Close Reading

I was born and raised on the east coast of Canada, lived in Vancouver and visited Montréal Edmonton, Calgary with the acception of Winnipeg I’ve seen every major city in Canada. \n\nI will always have pride for my country and love for my family there but it has changed dramatically since 2010.\n \nI will say the transportation in Canadian cities are better and so is the crime and the food but you have to drive a minimum of an hour to get anywhere outside the city, your not leaving that city without a car and good luck surviving without a car outside the city, and VIA rail is way overpriced. The GO train is nice though.\n\nLiving in America it has changed a lot since covid too though people are a lot more desperate and you can feel it but people are too prideful to admit, where in Canada people are struggling and they dress and look terrible and fail to dress nice because there is less prideful.\n\nCanadians are not nice people they are passive aggressive and will not got out of their way to help you most of the time (modern day) kind of like Californians.\nThe east coast Americans are rude and trashy but they will help you if you show respect. There just no fun to be around mostly ? overall North Americans are chauvinistic.\n\nJobs are harder to get in Canada and opportunity isn’t there, but it is very relaxed.\nAmerica is overcrowded and stressful especially for a Canadian.\nMontréal is cheap rent great food, and being personally bilingual I like the French, but there infrastructure is terrible and the people are depressed and disgustingly rude and they have no customer service.\n\nVancouver is overpriced in every way possible, beautiful city, great seafood but it’s not worth the price tag, you would be better of living in a San Francisco, the crime in Richmond and burnaby and new Westminster and hasting street is just as bad as San Francisco’s tenderloin.\n\nToronto is big and fun yet it doesn’t feel Canada at all, it feels like it’s been hijacked by American and foreign companies. It’s beautiful but lots of rats and bad traffic. People are relatively nicer there but it’s still expensive like New York.\nCalgary is very pretty probably my favorite, it’s just cold AF and kinda pricey. Probably perfect for families.\nEdmonton is flat and boring but I like it’s proximity to Calgary ?\nOverall it’s one of the best countries to live in the west but if you like fast paced, opportunity, diversity, traveling and are rich enough for elite education then come to America. Lastly Canada is a democracy so bills can be passed faster but that can also be a bad thing if you have a courrupt gov’t, cough cough trudeau.\nAmerica is a republic so it is harder to pass laws which can suck but it is also harder for people like uncle joe to overreach. Overall in America you are more free but in Canada you are more at peace. \n\nI’ve lived in America for six years and moved here at 20yrs so this is just my experience.

This is truly heartbreaking, I feel so sorry for International Students who came here with dreams but were given something far below that. I am a Canadian born student, brought up and raised in Brampton but I made friends with many international students. I don't understand how International students have to pay 3-4x our tuition, cover their living expenses, and have work restrictions on their study permit. The truth is competion is everywhere and companies are competing for top students who go to credible universites. I don't see how international students are suppose to compete with these students when there is a shortage of high-paying jobs. I truly feel bad. I advise students to tell their stories to their younger siblings and cousins back home and prevent them from living a hard-working life with little reward. Advise them to complete their studies back home and find a job in big cities back home. As a domestic student I struggle to pay for my own expenses and I could not imagine if I did not have my parents support. This is fraud on another level!!!

(Canadian healthcare worker, here)\n\nAs far as paying for medications: it's definitely true that you will often pay *something* for your medications, but they are significantly cheaper out of pocket than they are in the US, because the Canadian government puts limits on what pharmaceutical companies are allowed to charge.\nAnd medications that have existed for a long time, as well as generic versions of medications (acetaminophen instead of brand-name Tylenol, which are chemically identical) are much cheaper too.\n\nIf I need antibiotics, even if I don't have a job that gives me health benefits, I may pay $5-30 out of pocket. \nBut if I want the brand-new brand-name antidepressant that just came on the market last year, I might pay $200 a month for it.\n\nUsually a doctor can prescribe you a cheaper medication that works just as well though (just make sure the doctor knows if you don't have a job or don't have health benefits through your workplace...often they will ask you that before prescribing any expensive medications, but not always).

I do not mean to be negative here but anyone of you who is well settled outside Canada, don't come to Canada!, unless you want to do labor work. I know people who have done Masters in Software engineering are working in a Pizza shops. If there is one job opening there are 10 thousand applicants for the same job. Companies showing fake jobs to satisfy govt. pressures. Automated refusals replies of your job applications are common.\n People get hired on sources and within companies. Racism exists, results are killings every now and then. Go and watch news channels like CP24. Thieves are here. Things do get stolen. Recently mass graves are found near schools in multiple areas of small children of indigenous people who were tortured and killed by white supremacy in the past. Recently a whole family is killed by a maniac. No capital punishments so killers, rapists walks free after 10-15 years tops.\n\nAshir sahib is being a little dramatic. I guess the agony of Pakistani bureaucracy has influenced him so negatively that in his mind he is comparing Pakistani life with Canadian life. He himself was driving truck initially. may be now a days retired or staying home or may have sufficient funds. But don't get too excited with his kind words. He is only showing the good side of Canada in some sort of excitement. \nThe bitter truth is that unemployment rate is too high here. Govt hides the truth. They couldn't even handle the pandemic properly. Alcohol is cheap marihuana (Hashish, Charas) is legal now. Every 3rd person is smoking weed. Drunk drivers kills innocents on roads often. Every region have different rules and regulations and policies. I moved to Niagara region and they charged me $200 deposit for water $200 deposit for hydro plus monthly bills separate. $1800 to $2000 is the rent of one bed apartment. Burlington where he lives has $2800 to $3000 rent monthly for a house. Go check online! Price of buying a home is in millions of dollars. Go check real estate.

I do not see Americans as friends to Canada. we have had a softwood lumber dispute for 30 years now. Canada has different laws which Americans will never accept. when it comes to trade, Americans are not Free Trade or Fair Trade but Trade domination to eliminate competition. Boeing cried about Bombardier and secured a 200% tariff, while the Canadian company has no products to compete against Boeing....\n\nCanada still suffers from tariffs on our steel and Aluminum. \n\nAmericans are only friendly if Canada submits.... the latest NAFTA agreement saw Canada accepting American milk.... dumping into Canada at the expense of our farmers. The USA has an over supply of milk and rather than adjusting production to meet demand America is using Canada as a dumping ground.\n\nAmerican companies have come to Canada and destroyed many Canadian companies, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Costco to name a few. these companies push very hard American products while ignoring Canadian suppliers. In no way would the US ever allow such a concentration of foreign businesses to take control of their economy. \n\nThe USA has been the only nation to violate Canadian Sovereignty.\n\nThousands of Canadians have died to protect the USA, but I can find no American who has died to protect Canada.\n\nCanada has fought in many American wars.\n\nCanada has supported the US during its many hurricanes.... I do not see Americans supporting Canada.\n\nIt must be noted that the USA has the largest military force in the world, yet they always ask for other nations to help them in wars. \n\nthe only nation to invoked Article 5 of NATO has been the USA... Canada responded and assisted America.\n\nThe USA is not a friend really, friends do not treat their partner with such disrespect. \n\nBut hey, Americans flood to Canada to buy lower cost medicines rather that fix their own systems.