To: LindyBill who wrote (19689 ) 12/13/2003 10:45:39 PM From: Cogito Ergo Sum Read Replies (4) | Respond to Hello LindyBill,Tens of thousands of university-educated, middle-class Canadians leave Canada for the U.S. every year. Is it really significant ? When you see 'tens of thousands' don't you imagine a border crossing packed with poor Canadian refugees fleeing ... sacre bleu zeeee French are coming... save us.. Maybe I figure that sounds like 50K 60K annually ? Since 1970, 601,000 people from Canada (population 29.5 million) actually more like 32 million now, have emigrated to the United States. During the same period, 635,000 people from the Dominican Republic (population 7.8 million) emigrated to the United States. canadasbraindrain.ca www12.statcan.ca Ever wonder why you see so many rusty cars up north? It's not just because they salt the roads in the wintertime. People can't afford new ones. Well that's purely anecdotal. On my street in a nice upper middle class neighbourhood of Toronto the only folks that don’t change their cars about every three years or so are the guy with the classic 450SL and the one with the Jag.. ;o) BTW we don't use salt in every province... ask a westerner... So a sweeping generalisation like that tells me that Ms Meeks is one of those folks Jay Leno digs up that can't tell you why there are 365 days in a year.. Only she's the Canadian version or does she think US road salt isn't corrosive ?elements.nb.ca usatoday.com Fifty percent of the Canadian paycheck goes to taxes alberta-canada.com Official bilingualism — This is what most of the taxes pay for. Does she ever cite any credible source or is she just blowing smoke and whipping up the natives... I can't tell you how much this costs but frankly even in a city like Toronto comparable in size to a large American city it means you got a few folks that can speak French. Works out great for me. Let's me jump the queue :o) Many publications are becoming available on the net as PDF's and folks are encouraged to use the net. See the cost savings ? They (government) make it a pain to get real hard copy so as to encourage net use for tax forms for example. I suspect we pay more for the provincial driving tests available in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Russian, Greek and God only knows what other languages... How is that stateside.. Only in English ? Most of our postal outlets in the cities are privitised affairs like our license bureaus for automobiles and driving permits, (some socialist county eh!) and with at most 2 staffers you can bet they don't hire a francophone or bilingual, (well maybe Mandarin :o).. He'd be passed over in employment by someone who speaks a government-approved level of French. Sounds like he applied for one of those cushy government bureaucratic jobs in which case he doesn't deserve any respect anyway. In private business unless you are in Québec that's an outright falsehood. My French was learned from my Grandmother who never got past grade 4 and in the streets and bars etc of Montreal because I was inclined to speak it by choice. My written French is terrible unless armed with le Petit Robert (dictionary) and that's still tedious. I've NEVER been out of work and I'm now 47. These past 20 years in Toronto I use no French except occasionally on SI, it's never been required . So her husband is likely just ... well let's not go there...Canada is officially bilingual and that means everything must be in French and English. Everything. It's the law an outright lie (or in the vernacular pure crap :o). Sure the soup cans have French on them.. so what. Only in Québec do they have the famous language laws.. and even there the French were becoming peed at the provincial government for restricting their access to English. BTW that is almost singlehandedly responsible for the rise of Toronto and subordination of Montréal and the people know it. If you or your company do not comply with regulations then the official language "police" will be at your door Only in Québec....maybe .. You can see English in any place where warranted even there. So far overblown that it's inane. In fairness there were a few cases where the old separatist government tried to set an example but all has pretty much cooled down and they are out of power. My family in Montreal sold their business to a large Canadian food company 2 years back The new owners don't speak French. Guess what they speak in board meetings.Forget about that textbook Parisian Another truism.. We learned Le Français International, much more bland... If you want to pursue a career in retail, the police, Again in Québec it sure helps if you can communicate with you clients one would think.. In the rest of Canada that's again completely false. BTW when I was a teen I could get a sales job in a major department store in Montreal without ever being asked to speak a word French. OTHOH if you only spoke French you were outta luck.. I love it when people like Meeker emigrate, now she's your problem. gnb.ca business false you don't need French. Here in Ontario Cantonese or Mandarin or Urdu or Punjabi might help though.. I guess if she went to China she would resent all those that couldn't speak English, oh well...Affirmative action in the name of official bilingualism has resulted in a great deal of conflict. Yeah in government jobs not private business outside Quebec and even there many can't speak French and don't need it if they are not dealing with customers. There's been some silliness but for the most it's passed.Employment — If you are English-speaking in Canada, it's difficult to find a job. a falsehood restated....Salaries are much lower than in the U.S. When we moved to the U.S., my husband almost tripled his salary. As a rule I'd say true. BUT it depends on what part of the US and for example one of my sister's lives in CA and makes great bucks. Unfortunately being self employed she needed to pay for her own health insurance. That was expensive enough. Her husband who's dad had heart problems paid such an astronomical amount... well .. if you are healthy I guess it works.. Salaries are high but wow look a those prices for homes...Our standard of living is beyond what we could have ever achieved in a lifetime living in Canada. Looks like here husband finally found a job.. Good for him. Interstingly when counting quality of life issues Canada always ranks very high in those international studies... mercerhr.com and consider what percent of our total population those 4 cities represent wow…Meanwhile, it is the norm for Canadian schools to have at least 40 kids per class — that is, if the teachers are not on strike. This happened to me in Grade 7 for one year. At 47 I'm a mid boomer so demographics played a role. My 11 year old in Grade 6 (French emersion LOL because I believe it makes it easier to learn Spanish, a more useful language) has missed 5 days in 7 years (including kindergarten) and has never had more than 31 children in here class. She is in public school.I remember one summer when the bus drivers, postal workers, movie projectionists and government workers were all on strike Yeah way back during the wage and price controls and high inflation years it got silly. Now like stateside they are happy to have job security ;o) Whatever happened to all those air traffic controllers anyway. And wasn't there a minor crisis when the west coast stevedores struck a few years back ? Speaking of doctors, every Canadian has experienced or knows of a family member for someone purporting to know every Canadian Ms Meeker doesn't know much about Canada. My dad had to go see a new doctor when his regular GP was on holiday. He had not had a heart attack but testing revealed severe blockage and 4 days later he had his 4 (became 5).. bypass.Hospitals are miserable. There are long waiting lists for the most basic treatments and operations. When we went to an American hospital, it was like entering a five-star hotel. I hear Americans complain about the cost of medical bills but I would rather my child be alive and have a bill to pay than to be dead at no charge. They are not that bad as I indicated above and what happens top those folks that don't have money ? In Canada, there is one system of health care for everyone — except the elite or government bureaucrats, who go to the U.S. and pay for decent health care So this is it different in the US ? If you have the money you get better service. Private just magnifies the problem IMO.Political oppression — Imagine an American president and one political party in power for over 10 years. LOL 10 years vs 8 years defines oppression ROTF... she is whacked...the average Canadian is fed up and glad to see him go. Yeah he did some things I liked but I never voted for him. He should have left with dignity last year but you know American Canadian there all politicians. They bring out the cynic in me. The tide will turn eventually when enough stupid lazy apathetic (talking about Canadians here BTW :O) members of the electorate wake up.That would be my nightmare. Wow she should go to LA....Canadians and Seattlelites is coffee. A Canadian would never choose Starbucks over Tim Horton's. I guess she's never been to Toronto... Downtown / Uptown you can't help but trip over Starbucks... If they weren't making money they wouldn't be here...Jennifer Meeks is a Canadian living in Seattle I guess that is supposed to give her credibility. You know Canadians are just like Americans. You've got Righties, Lefties, Moderates, wackos and all those groups have smart members and what Red Foreman (That 70’s Show) would call 'dumbasses'...
