BoFox! Ocre! iRollo!

[SickBeast]

Comparing apples and oranges. Canada has a mere fraction of the USA's population, 35 million, vs. 308 at the last census.

Outside of the number of housing units, the rest of the numbers are based on a percentage of GDP- the total amount of people isn't terribly relevant, it is a matter of how much of your nations output is spent on social programs. We spend a lot more then Canada does on social programs. By any definition we are not just to the left of them on this element, but *far* to the left of them.

First of all, I don’t believe you when you say that the USA spends more of its GDP on social programs compared to Canada. That statement is ludicrous, you are playing with the numbers or the data somehow. And even if that were to be true, just look at the outcomes of the spending:

- Canada has a much better public education system
- our universities are almost all publicly funded and tuition costs a fraction of what it does in the USA
- we have universal heath care
- some of our provinces are moving toward universal pharma care
- some of our provinces are introducing a $15/hour minimum wage
- Quebec even has $8/day universal child care

I don’t know the stats on how many public housing units we have here. I just know that I have traveled Canada extensively and we do *not* have a poverty problem like what you see in the states.

The thing that you right wing guys don’t understand is that a lot of ideas from the left are actually good for everyone and cost society less overall. Our health care system is an example of that. It costs half as much per capita and we have everyone here covered. They say that universal pharma care has similar benefits. The real problem with politics is that people get caught up in one particular ideology and they develop tunnel vision and ignore all logic and ideas from the other side.

I’m all for lower taxes but I’m also all for taking care of our less fortunate. I think in Canada we have struck a pretty good balance. If you guys would fix your health care system in the USA it would do a lot to level the playing field. As it stands now Canada consistently rates as having a higher quality of life compared to the USA, particularly if you compare our large cities.