Welcome to Canada, eh.

[Luvian]

It's not just the weather that's cooler in Canada

Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Wednesday, July 30, 2003

You live next door to a clean-cut, quiet guy. He never plays loud music or throws raucous parties. He doesn't gossip over the fence, just smiles politely and offers you some tomatoes. His lawn is cared-for, his house is neat as a pin and you get the feeling he doesn't always lock his front door. He wears Dockers. You hardly know he's there.

And then one day you discover that he has pot in his basement, spends his weekends at peace marches and that guy you've seen mowing the yard is his spouse.

Allow me to introduce Canada.

The Canadians are so quiet that you may have forgotten they're up there, but they've been busy doing some surprising things. It's like discovering that the mice you are dimly aware of in your attic have been building an espresso machine.

Did you realize, for example, that our reliable little tag-along brother never joined the Coalition of the Willing? Canada wasn't willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in Iraq. I can only assume American diner menus weren't angrily changed to include "freedom bacon," because nobody here eats the stuff anyway.

And then there's the wild drug situation: Canadian doctors are authorized to dispense medical marijuana. Parliament is considering legislation that would not exactly legalize marijuana possession, as you may have heard, but would reduce the penalty for possession of under 15 grams to a fine, like a speeding ticket. This is to allow law enforcement to concentrate resources on traffickers; if your garden is full of wasps, it's smarter to go for the nest rather than trying to swat every individual bug. Or, in the United States, bong.

Now, here's the part that I, as an American, can't understand. These poor benighted pinkos are doing everything wrong. They have a drug problem: Marijuana offenses have doubled since 1991. And Canada has strict gun control laws, which means that the criminals must all be heavily armed, the law-abiding civilians helpless and the government on the verge of a massive confiscation campaign. (The laws have been in place since the '70s, but I'm sure the government will get around to the confiscation eventually.) They don't even have a death penalty!

And yet ... nationally, overall crime in Canada has been declining since 1991. Violent crimes fell 13 percent in 2002. Of course, there are still crimes committed with guns -- brought in from the United States, which has become the major illegal weapons supplier for all of North America -- but my theory is that the surge in pot-smoking has rendered most criminals too relaxed to commit violent crimes. They're probably more focused on shoplifting boxes of Ho-Hos from convenience stores.

And then there's the most reckless move of all: Just last month, Canada decided to allow and recognize same-sex marriages. Merciful moose, what can they be thinking? Will there be married Mounties (they always get their man!)? Dudley Do-Right was sweet on Nell, not Mel! We must be the only ones who really care about families. Not enough to make sure they all have health insurance, of course, but more than those libertines up north.

This sort of behavior is a clear and present danger to all our stereotypes about Canada. It's supposed to be a cold, wholesome country of polite, beer-drinking hockey players, not founded by freedom-fighters in a bloody revolution but quietly assembled by loyalists and royalists more interested in order and good government than liberty and independence.

But if we are the rugged individualists, why do we spend so much of our time trying to get everyone to march in lockstep? And if Canadians are so reserved and moderate, why are they so progressive about letting people do what they want to?

Canadians are, as a nation, less religious than we are, according to polls. As a result, Canada's government isn't influenced by large, well-organized religious groups and thus has more in common with those of Scandinavia than those of the United States, or, say, Iran.

Canada signed the Kyoto global warming treaty, lets 19-year-olds drink, has more of its population living in urban areas and accepts more immigrants per capita than the United States.

These are all things we've been told will wreck our society. But I guess Canadians are different, because theirs seems oddly sound.

Like teenagers, we fiercely idolize individual freedom but really demand that everyone be the same. But the Canadians seem more adult -- more secure. They aren't afraid of foreigners. They aren't afraid of homosexuality. Most of all, they're not afraid of each other.

I wonder if America will ever be that cool.


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Samantha Bennett can be reached at sbennett@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3572.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Talk about yanking your chain, then giving you a bone. A very interesting article.

[Iron_Ranger]

Thank you, Luvian, for giving me a reminder how lucky I am too live in America.

[Chewbacca]

Hey America's not that uncool! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Yep where 9 states have legalized medical pot, and more than double that have de-criminalized it in general with more on the way on both counts.

Only one state allows gay civil unions, but still it exists in America. Though 36 states have outlawed gay marriage, the constitutional test of such a ban has yet to come, but it will.

We will grow beyond our homo-dicrimination and our pot-o-phobia just as we outgrew our racial discrimination and alcohol prohibition. I have no fear.

The puritans, er, I mean conservatives [img]tongue.gif[/img] still bark up a storm, but thats nothing new. History does show they tend to lose here in the long run, whethers its prohibition, segregation, or establishment of a religion by the state, so I don't worry about it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Canada will show the uptight "rightys" just how wrong they are about the doomy fall of civilization if pot and gay marriage are ever legal. That makes smile. I feel lucky to be an American and to have Canada as my neighbor to the north as well.

[WillowIX]

I knew you Quebecians were strange but this? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Sounds like Ms Bennet isn't very happy liveing in her own country. Perhaps she should move up here...

[Rokenn]

Don't let Bush find this out, he will be invading next week if he does! The more I know about Canada the more I want to retire to there [img]smile.gif[/img] Too bad I hate snow [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Djinn Raffo]

Originally posted by Rokenn: Don't let Bush find this out, he will be invading next week if he does! The more I know about Canada the more I want to retire to there [img]smile.gif[/img] Too bad I hate snow [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Move to Vancouver Island or the lower mainland B.C. Snow is rare.

EDIT> relatively speaking.. plenty of mountains an such.. but down in the valleys, know what i mean?

[ 09-03-2003, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Djinn Raffo ]

[Djinn Raffo]

Originally posted by Iron_Ranger: Thank you, Luvian, for giving me a reminder how lucky I am too live in America.

I'm not going to reply to this post.

[Iron_Ranger]

Originally posted by Djinn Raffo: quote: Originally posted by Iron_Ranger: Thank you, Luvian, for giving me a reminder how lucky I am too live in America.

I'm not going to reply to this post. [/QUOTE] Why not.

I wonder if Brett Hull agress with the artical BTW.

[ 09-03-2003, 02:52 PM: Message edited by: Iron_Ranger ]

[Timber Loftis]

Great article! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] One pointer: whoever came up with the notion that Americans have a monopoly on fierce independence has not visited the parts of Canada I have.