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I'm European, but I lived in Canada for a couple of months and actually got to see Trudeau speak live in Parliament. He gave a very different speech that day - a eulogy. I did not think then I would ever hear this man this very obviously pissed off. He's like one of those teachers that don't need to shout to show their students they are in big trouble. I don't know if I would vote for him if I was Canadian, but I would certainly be proud of him right now.

I think that what you are describing is the case in most western traditionally European countries. I also think that is on purpose. I live in the US and have my entire life, I'm in my 50's (let's just leave that there!). the same can be said for many places in this country. I've lived in newengland my whole life. it used to be considered the benchmark when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's , as far as cost of living , cost to buy a home , wages and job opportunities , quality of life, safety. its not the case now. I did recently move to extreme northern new England this year as southern New England where I grew up and my family is , too crowed, too expensive etc. I am within 1-5 miles of Canadian border where I am now, but still in US! I do have a current passport, just renewed it and plan to visit NB and Quebec City and hopefully PEI . I do live in a very rural area with low population currently. farming and timber are main industries here. not a lot going on, but at my age I really enjoy it. reminds me of how things used to be when I was growing up 40 years ago! people and even young people are polite and decent here, no traffic. its a bubble, but we are 500 miles from the chaos to the south. I pray a lot nowadays! thx for sharing , I followed your videos years ago, I am glad you've done well for yourself and you've turned into a beautiful woman and a decent person! my daughters are half Ukrainian from their mother and Polish/English from myself. one thing about northern maine is that there is no fresh kielbasa , pierogie or kapusta up here! I miss that about Connecticut , new Britain to be exact!!! peace, and God bless you!

I lived in Western Europe, Japan and at the moment, Canada. I lucked out getting a well paying job in Vancouver when I moved back a few years ago and my average tax rate is actually the exact percentage you stated in the video - 28%, which includes income tax, pension and employment insurance. I'm actually doing better in terms of quality of life now but I do miss being able to travel around Europe for cheap. (e.g., quick train ride to Paris for the weekend) Now, I take cheap flights (e.g. Flair Airlines) to Mexico instead.\n\nJust to state some data points: when I was in Europe, I paid a total average of 39% income tax on a lower salary than I have right now in Canada. Things like utilities (e.g., gas/electricity), restaurants, certain grocery items and electronics (e.g., iphone/PS5/computers) were significantly more expensive because European VAT (inclusive) is usually 20%+. \n\nI don't have the exact numbers but on average I believe I was paying 70 - 90€ ($100 - 130 CAD) just for electricity each month for a small flat, but I am now paying $30 - 50 CAD for a decent sized 1 bedroom. I believe my housing gas bill was about the same or possibly a bit more. In addition, automobile gas prices were much higher (about $2€/L on average which is $2.90 CAD/L) and I think they could go even higher right now. \n\nHowever, rent is definitely more expensive in Vancouver, but I believe that is true for many West coast cities in North America. Right now I'm paying $2300 CAD a month for a 1BR, and I split that amount with my partner. In comparison, it would have been about €1300 ($1900 CAD) for something similar in the city where I was living previously. In a more expensive city (e.g. Amsterdam) a 1BR would easily cost €1800+ ($2650 CAD).\n\nFor me, the difficulty of making friends in my late 20's stays about the same. I think it is difficult to make new friends after graduating from school, and you have to put yourself out there by joining groups and events. (e.g. Meetup or volunteering?)

As a European who lived for 3 years in Canada, I have to say that Canadians - as much as I love them - are very entitled. They live in a bubble and don't realise how good they have it. \n\nTheir country is beautiful, the lifestyle is phenomenal even if you aren't rich. A lot of things they complain about like rising house prices, food costs, and political divide is literally happening everywhere - I'm really not sure why they think only Canada is struggling with this right now. Perhaps because on their strong currency they can go and live like Kings in somewhere like Portugal or Bali, but then they don't realise that they are bringing over the cost of living crisis and making things harder for locals when they do that. \n\nThey want things to be perfect, which isn't something to discourage but they don't realise how much harder life is like in most other countries on the planet. The only ones who appreciated it were the people who had lived for a few years in the UK or Paris or Australia, or somewhere else they imagined that life was easier and then ended up actually miserable and actually struggling - and then soon fly back to Canada. I have to say though I do love the sense of always wanting things to be better, whilst in Europe we tend to accept having less, less options and struggle to the extent that we don't even see it as struggle.