East hasting is pretty ghetto in downtown eastside. I don’t think it’s really dangerous around that there though. There ARE a shitload of homeless people and people with AIDS. How often do you hear about people getting killed on East Hastings though? Rarely, it’s usually in the suburbs.
As for rascism I don’t see much, I think theres more in the smaller towns in Northern B.C than in the city but that’s just from what I’ve seen. I’m half burmese and half white, I have white friends, brown friends, black friends, european friends and we all get along just perfectly.
[quote]t3h_Squirr3l wrote:
Canadians bitch about everything (especially those damn westerners, frogs and down-easters…not our fault Ontario is the best ;)) and we’re not really a country so much as a bunch of loosely tied-together regions. We essentially dislike each other but we are paranoid enough of you Americans to hold it down up here. [/quote]
Not sure about the paranoid part, but you definitely nailed it with the 'loosely tied-together regions. The same can be said of americans, not too much in common between a Texan and a what ever they are called who lived in Alaska. One thing they’ll be proud of and make them stand together no matter what is their pride of being citizen of the USA. Never that kind of patriotism in Canada, even in Quebec where patriotism is stronger than elsewhere in the country.
And nice try squarehead, people all know Quebec is wayyyy better than Ontario. Just look at the lame ad campaign they had this summer… They had to pay people to come visit.
[quote]t3h_Squirr3l wrote:
we’re not really a country so much as a bunch of loosely tied-together regions.
[/quote]
I’ll have to go ahead and disagree with that one. After decades of study, Michael Adams has found that all regions of Canada, even Alberta and Quebec (which have closer values than Ontario and New York State) essentially hold the same values…
…and that the values of Canadians and Americans have been steadily diverging in opposite directions since the 1950s.
Essentially dislike each other? I don’t know about that. Michael Adams’ research shows that in terms of core values, a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. Differences are essentially superficial.
Unless you’re a godless, oil-coveting, no-good Easterner!
Regarding the arguments about taxes, if you can swing it so your employer pays you on contracts and you run everything through a corporate body, the taxes really aren’t that bad at all.
[quote]ElbowStrike wrote:
I’ll have to go ahead and disagree with that one. After decades of study, Michael Adams has found that all regions of Canada, even Alberta and Quebec (which have closer values than Ontario and New York State) essentially hold the same values…
[/quote]
Not sure I follow you on the Quebec-Alberta relation…
[quote]Zen warrior wrote:
ElbowStrike wrote:
Not sure I follow you on the Quebec-Alberta relation…
[/quote]
It’s from years of survey data regarding fundamental social, civic, spiritual, and economic values.
Example, percent of people who strongly agree with the question: “The father must be the master of the house”
Quebec: 15%
Alberta: 21%
(Difference: 6%)
Ontario: 18%
New England: 29%
(Difference: 11%)
The trend is fairly consistent across many value categories: deference/resistance to authority, attraction to crowds, acceptance/fear of violence, gender issues, entrepreneurialism, ethical consumerism, impulse consumerism, importance of brand, etc, etc, etc…
Incidentally, the “Deep South”, the most conservative part of the USA, agreed 71% with the above statement, whereas New England is the most liberal with 29%, a difference of 42%.
We’re a lot more alike than the average Quebecois or Albertan would care to admit, mon frere.
Again, not true. Gun crime is increasing in Toronto. There are tons of guns around. There’s shootings almost everyday. And I’m pretty sure Toronto is A LOT more dangerous than Edmonton.
According to statistics from 2006, Edmonton is the violent crime capital of Canada in terms of violent crimes per capita.
We get stabbings on the news almost every day. Usually multiple unrelated stabbings in the same night. You just hear about it more because there are more people in TO. Compare the number of incidents compared to population and Edmonton is more dangerous overall.
– ElbowStrike[/quote]
Edmonton is dangerous? It was only ranked #1 for murder rate, other than that everything is pretty low. Edmonton’s population is close to a million now and 37 deaths per million people is peanuts compared to cities half it’s size in states. If you’re in a gang you’ll be in trouble, otherwise it’s a pretty safe city.
[quote]TKL.ca wrote:
ElbowStrike wrote:
Reef wrote:
Edmonton’s population is close to a million now and 37 [murders] per million people is peanuts compared to cities half it’s size in states.
[/quote]
Which helps make my point: Canadian living gets you a lot of the conveniences of American urban life with fewer drawbacks.
[quote]pookie wrote:
I was simply pointing out something in which AB and QC are vastly different (ie, their respective tax burdens.)
[/quote]
True, but that’s because we’re lucky enough to live on the world’s largest oil reserves and also have a more powerful business influence on our provincial government. Also, because of our first-past-the-post electoral system and years of gerrymandering, the minority kept voting in “majority” governments with a high-school drop-out, neoconservative alcoholic at the helm.
[quote]ElbowStrike wrote:
True, but that’s because we’re lucky enough to live on the world’s largest oil reserves and also have a more powerful business influence on our provincial government. Also, because of our first-past-the-post electoral system and years of gerrymandering, the minority kept voting in “majority” governments with a high-school drop-out, neoconservative alcoholic at the helm.[/quote]
At least a conservative is among the choices offered. Here, I get to pick between left, lefter and so fucking far left that they see the Sun rise before Japan.
On the federal side, I can also pick “Useless protest party who couldn’t form the government even if all their candidates got elected, but are pretty good at insuring minority governments if an even race develops.”
I live in the Buffalo area, so I’m conveniently located in close proximity to Canada. I have had a lot of Canadian friends, and have been to different parts of Ontario several times. I don’t know if people are the same all over Canada. I doubt it–that would be like saying that New Yorkers are like people from Atlanta.
Observations:
–Canadians are generally very friendly, polite, and not rude. It is weird, but you can almost tell when you are speaking with a Canadian, because they will not generally offer a strong negative opinion for fear of insulting you. Nor will they disagree loudly with an opinion that you have expressed, probably for the same reason.
–Canadians love their country. Period.
–Not all Canadians love hockey. I met several young men (25-30 years old) recently, and none of them had played since they were kids and didn’t follow any hockey at all. Blows that stereotype.
–I do not know about racial issues, but they are very aware of nationality. I have a few friends who ALWAYS introduced people as their “Polish” friend, or their “Swedish” friend. These people were not born in Poland or Sweden, so I didn’t quite get that.
–They bust on people from Newfoundland like we bust on people from Alabama. I guess every country has its rednecks.
Final thought—I love Canada. If these crazy American Democrats ever elect Hillary Clinton to President, I am moving there.
Hey Elbowstrike, I’m gonna side with Pookie on this one: let’s trade tax burdens and see if you’re happy with that…
Besides, Harper’s trying to win Ontario and Quebec over with his recalculation of “perequations” (what the f**k is the word in english for that??), greatly augmenting the money here, and diminishing it at your end of the country. Let’s see how that strategy pan out in the long run. For once, elections time is gonna fun watching in Canada.
[quote]melvis66 wrote:
Final thought—I love Canada. If these crazy American Democrats ever elect Hillary Clinton to President, I am moving there.
[/quote]
Don’t think you’d be much better off here… See above comment
