Close Reading

The Bay Area has way more

I immigrated to Canada in 1981 because I married a Canadian I should say French Canadian girl and it was just a better place for her to continue on with her background. We relocated to Ottawa which is bilingual and made it very easy for both of us to assimilate together. I moved back to the USA in 2006 to help my sick brother and move back again to Canada in 2016. I came back for many reasons. The political Edge in the united states, the guns out of control, the increased crime rate daily, in just too many people everywhere. Now I was living in the Tampa Bay area and a lot of the people come from out of state and out of country especially in the winter to spend their cold months in the sunshine. Some things I miss in the United States comes usually down to the cost of living. Unless you get sick. And I miss living by the Gulf of Mexico. Except during hurricane season. I prefer living in Canada only because it's a slower easier paced social environment. It has nowhere near the political stress that the United States has where it can almost be violent. Actually, where it has been violent. Revisit January 6th. Out of control guns with hot-headed men mostly can force you out as well and back to Canada. Canada's social structure and environment supersedes the United States tenfold. And of course as we get older, Healthcare is a priority. I'm thankful there's a place like Canada close to where I was born or I can spend the rest of my life enjoying it as opposed to looking over my shoulder constantly. I also find that Canadians have a huge appreciation of warm months. So many people are outside even when they are eating at restaurants. Because of the warmer months are so short, Canadians really take advantage of enjoying it and those months are never taken for granted. Winters in Ontario, like here in Ottawa, can be very cold once January and February come around. But once you make it into the middle of march, you can almost smell spring in the air and somewhere on the way. But there are those dreaded 8 weeks of oh my God ?

I lived in Canada from 1983 to 2016 after I left the US Air Force in '83. I was born in the SF Bay area, and grew up there in the Hippie peace love/Viet Nam era in the 60's and 70's. I now live in Seattle. As we have travelled to San Fran, New Orleans, Nashville, Miami, Vancouver (Canada) and New York in the last 6 months, I kinda have a pretty good idea how it was on both sides of the border way back then, as well as right now. We have 2 rental homes, and I STILL have to work until I'm 70 to retire without worrying about losing it all because of the the high cost of health care. Your observation of race/political/religion relations are naive at best, you need to travel the country first hand to see it. Canada has it's far share of right wing crazies as well. They're mostly not armed, and most fights are 5 minute shouting matches. I know this because I work on construction sites. Canada doesn't have commercials for pharma or ambulance chasers. Because big pharma is kept in check, and with a population slightly smaller than California, frivolous lawsuits would clog the courts. If the PM killed some one on the corner of Yonge and Bloor in Toronto, he'd go to jail. You can get an abortion in Canada. There's a fraction of the Fentanyl crisis happening in Canada, and they have waaayy less homeless in the street. Canada has 2 weeks paid vacation AND paid holidays. The tax rate is higher in Canada, but many of the benefits make up the difference. It's cheaper to buy a house in Seattle than Vancouver. You can get a 30 year mortgage in Washington as well, instead of 5 or 10 years. Good and services tend to be cheaper and more plentiful Stateside. Mail service runs on weekends, it hasn't done that in Canada since the 80's. As it stands, I'm in Seattle right now because it isn't the typical US city by far. But I'm thinking when it comes to retiring, I'm putting Canada on the list. Being a dual citizen also makes me eligible for the other Commonwealth (universal health care) countries like Australia.

when it comes to cultural differences, what you said there is a huge huge generalization. Why? Some preferred cultural behavior might be true for tiny nations (or small geographic areas). That is because of rather reasonable distances, habits could spread all over that area within past centuries (that is how all that is made). But talking even about Russians is a heavy stereotype. By best guess your Russians from around Moscow area and those close to eastern Chinese borders would differ more than those groups of of Chinese (or Mongolian if Mongolia is also close by), that are right on the other side of that eastern border with their Russian counterparts. And of course by Russians I mean here citizens of Russia and not their ethnicity. \nSo Saying how Europeans are all reserved (which funny enough if you mean Europe geographically would include Moscow), is just a huge misstep. It is like calling all USA citizens to be same way (something you might really want to avoid doing if ever you visit USA).\nAlso Climate. First of all Ontario is not the other name for Toronto or GTA area. It is rather big province. So that weather heavily depends if you are sitting in Toronto, Ottawa, North Bay or Windsor. That humid weather as you stated is only truth for the parts that are closer to those big lakes.\nAnd for the love of god. Canada DOES NOT have a paid insurance. Each province has its own paid insurance. So while certain things might be free in one province (like emergency ambulance), it is partially paid in other province.