Ten questions for Canadians: my response

There's a bit of an uproar taking place in blogworld these days. First, Matthew Good asked ten questions of America. Many of them were phrased in a sarcastic manner. Conservative bloggers all over have been springing up to respond to these questions in force. A couple of them have written ten questions for Canadians, and as you can see on Matt's blog, he has responded to one of them. As a proud progressive Canadian, I will take the opportunity to respond as well to these questions.

Jake's Questions for Canadians

1. Why do Canadians put up with high unemployment and high taxes?

The unemployment rate is consistently higher in Canada than it is in the US. However, I wonder what prorportion of jobs are low-end, degrading jobs in the US as compared to Canada. The likely difference between the US in Canada is that the US provides degrading, low-end jobs which keep folks under the poverty line, and Canada provides social assistance (well, not so much anymore, which of course exaserbates the problem of homelessness) to Canadians under the poverty line. The problem in both countries is poverty, which is much higher than it is in Europe. In Sweden, I have heard, they don't even know what a food bank is.

We pay higher taxes so that we can have social programs which protect us economically, especially those of us who are poor,from unforseen catastrophes such as unemployment and sickness. It is something I am proud of and grateful for as a Canadian.

2. Why do Canadians put up with the worst healthcare in the Western World?

Worst according to who? Certainly not the 40 million poor in America who go without health insurance. We have a publicly funded health care system to ensure that no one, not even the poorest in our society, go without health care. The problems that have developed in our society have arisem from a lack of funding, patient's rights protection, and government safeguarding, not from the public nature of the system.


3. Why are there more MRIs in Minneapolis than there is in all of Canada?

As I said, there has been a problem of lack of funding in Canada. Of course, the number of MRIs in Minneapolis does nothing for those without health insurance in Minneapolis.

4. Why do the Canadians allow the government to stop the free flow of information into their country?

There is no problem with the flow of information here, believe me. We are saturated with commercial America trying to hawk their goods to us and telling us what to think.

5. Why don't the Canadians celebrate that 50,000,000 people have the right to vote in the Middle East for the first time

In and of itself, having the right to vote is not a bad thing. But that's not demcracy. Democracy the the right to determine your own future, which the people of Iraq certainly do not have right now, or as long as the US continues to occupy and have their puppet Allawi in power. I think we're also mourning the fact that an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died unnecessarily for this fraud that had nothing to do with Bush's real or even originally stated reasons for going to war. I wish neocons would quit obfuscating the facts with the hopes that people will forgot that it was a war based on lies.


6. Why didn't Canadians object when their government actively worked to stop freedom movements in El Salvador, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Iraq, Iran and Cuba.

Canadians will object when its government opposes a genuine freedom movement, as opposed to a phony one which is constructed by the US military-industrial complex.


7. Why do Canadians allow the French government to have a colony within Canada?

I can't believe this is a serious question.

8. Why can't Canadians win at hockey anymore?

With respect to Canadian NHL teams, it is because the economics of the league are tilted in favour of the large market teams. Let us not forget that Canada has one all major world championships since 2002.

9. Why do terrorists believe that there is nothing worth blowing up in Canada?

Because we don't attack poor, defenseless countries. We're with the rest of the world against a tiny minority of countries which support the Bush administration.


10. Why did the Canadian government cut and run in Rwanda thereby allowing 800,000 Tutsis to be slaughtered by men armed only with machetes?

Nice try. As often happens, right-wingers in the US try to demonize Canada and the UN, conveniently overlooking the fact that the US effectively controls the UN security council, under whose auspices Romeo Dallaire was working. If was the UN security council who refused to classify Rwanda as a genocide.

Watch the documentary "Shake Hands with the Devil." Dallaire pleaded with the security council for extra help in Rwanda, but none was forthcoming.