST.\n\nHow about crime? Do we even need to talk about it?\n\nHousing crisis? Prices were already too high when the regime (predictably) created runaway inflation and we saw the end of affordable interest rates. Even 0.25% increase will knock out many buyers; they won’t be able to qualify.\n\nWe are seeing huge jumps; young people have resigned themselves to never being homeowners.\n\nRacism? Again, look to the US. It’s nothing even close to what the make believe media caterwauls about. If white supremacists are behind every tree, where is the evidence? Surely, in 2023 has caught a cell phone video, right? Where are the videos? Show me the proof. There is plenty of footage of BLM destroying property and injuring, even murdering innocents. If we gripe about this behavior, we are raaayyyycccciiiiissssts.\n\nNo rational adult would claim that the US is not a violent country and becoming more so. Nor can we claim to have eliminated racism. That takes time; it cannot be done by force.\n\nOur economy went from smokin hot to dumpster fire in a short span of time. Pre election, head hunters were shaking the trees to find job candidates.\n\nOur unemployment is up as are our taxes with the stomping out of the tax cuts. \n\nDespite the endless sloganeering about how the Trump tax cuts only benefited “rich” people, it’s quite the opposite.\n\nHigh earners lost their pet deductions and lower income taxpayers were quite pleasantly surprised when they did their returns. The cuts were targeted to preserve wealth for the middle and lower classes.\n\nI could go on for another 100 pages but you get the idea and I get crabby writing for free.\n\nI will leave you with the caution that it’s best if you doubt and question any data and any stats coming from our government. Those are seldom legit. If the data comes from a study, always look to see who paid for it. And how large the sample size was; how were the participants selected? We are all on our own when it comes to ferreting out info.\n\nOh Canada!\n\nYou’re welcome.

I can agree with these comments if your not American, growing up we had all that interaction with family, friends and neighbors. Life n times have changed in America due to gun violence, especially in large cities. Socializing is different in every state in America and in every country. I can understand how if your not accustomed to our ways of life even today, that you would prefer your ways of living back in your hometown and your Country. If you live in a big City in America and moved there from a smaller town in America, you will be feeling some loneliness, that's normal to us in America. If your American then you adjust to making n meeting new people, that hasn't been so easy with the pandemic for anyone. To compare our homes in one community from another or even from another country, is just criticism. We don't have a specific way of living, as far as our homes are constructed. This is how as American's we have always lived, small homes, large homes, big cities, small towns. Since the pandemic we do find ourselves spending more time inside due to no fault of our own. We do have different ways of living but so do other countries which we do enjoy when we visit. If you want to learn more about America and our lifestyles and history, you should do that. Every Country has it's government rules n law's and we try to abide by them, that's what makes our Country n Our Nation Great, that's also why many people come here to visit or work and study. Loneliness can be anywhere, depending on the person you are and reaching out to make new friends or just acquaintances is important. Especially, if your away from friends n family from home or a different Country. ✌️

When mothers stayed at home to look after the young children I think things were very different , its the same here in Australia now . Although when our children were young my wife did not work and there was a vibrant community of mothers during the day time and children playing out in the streets , even when we returned from a small country town back to the city . Now , both parents need to work , so the suburbs ar empty during the week . As an aside if EBM is talking about north / north America much of the winter months are so cold you are not likely to be sitting out on the porch talking to your neighbour !

The best advice I can give a prospective immigrant is to have a job offer in Canada before you consider immigrating. If you are coming to study then look at a what jobs you could do in Canada when you graduate and whether you know enough English and French to study here.\n\nCanada does not encourage unskilled immigrants to come to the country. However there's a lot of trades like construction that are looking for workers. If you can do industrial welding for example, you can get a job right now.\n\nThe final thing to consider is whether you are willing to live in a smaller town or even rural area as that's where the growth in jobs are and where housing is more affordable. \n\nTaxes are higher but not higher than some Scandinavian countries. In the USA you have to pay for private insurance which can be about $1500/ month for a small family.

Pretty good Adam I'd just mention a few of those things are...I don't want to say inaccurate but way more diverse. For instance French. Yes Quebec is the only French province BUT New Brunswick is the only Bilingual province and basically half and half. This is good for things like federal of provincial services because by law they must provide service in both languages but not so basically everywhere else. The problem with this is you can have an almost completely English town almost nobody speaks French and drive 15 minutes and be in a town where nobody speaks English. Research on this might be hard because a town with a French name may not have any French people in and vise versa. Also this problem is multiplied in the fact that if you Do want a French area we don't speak standard French or Quebecois but instead Le Chiac which is a difficult and confusing mix of old French and english (almost exactly like the Cajun dialect). Second part of this is that Montreal is easy to live in if you don't speak French and is so multicultural you are just apt to hear Swahili as French in public. Last part is be very careful where you move on the prairies as they have may isolated towns some that speak French also. Next is tipping I've never had to tip anyone for a haircut outside of the military and all other forms of tipping here on the east coast are purely optional and wait staff don't get upset if you don't leave a tip unless you were a jerk or left them extra work like making a big mess (I worked as cook for a while after I got out of the army and I rarely ever head staff complain) HOWEVER....tip a waitress well and she might accidentally give you 2 pieces of pie lol and tip a taxi driver well and he will not only get you the cheapest fare he will find ANYTHING you may need no questions asked. Lastly on the nice thing....we are nice for sure especially compared to our southern neighbours BUT there is a lot of passive aggressive nice that happens and this also varies greatly. For instance as a city boy of course you answered the way you did but a guy who have lived all over this country in big and small, French and English places who now has retired to a rural town I can say I find the cities quite snobby and the French and the English can be quite snobby to each other and where I live now if you asked a random stranger for 5$ chances are you would get it also driving down the road people you don't know will just wave at you as if you were the closest friends. Canada is certainly a weird place so many extremes and my advice to anyone wanting to move here is do your research and then visit and travel a bit if possible because even us Canadians can be surprised by thing or two across this gigantic country

Canada is what you make of it. You can arrive rich and end up poor and you can arrive poor and end up rich. In between that, you can have a great life that balances your needs. I’ve seen immigrants succeed simply because they see the opportunity in front of them . They worked hard in their own counties to stay just above the poverty line ,but when they apply that same effort here it pays off ten times greater. I feel that compared to a lot of immigrants, natural born Canadians come across as spoiled and a little lazy…we are. We haven’t had to struggle the same way someone from a poorer country might have. I’ve talked to people who’ve worked ten to twelve hours a day just to stay afloat. If you did that here you could make plenty of money to live and have some left over. As far as owning a house goes,yes it’s expensive . I feel that homeownership in any country is relatively expensive. Here is a tip; use that soaring home prices to your advantage. Houses are expensive but you can make a lot of money buying and selling. I recommend putting together a buyers group and share the house for a few years, then sell at a profit, buy a bigger house or two smaller houses.try to buy the worst house in the best neighbourhood and fix it up slowly . That house could double in value in five or six years in the Toronto market. This is nothing new of course ,the people from India and China seem to do this a lot here ,it drives up prices and profits. On the downside to this ,you are now part of the problem. As the housing prices are driven up the non wealthy can no longer afford to own a house . They are at the mercy of high rents with no rewards of ownership. They are caught in a cycle of hard work and (relative)poverty. This could also be you if you can’t keep up the house payments and are forced to rent.\nHow well you speak English is important but your native language is also useful here because Canada is half immigrants . As a Canadian that speaks only english (Irish descent)I have to say to all newcomers that I’m very impressed that you have learned a new language and that you may even speak more than two! Don’t be embarrassed about your abilities . I find that in my experience , Canadians do not look down on people just because they don’t know English. In fact ,I’ve known people that have lived here for decades and still know very little English. They are comfortable in their communities and they function just fine. Learn as much English as suits your needs and be proud of any gains you make.\nOutside of Toronto are other cities that you might consider when looking at southern Ontario.From my experience,most are generally the same, just not as big . There are large immigrant communities in London Ontario, Hamilton and just outside of Toronto where housing is just a little bit less expensive but the commute to work is probably longer. This is just my opinion but in the small towns there are less people of colour , (which is what people of no colour call everyone else . I wonder if I’m called a person of no colour in some other culture ? LoL ). That might make it harder for you to feel integrated ,if that’s what you want. I’m not saying that people from other cultures can’t make it in a small town , I’m just saying that it’s definitely not Toronto . Here, people of any nationality can feel like they have a place where they can belong . It seems that no matter where you are from ,there is a community already here that’s set up restaurants and stores and clothing shops and newcomer support systems. And if your from Portugal or China or India or Africa or the Middle East, there are large groups of your kin here that have established roots for generations and you probably know this already.\nToronto means meeting place and that becomes evident quickly. I was born here and it’s one of the things I love the most about my city. I’m not going to say that there isn’t systemic racism here ,the people of no colour still kind of keep the top position , but as we become a minority in a decade or so ,I hope that will shift to a broader spectrum. It’s certainly happening already. One good thing is that the police department tries to hire people of colour so that racialism may play a smaller role. We’re getting used to seeing our politicians more and more reflect their constituents.\nI have to talk about the weather. Because I’m from here I’m used to the extremes of minus thirty and plus thirty . Eventually you get used to it (somewhat). Dressing in the right clothes is important. Summer is easy , but winter is different. It’s trying to kill you. Spend the most that you can afford on winter cloths . If you can afford a quality parka you should get one. The hood can be drawn around the face and stay out of the wind.\nIf not ,think of layers with a outer layer that blocks the wind. We have things called long Johns that are basically full length thick cotton or nylon pants that go on under your pants and a pair of extra thick socks. Buy your boots to fit your thick socks. Try to get the best boots you can afford ,it’s something that you might spend a little extra for but never regret.\nAll in all we are a fairly organized and peaceful society. Most people are friendly and will give you a chance . We have a good social safety net here and you don’t have to be homeless or starving if you don’t want to. There are people and organizations set up to help ,that truly try to get people back on their feet. It’s a good investment that pays off in ways that matter for the quality of life in a big city. I’m not putting my American neighbours down when I say they do things differently. They have their ways ,we have ours. This is just something that we do because we’re trying to learn how to help those that society has discarded or can’t find their place. Sure we have one or two areas where the homeless have pitched tents and we have some resources for them if they want. Unfortunately The mayor recently forced a small camp to move from a very visible place to more scattered locations. There were social workers involved as well as protesters trying to protect them. I didn’t like that happening and I want to see even more resources dedicated to them ,but on the other hand ,we are trying to avoid something like what happens on the streets when it’s just ignored. When I see YouTube videos of the streets of Philadelphia I’m extremely saddened. I thank the lucky stars that I was born in Toronto Canada.\nFor all it’s pollution and expense and crowds ,I think it’s a great place to do almost anything your heart desires . For every ugly building there is a beautiful park ,for every honked horn there is a birds call , for every cold and dark day there is beautiful sunny one around the corner.