In .ca, aye

I am in Toronto, still. It is always interesting to catch up on my former home. I always miss former homes, though, when I was there, they annoyed me.

I read a headline, the first day here while mulling over a newspaper, which Canadians do more so than Americans, about how Canadians are reducing their carbon footprint by getting smaller cars to drive to the cottage on weekends.

In the same weeks, I read letters and articles about the movie "Sicko" as supporting the notion of the superiority of the Canadian health care system, then a review on the just issued government reported that average wait in a hospital is 1.5 hours (much longer in Toronto). Stuff like MRIs are four to six months, unless you are older, then they don't bother. What the hell, you are going to die soon anyway.

I was fascinated that Quebec attempted to ban private medical facilities only to be thwarted by the Supreme Court which figured universal access to medical care does not mean universal access to a waiting list. (Their words.) A woman sued the great system because she wanted it to pay for her surgery in Buffalo. If she did not leave the county for the work, she would be long dead. Everyone, literally, has a horror story to tell, but when group-think clicks in, the cliche takes over. Big Brother is subtle, here. [For Canadians: No one is ever thrown out of a U.S. hospital emergency room for not producing an insurance card.]

That about says it all when trying to sort through the self-delusion that is Canada. Still, people are pleasant, sort of like the Eloi in the Time Machine. It is nice to see a place where, as a rule, people don't have to waddle their blubber to travel down the sidewalk.

You just can't expect to join in a conversation, though, involving critical thought. Just stick to the group-think and you fit in: Bush Bad, Earth Warm, Canadians Nice, Streets Clean. That's about all you need. If you want to lead the discussion then: 911 Never Happened, Cheney Oil, Bush Dumb, or Bush Diabolical Smart. Inconsistency is not important.

[Oh, a quick sidebar, the paper the other day had a full page on Greenland having no glaciers at all 100,000 years ago. Thick with forests...Oops. Like I say, don't worry about inconsistency.]

I recall warning folks back in the day, when I lived here, that what had happened in the US was happening in Canada. (Which was also my business guidepost.) No one took it seriously that bad things can happen. Canadians don't really want to get involved with things other than making sure there are enough places to walk their dogs. It is, to be fair, nice to live in the picnic society and worry about your clothes, car, and bar. You just need to suspend your disbelief, sort of like living in a pleasant novel.

While Americans are fighting off the politicians who want immigrants to flood the land with "aliens," as we lovingly call them, to provide cheap labor or cheap votes, Canadians seem oblivious that their country is disappearing by default. It seems to be going the way of European countries, though most of them, albeit late, have realized their policies are bringing to an end the civilizations (or civilisations) their forefather fought for over a thousand years. There is nothing wrong with the Canadian culture that requires the subtle imposition of a homogenization that results in a bland, flavorless mass of breeders (as the Bildebergers would say) who are intent only on buying stuff.

Canada is taking in 500,000 immigrants a year and the culture abhors the "melting pot" concept. This is trouble. The country cannot change all these folks into "Canadians" fast enough, if it wanted to. I think the established Canadians don't really know what makes them Canadian, so they don't express any thoughts on preserving what they have. Too bad. When I lived here, I had a friend from Tanzania who once stopped, as we were walking, to explain that Canadians don't realize they are bending over backwards (OK, not his words) to be supportive of immigrants who would kill them if the tables were reversed.

Remember, California has three million more people than all of Canada. Greater Toronto has 4.7 million, so the flood is proportionally extreme. Of course, the big money guys are making a fortune in land development. I would recommend you buy shares in Ontario Hydro, the biggest utility in the world, but it was not traded and was just bought by the teachers' union, though I didn't read that article too closely. Socialism is a great thing.

The CN Tower of Babel is the main tourist attraction. Sharia law was being promoted a few years ago, seriously, as something to attach to the legal current system. It was not as sweeping an adoption, as reported in the US, but the proposition is more evidence of suicide by correctness.

If you drive north out of Toronto there is an impressive urban sprawl boom that is unbecoming a nation of self-proclaimed environmentalists. Imagine the mushroom patch suburbs of Phoenix, LA, etc., but make the houses twice a large and built them with three feet between each giant box. The result is a grotesque melange of "executive homes." You wonder who wants these places. The country must be top heavy with executives who drive an hour and a half to work and avoid sunlight.

It would have been ecologically smart to just join the weird giant boxes into some distorted gray brownstones, to coin a contradiction, but, of course, then you would not own an executive home, just an easier-to-heat attached home. I suppose one could grow mushrooms in the patch between the houses. The American Dream has morphed into the Canadian Nightmare.

These new developments are a long car drive from mass transit, which Canadians find as painful to use as those in Los Angeles. Thus, the main highway around Toronto is now one of the most used in the world. In fact, there is now a shadow highway that is private and the toll is paid without a toll booth, via electronic means, including reading licenses for those without transponders.

In short, Toronto is a geometrically expanding expensive mess. Quite a change from just ten years ago. It is sad to see a great city adopting Alzheimer's Disease by choice.