A few comments from yesterday’s general blogrequest post were Canada-themed and today is Canada Day and all, so it seems appropriate.
Lurkerwithout: Why people who call Canada “socialist” are, you know, stupid
Well, they’re kind of not entirely wrong. They’re wrong to directly equate socialism with communism, which they do all the time. But the modern point of balance of government is between socialist impulses and capitalistic ones, and Canadian society is certainly more socialist than the United States is. (Then again, most of the first world is more socialist than the United States is, but that is neither here nor there.)
But it is important to point out that officially, Canadian corporate tax rates are lower than American corporate tax rates. (Of course, unofficially there are so many loopholes in the American tax code that American-based corporations effectively pay barely any tax or often no tax at all.) The tax expense of being a Canadian citizen is not staggeringly higher than that of being an American citizen, and when you take into account that our taxes pay for most of our healthcare it’s probably about even.
But the counterpoint to the actual monetary argument is one of people’s attitude towards government. Canadians may gripe, but in the end we genuinely like government services and there is a general cultural attitude of being willing to pay taxes for those government services. Certainly we’d like to pay less, generally speaking, but there’s a difference between wanting to save money and the American anti-tax attitude that treats taxation as nothing more than theft.
So there’s that.
Canadave: I’d be interested to know what you think Canadian TV needs to do to in order to become\stay interesting and\or relevant.
Honestly, this is kind of a gimme question, because right now I think Canadian teevee is mostly already doing the right things: creating lower-than-American-budget television shows with pre-guaranteed markets (Canadian and American networks) that are of decent quality. I may not like The Listener or Flashpoint, but that’s because I watched them and decided they were just not my thing; it wasn’t because they were bad shows.
Would it be better if the Canadian television industry wasn’t one that over-relied on simulcasts of American shows with Canadian commercials and re-airs of old American content? Yes, undeniably. It wouldn’t be hard, either. Just limit a channel to, oh, fifteen hours a week of prime-time American shows. Even in the heyday of the old traditional “fall season” format of television, this would have only amounted to nine hours of Canadian shows in prime-time per week, which isn’t onerous to achieve (and a fifteen hour cap would have let Canadian networks air all of their most popular American shows, easy – you miss out on re-airing According to Jim, oh darn).
But given the refusal of the CRTC to make Canadian networks do anything that might make them cry bitter tears, I think things are about as good as they can be right now.
Bunnyofdoom: Your thoughts/feelings on being Canadian and what it means to you, and/or your idea of what Canadian Identity is.
You know, it’s funny, because whenever somebody asks me this question I always think of that episode of Friends where Phoebe is blathering on about past lives, and Joey gets worried because he thinks he doesn’t have one, so she responds, “Oh no, sweetie! You’re brand new!” Which is weird both because Canada is 140ish years old now and because I’m flashing to friggin’ Lisa Kudrow on a question about Canadian identity, but nobody ever claimed that I don’t have issues.
But I think of that because Canadians don’t have an identity in the way that the French do, for example. “Polite, friendly and considerate” is a nice stereotype to have, I suppose, but A) it’s a little overblown and B) just about everybody is polite and friendly.1 Germans might be humourless, but they’re polite and friendly about not laughing at your jokes. Italians might sleep with your wife, but they will be polite and friendly about it. And so forth.
We’re still a young country, and unlike America, which was born in the sort of circumstance which immediately invents a national character, we were essentially created out of compromise and convenience. “Polite and friendly” is the sort of stereotype that gets invented in the absence of a national character. It’s like a default precisely because it’s so bland and inoffensive.
So we’re essentially a country in search of a national character. There are some appealing options beyond “we like hockey,” and one of the reasons I’m a member of the New Democrats (much as it pains me to admit it) is that I think the NDP provide the best opportunity to expand upon our instinctive search for a national character in ways that I approve of. (The Tories have their own ideas, which I disagree with. The Liberals like bland and inoffensive.)
- Except the French, and possibly the Koreans. [↩]
Related Articles
23 users responded in this post
Your discussion of national identity made me think of Trainspotting.
“It’s SHITE being Scottish! We’re the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization. Some hate the English. I don’t. They’re just wankers. We, on the other hand, are COLONIZED by wankers. Can’t even find a decent culture to be colonized BY. We’re ruled by effete assholes. It’s a SHITE state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and ALL the fresh air in the world won’t make any fucking difference!”
National identity is, by and large, a luxury. Nobody has a great affection for a country in which they eat crap and sleep in cold piss. I have been told by my day that my Irish immigrant grandfather would literally snarl at anyone who would suggest he get into the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day.
For your younger readers: Friends was like The Hills only they had writers who could put in pithy one-liners where there would otherwise be blank stares.
In general, do Canadians like their health care, or not? Do they dislike it more than Americans dislike their HMOs?
Not that I’m bitter.
How does it feel having the US as your immediate southern neighbor, what with all the guns and Republicans and stuff?
Is there any movement to put a wall on your Southern border to keep Americans out, like America wants to keep Mexicans out? (And everyone outside of Texas wants to keep Texans contained, if we could)
Yay, not only did my question get answered, I got a footnote out of it!
I’m quite surprised, and severely disappointed that you propagate such stereotypes as the french being rude and unfriendly. I expected you, especially as a canadian, to be a little more clever about this. At least you didn’t refer to us frenchmen as dirty or lazy.
If germans can be polite and friendly about their innate lack of humour, if italians can be polite and friendly about their inability to respect their desired sexual conquests’s current relationships, couldn’t we be considered polite and friendly about our rudeness and unfriendliness.
@kirkjerk: I can’t speak for canadians, but in every country I’ve been to, people liked their health care more than americans liked their HMOs.
In general, do Canadians like their health care, or not? Do they dislike it more than Americans dislike their HMOs?
In general, Canadians do. It’s got problems, of course (wait-times can be a while, depending on what the condition is), but my mother had cancer twice in my childhood, which would have bankrupted us if we didn’t have national healthcare.
Regarding comparisons between how Canadians view their care and how Americans view HMOs, one thing to consider is that when Canadians express dissatisfaction with their system (you’ll sometimes see pro-business lobbies in the US touting comparison between polls of Americans and Canadians that supposedly show the US system is better), they mostly mean they want more money spent on it, not that they’d rather abolish medicare and go to an American-style system.
Denialism blog had a post up about that recently.
I always thought of Canada as the US’s conservative neighbor. The US is nucking futs sometimes, but Canada seems to have a spirit of moderation. 🙂
Canada: The Sane North American Country.
And for Anglophiles, Friends is like Coupling without viewer laughter (though with a laugh track, if I recall correctly).
I want Canada to be a country of rambling, incoherent trolls, so I can feel included.
I like Canadians so much I married one.
But I have to laugh at the description of Canada as “the sane one”. Seriously, living in a country that’s under snow all the time?
You’re all crazy.
And don’t get me started on the drinking age.
Aussie-JdR
I like to think of Canadians as Australians with snow. We really seem to be very similar.
I think Korean people are perfectly polite – it’s the Dutch you’ve got to watch out for.
I don’t know about Canadians being Australians plus snow. Consider the behaviour of each nationality when travelling overseas: if a Canadian sees something he likes/doesn’t like/has no opinion about, he’ll stay quiet and let things happen. Whereas an Australian, bolstered by 200 years of colonial larrikanism and a couple of gallons of whatever local beer is strong and cold, will stand up loud and proud and vomit all over it.
Very different!
Usually “polite and friendly” are found in those people looking to sell you something.
Usually that something is bullshit covered bullshit with bullshit centers.
As far as national identity, I think the Canadians should stick with “We’re NOT the USA”. Its worked well for the past 100 years or so and as long as Scalia is on the Supreme Court bench, I see no reason to believe that it will stop working any time soon.
http://www.myspace.com/mcabdominal Oh, hey. It’s topical.
“In general, do Canadians like their health care, or not? Do they dislike it more than Americans dislike their HMOs?”
When I complain about health care in this country, it’s because I think it’s not being run efficiently enough and that it’s understaffed (partly because the government can’t offer competitive wages). I think when we complain about our system, we’re not blaming them as flaws inherent to the system.
Similarly, when I complain about paying taxes, it’s because I think the government spends my money ineffectively, not because I want to pay less.
Count me as one of those people bemused by the American anti-tax attitude. I’m still amazed how much of a dirty word “taxes” is to many people there.
I think Korean people are perfectly polite –
Try living in Korea for a while.
I’m a New Democrat (or perhaps just “Democrat” soon, based on current rumblings) for similar reasons. They are, in my fairly humble opinion, Canada’s only true federalist party… the Tories will always be too based in the West and the Liberals too… Liberal to ever really be able to stake that claim. I also tend to agree with the NDP’s values, even if they’re a little out there sometimes.
The funny thing is, I don’t want the NDP to form the government any time in the near future. In fact, my ideal government would be for the Liberals to have a minority of about 130 seats, supported by 40-odd NDP MPs. Liberal moderation with the values and ideals of the NDP… would work for me.
As a central Canada Tory I can say that most of the problems lie with southern Ontarians (ESPECIALLY Torontonians) who are used to being given money by the Liberals to stop whining, even if only for a short period.
Our system was designed as compassion to help you through tough times but has become a series of entitlements and hand outs.
To any Americans: Canada has done squat for true medical research because there is no incentive – Canadians frequently zip over Stateside for health care because it is ILLEGAL to get private health care no matter that you are going to die without treatment (waiting lists are horrific). Even Sweden, the poster child for soft socialism, allows private healt care
But hey, MGK here lives in Toronto, one of the few areas with almost enough hospitals. I am from Northern Ontario and, because hospitals cannot compete for doctors, none will go there.
The problem with free health care is you end up not respecting it. I once had an allergic reaction to medication that had me vomiting for 6 hours. Reluctantly, since my hands were turning blue and I was bringing up blood, I went in. I was stuck behind a family that brought in their child and the father said “the baby, sniffling, all the time sniffling”
This was the emergency room
They brought their kid in because it had the sniffles. I’m sorry, buddy. Maybe you feel shame because your child caught a weak Western disease instead of cholera but for god’s sake… just visit a family doctor!
Oh wait, since there is a shortage of doctors (most prefer the competitive wages of the good ol’ USA) no one can find one. The clinic where I usually go for health issues has around 20 doctors. And not one of them is tasking new patients
As a central Canada Tory I can say that most of the problems lie with southern Ontarians (ESPECIALLY Torontonians) who are used to being given money by the Liberals to stop whining, even if only for a short period.
You realize that southern Ontario has for just about all of Canada’s history gotten back less in government spending than has been taken from it in taxes, right?
To any Americans: Canada has done squat for true medical research
Other than insulin, most of the major advances in child and newborn medicine, major advances in HIV therapy and Parkinson’s research, and a whole host of other things. But they don’t count.
it is ILLEGAL to get private health care
No, it’s illegal for a doctor to provide private health care while operating as a public practitioner. Private clinics are perfectly legal in Canada so long as they work distinctly.
I actually agree that there should be some opportunity for publicly funded doctors to perform some private care work on the side, but again, they currently have the option to work entirely privately if they so choose.
But hey, MGK here lives in Toronto, one of the few areas with almost enough hospitals. I am from Northern Ontario and, because hospitals cannot compete for doctors, none will go there.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the single-payer system. Rural areas in the United States have it even worse than rural areas in Canada; at least in Canada, the government will pay to transport you for medical care if you don’t have access to a doctor. Rural Americans have all the same access problems that rural Canadians do and no safety line.
Oh wait, since there is a shortage of doctors (most prefer the competitive wages of the good ol’ USA) no one can find one.
The “doctor drain” is an invention of overinflated statistics; yes, Canadian doctors do go to the United States to practice, but only in slightly greater numbers than American doctors coming here. The shortage of doctors has a lot more to do with an artificially created scarcity of doctors twenty years ago than it does anything else.