Why Canada?

For decades, even while nurturing close ties with the United States, Canadians have often chosen a different path - establishing universal health care, maintaining ties with Cuba, imposing tough gun control laws. Two recently passed Canadian initiatives, to decriminalize marijuana and legalize same-sex marriage, have pleased many liberals in the United States and irked conservatives. There is a more European attitude toward nudity and Canada has diverse cosmopolitan cities.

Admittedly, the US has many diverse metropolitan cities but the overall national culture in the U.S. has grown more conservative since the 70's.

A big selling point is health care. While the right will point to a few anecdotes of the rich flying to the US for some expensive health procedures, according the Harris Poll of all industrial nations
Canadians are the most satisfied with their health care. Americans are the least satisfied.

Before Canada implemented their national health program, their health costs were the same portion of their economy as in the U.S. After they implemented their program, their costs stabilized at 9% while U.S. costs have increased to 14%. They spend one tenth of what U.S. health care providers spend on overhead. Americans might be interested to know that Canadians live longer, have lower maternal mortality rates, and lower infant mortality. Before the new system was implemented in Canada, infant mortality was similar to that in the U.S., today there are 9.1 deaths in the first year of life per 1000 births in the U.S. and 6.8 in Canada.

Ongoing misinformation perpetuates myths about long wait times for care, availability of high-tech care, and the amount and quality of medical research done. There are very small differences between the U.S. and Canada in these three areas. The main difference between the two health care systems is that everyone is covered in Canada while medical costs are now the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S.

There was a book exploring the differences between Canadian and U.S. worldviews recently. It concluded: "Canadians have fundamentally different values and worldviews from Americans, and those differences are increasing. Canadians are now much closer to their European contemporaries than to Americans, closer to Europeans, in fact, than are the British. America is now largely isolated in its prevailing worldview from the rest of the developed world. Its values are closer to those of autocratic developing nations than to those of other nations that have made the transition to democracy and constitutional liberalism."

The book based on national surveys also argues that the U.S. on average is mainly seeking status and security and Canadians are seeking idealism and autonomy.

You can take the survey on social values here.

I am in the idealism and autonomy quadrant.

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Separate survey -

What is Your Philosophy?

I follow Kant - 100% and John Stuart Mill - 95%.

http://selectsmart.com/PHILOSOPHY

From an email discussion I am having.