I found myself quite astounded that our media and interest groups were so quiet when the prostitution laws were suspended in Canada. No upset Christians, no gloom and doom in the press.
This morning I found the Globe Online Poll for prostitution and was pleasantly surprised by the results:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1731579/
It seems it was quiet, because generally speaking, a lot of people approve. Didn't really expect that...
- Guest053011
- 12-06-2010, 12:56 PM
- ClairJordan
- 12-06-2010, 04:58 PM
I lived in Canda in the 90s and found it a very practical place where common sense rules and people actually assume you have a brain. I always felt that Canadians have their priorities right and a live and let live, tolerant attitude. I lived in Vancouver, but travelled extensively throughout the country; even made it to Newfoundland!
Vancouver, being the Left Coast, is quite diverse and tolerant, but (IMO) there is a huge diff in attitude everywhere above the boarder. I love the US in all it's glory, diversity and mavrick spirit, but! You live in an awesome country, Miss Lauren.
Vancouver, being the Left Coast, is quite diverse and tolerant, but (IMO) there is a huge diff in attitude everywhere above the boarder. I love the US in all it's glory, diversity and mavrick spirit, but! You live in an awesome country, Miss Lauren.
- macksback
- 12-06-2010, 06:34 PM
Well I agree with the canadians.Thats a first for me.
- I B Hankering
- 12-06-2010, 09:08 PM
- Laurentius
- 12-06-2010, 09:18 PM
I still don't understand why we haven't completed our manifest destiny by annexing Canada's provinces as states.
(*grin*)
In all seriousness, I hope most people have more important things to worry about than whether their neighbor is visiting a provider.
(*grin*)
In all seriousness, I hope most people have more important things to worry about than whether their neighbor is visiting a provider.
- pjorourke
- 12-06-2010, 09:26 PM
Because they'd vote for some stupid healthcare law that would fuck things up for everyone.
- Guest053011
- 12-07-2010, 11:47 AM
Because they'd vote for some stupid healthcare law that would fuck things up for everyone. Originally Posted by pjorourkeAnd we like our healthcare system, so I think we can just agree to remain separate countries with their own ideas and identities that can maybe find mutual respect in each other.
Do remember that we love our country as much as you love yours.
- I B Hankering
- 12-07-2010, 12:12 PM
[quote=Laurentius;816030]I still don't understand why we haven't completed our manifest destiny by annexing Canada's provinces as states.[quote]
The last serious attempts by U.S. citizens (not the government) to annex Canada were known as the Fenian Raids which occurred soon after the close of the American Civil War.
“In June 1866, the Province of Canada (pre-Confederation Ontario and Quebec) was shaken by an event as cataclysmic to its sense of security as 9/11 was recently to that of the United States. A force of nine hundred well-armed Irish American nationalists, all sworn to the Fenian cause, attacked Canada across the Niagara River near Buffalo at Fort Erie. Their objective was to destabilize Britain’s rule in Ireland by sparking a military crisis in Canada. Whether the Fenian plan was entirely mad [perhaps inspired by strong whiskey?] or perfectly plausible remains a question still debated by historians today.
“The invasion across the Niagara River climaxed with the deaths of seven inexperienced Canadian militia soldiers—boys actually—four were University of Toronto students called out by church bells the previous morning to go and die at a hamlet near Fort Erie called Ridgeway. The volunteer soldiers, ordered in the heat of battle to form into a densely packed square by a panicked command to stand ready for a cavalry charge that would never come, made a perfect target for the expert volleys of concentrated musket fire unleashed by the Fenian riflemen. Many of the Fenians were recently demobilized battle-hardened Civil War veterans who had purchased back from the US government their war-issue weapons at post-war surplus prices. So disciplined was the Fenian fire that the Canadians thought they had come under fire from state-of-the-art Spencer seven-shot “repeater” rifles. In reality the Fenians were armed with an assortment of single-shot muzzle or breech-loaders. The subsequent retreat of the Canadians forces with their dead and wounded from the Battle of Ridgeway [see also] was a humiliating military defeat on home ground, and was to be celebrated by Irish patriots as their first victory over the British military since Fontenay in 1745 when an Irish Brigade with the French Army routed the Coldstream Guards. While it is generally believed that the invaders would have been defeated by a reinforced and re-grouped Canadian counter-attack, in the end the invasion had been broken by the US authorities’ subsequent interruption of Fenian supply lines across the Niagara River and the arrests of Fenian reinforcements attempting to cross the river into Canada.” http://www.russianbooks.org/crime/cph5a.htm
“We are the Fenian Brotherhood, skilled in the arts of war,
And we're going to fight for Ireland, the land we adore,
Many battles we have won, along with the boys in blue,
And we'll go and capture Canada, for we've nothing else to do.”
-- “Fenian soldier's song”
In 1897-98, Canadian officials were again concerned about “invading Americans.” They arrived along the Klondike as prospectors. Tens of thousands of Americans stampeded into the Yukon. Canadian author Pierre Berton noted that Canadian soldiers were dispatched to the Yukon to ensure that the foreigners did not wrest the North West from Canada. As it was, Canada did lose its claim on Skagway and Dyea, now part of Alaska. Berton also recounts how, in 1898, the Mounties tactfully conceded to have Canada’s Dominion Day celebrated on the 4th of July rather than on the prescribed 1st of July. This assuaged the many Americans in the camps who could not legally celebrate the 4th otherwise. (BTW, Skagway, originally spelled Skaguay, is from the Tlingit word for the area, “Skagua” or “Shgagwèi,” meaning the home of the North Wind. The prevailing wind seasonally alternates between oceanic and continental. There is a local festival in Skagway to celebrate this change. It is called the “Passing Wind Festival.”)
In its glory days, Skagway was also home for several providers. In addition to Diamond Lil Davenport and Sweet Marie, there was Mollie Fewclothes and Ethel the Moose. Ya gotta wonder and offer praise that we now have hot and cold running water and plenty of soap (for both men and women!).
The last serious attempts by U.S. citizens (not the government) to annex Canada were known as the Fenian Raids which occurred soon after the close of the American Civil War.
“In June 1866, the Province of Canada (pre-Confederation Ontario and Quebec) was shaken by an event as cataclysmic to its sense of security as 9/11 was recently to that of the United States. A force of nine hundred well-armed Irish American nationalists, all sworn to the Fenian cause, attacked Canada across the Niagara River near Buffalo at Fort Erie. Their objective was to destabilize Britain’s rule in Ireland by sparking a military crisis in Canada. Whether the Fenian plan was entirely mad [perhaps inspired by strong whiskey?] or perfectly plausible remains a question still debated by historians today.
“The invasion across the Niagara River climaxed with the deaths of seven inexperienced Canadian militia soldiers—boys actually—four were University of Toronto students called out by church bells the previous morning to go and die at a hamlet near Fort Erie called Ridgeway. The volunteer soldiers, ordered in the heat of battle to form into a densely packed square by a panicked command to stand ready for a cavalry charge that would never come, made a perfect target for the expert volleys of concentrated musket fire unleashed by the Fenian riflemen. Many of the Fenians were recently demobilized battle-hardened Civil War veterans who had purchased back from the US government their war-issue weapons at post-war surplus prices. So disciplined was the Fenian fire that the Canadians thought they had come under fire from state-of-the-art Spencer seven-shot “repeater” rifles. In reality the Fenians were armed with an assortment of single-shot muzzle or breech-loaders. The subsequent retreat of the Canadians forces with their dead and wounded from the Battle of Ridgeway [see also] was a humiliating military defeat on home ground, and was to be celebrated by Irish patriots as their first victory over the British military since Fontenay in 1745 when an Irish Brigade with the French Army routed the Coldstream Guards. While it is generally believed that the invaders would have been defeated by a reinforced and re-grouped Canadian counter-attack, in the end the invasion had been broken by the US authorities’ subsequent interruption of Fenian supply lines across the Niagara River and the arrests of Fenian reinforcements attempting to cross the river into Canada.” http://www.russianbooks.org/crime/cph5a.htm
“We are the Fenian Brotherhood, skilled in the arts of war,
And we're going to fight for Ireland, the land we adore,
Many battles we have won, along with the boys in blue,
And we'll go and capture Canada, for we've nothing else to do.”
-- “Fenian soldier's song”
In 1897-98, Canadian officials were again concerned about “invading Americans.” They arrived along the Klondike as prospectors. Tens of thousands of Americans stampeded into the Yukon. Canadian author Pierre Berton noted that Canadian soldiers were dispatched to the Yukon to ensure that the foreigners did not wrest the North West from Canada. As it was, Canada did lose its claim on Skagway and Dyea, now part of Alaska. Berton also recounts how, in 1898, the Mounties tactfully conceded to have Canada’s Dominion Day celebrated on the 4th of July rather than on the prescribed 1st of July. This assuaged the many Americans in the camps who could not legally celebrate the 4th otherwise. (BTW, Skagway, originally spelled Skaguay, is from the Tlingit word for the area, “Skagua” or “Shgagwèi,” meaning the home of the North Wind. The prevailing wind seasonally alternates between oceanic and continental. There is a local festival in Skagway to celebrate this change. It is called the “Passing Wind Festival.”)
In its glory days, Skagway was also home for several providers. In addition to Diamond Lil Davenport and Sweet Marie, there was Mollie Fewclothes and Ethel the Moose. Ya gotta wonder and offer praise that we now have hot and cold running water and plenty of soap (for both men and women!).
- jokacz
- 12-07-2010, 12:13 PM
I’ve loved Toronto since I started visiting there in the 1960’s. But when I recall what it was like then and what it has become due to urban sprawl and uncontrolled immigration, it makes me sad. But Canada is still the last civilized nation in North America.
- pjorourke
- 12-07-2010, 12:40 PM
And we like our healthcare system, so I think we can just agree to remain separate countries with their own ideas and identities that can maybe find mutual respect in each other. Originally Posted by Lauren SummerhillThe only reason yours doesn't suck is that you have us nearby to handle your excess demand. That will change.
- discreetgent
- 12-07-2010, 12:56 PM
- Laurentius
- 12-07-2010, 01:01 PM
The only reason yours doesn't suck is that you have us nearby to handle your excess demand. That will change. Originally Posted by pjorourkeThere is an element of truth to this. Living in NH, there are hospitals closer to the border and in VT in which 25% of all the patients are better-off Canadians who are coming to the U.S. to get bypasses and the like so they won't die while waiting.
I have no doubt that Canadians really like their system and I don't dispute their sovereignty to decide for themselves what that should be.
But with the number of Canadians who are currently using the U.S. medical system as a way of bypassing some of the problems in their own; I strongly suspect that their overall satisfaction with that system will decline markedly as ours becomes more like theirs.
- discreetgent
- 12-07-2010, 01:05 PM
How is everyone in the North enjoying the first cold snap of winter?
- Guest053011
- 12-07-2010, 01:11 PM
The only reason yours doesn't suck is that you have us nearby to handle your excess demand. That will change. Originally Posted by pjorourkeFunny how you bypass the whole mutual respect of different ideas and cultures :P
One nice thing about being in Canada is the only country that boarders us is the US. I can't imagine what would happen if we had a country like Mexico on the other side of a large boarder. We certainly don't have the same weight off massive illegal immigration to challenge us.
Truth is, most of our country is by the standards of the average person absolutely uninhabitable, which I think is a saving grace. It keeps our population low and scattered near the southern end of every province.
The fear of dying while you are waiting is frankly bullshit. If you need an emergency operation same day, you get it. I've had it happen for many relatives where they were operated on immediately upon going to the emergency room. My ex bf recently had a tumor discovered and MRI tests, biopsy's and specialists were lined up IMMEDIATELY - at no cost and no wait. The same was done when a relative was suspected of having TB. I myself have had several medical emergencies and never had to wait if there was a threat to my health in doing so.
If you CAN wait, you WILL wait because someone else is probably in more need then you. However, if you don't believe your doctors or are panicked and want to get it over with as soon as possible (and fear/panic is understandable when you're ill) you do have the option of going to the US and paying. The only case I know of anyone doing that was someone who needed a specialized eye surgery that was only in trials within the US boarders.
Unfortunate cases of waiting are never life threatening - that's just propaganda and the words of people with health issues in panic. Waits do happen, and are generally centered around things like a hip replacement - where it is debilitating but not life threatening.
And as far as "waiting till you die", we never have someone die because they couldn't afford treatment, which is a very real problem in your country. I think that counts as waiting for death too.
There is no perfect system, but I think it's a matter of human dignity and moral conscience that people who cannot afford treatment are able to get it.
Now on this idea of how many Canadians are going to the US for care, I would very much like to see unbiased statistical data, as the World Health Organization for quality care we are ranked at 30 and the US is ranked at 37. When it comes down to real life people I have talked to, not the claims of reporters who don't really care about facts, I hear far many stories of people immigrating to the US, only to move BACK to Canada when a major health issue strikes, particularly in cases where ongoing care is needed.
Canada's stats:
Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2006): 3,672
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 78/83
Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2003): 70/74
Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 6
Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 89/55
Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2006): 10.0
US stats:
Gross national income per capita (PPP international $): 44,070
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 75/80
Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2003): 67/71
Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 8
Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 137/80
Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2006): 6,714
Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2006): 15.3
- pjorourke
- 12-07-2010, 01:11 PM
Fuck the north! Its freezing here -- 48 degrees!! Damn thats cold.