I have lived a very blessed, eventful and culturally diversified life thus far. One of the things that my parents instilled is a love of learning about different cultures, geography, countries and people.
Our little guy and I went to Canada to visit our newest baby granddaughter. Anytime I go to another country I want to learn about that country. Here are some of my observations about Canada:
- The first thing that I noticed was how nice their Customs Officers were. They were helpful, cheerful and respectful. That was our welcome into Canada. This is the first time I had to have a passport to go to Canada. We used to go all the time to Vancouver BC with just our drivers license.
- Then we were met with very nice workers in the Regina Airport. It is a very small airport but nonetheless, the people were very helpful and helped us to get a limousine to get to our son's house. Our son and his family do not have a car. They walk and take cabs right now.
So my very first observation was nice, kind people without the attitude that I am met with often here.
- After we arrived, we went to Walmart Superstore. I was blown away with the prices! The food prices were SO much LESS than here in Florida. The fresh bakery was really top of the line, much unlike what you see in Florida at a Walmart. In fact, I very rarely go to a Walmart in Florida. The workers here almost all have attitude. But not in Canada. Most of the employees were bi-lingual in English and French.
Fresh baked french bread was only $1.00! Here in our Publix that same kind of loaf of bakery fresh bread is $3.69. Everything that was essential for eating- staples, fresh fruits, vegis, etc were remarkably inexpensive and way less than we pay here.
The children's clothing was super low priced. We found really well made ski boots for Tristan for $19.99 and ski mittens for $3.00. We bought clothing for our grand children and we found girl shirts for $3.00 and baby ski suit for $5.00.
Now the non essential items or like more luxury type items were more expensive than they are down here. Also, the organic foods were more expensive in Canada than Florida.
But I think that is because there is not as much demand for organics.
- The reason is that the food is much healthier in Canada. The food tasted SO much better than it does here. Even name brands like Kraft were there, but their foods were very limited in additives, preservatives, no color dyes, etc. You could taste the difference.
Canada does regulate the foods that are sold in their stores. Name brand companies can sell their products there but must meet the standards that have been set. So you will find Kraft Mac and Cheese there but it looks and tastes different. They don't have a lot of junk foods and the junk foods they have are priced much higher than here. This made me a little angry that companies can make healthy foods for Canada and Europe but continue to sell poisonous dyes and chemical laden products to the citizens of their own country ,the United States.
Canada has two taxes on non food items. One is called the PST tax and the other is called the GST tax. It comes to 10% on items that are not food. In Florida we do not have sales tax on food and we have 6.5% sales tax on non food items. So sales tax was a bit higher but not higher than many states in the United States. I think New York, California and New Jersey have very high sales taxes.
No one I spoke with had a problem with those sales taxes. In fact, they were happy to pay them. They told me that the GST tax goes to pay for their health care program.
This led me of course to question every cab driver, every store clerk and of course my in laws about the government health care in Canada.
- Everyone I spoke with loved their health care. My son can take the kids to the doctor the same day they call for an appointment. His mother in law just went through open heart surgery and he said the hospitals were clean, the doctors were good and there was no wait for the surgery. I asked very detailed questions about their health care.
They told me stories of Canadian people living in the states and coming back to Canada for doctor appointments and meds. I asked what were all the stories about people leaving Canada to get health care in the U.S and they told me that is for elective surgeries, plastic surgery etc. That kind of treatment is not covered in Canada and they don't have many Plastic Surgeons in Canada. There is a waiting list for elective surgeries that are not life threatening but all emergencies are taken care of right away.
- There are different ethnic groups in Canada and a much different proportions in racial makeups in Regina than here in Florida. They have a lot more Asian people in Regina than we do here from China, Vietnam and the Philippines but they have hardly any African Americans and Hispanics. They have a lot of Germans, Scandinavians, French and Middle Easterners.
Here in Florida everything in the stores is written in both English and Spanish. In Canada it is written in both English and French. I found an amazingly good tasting Sea Salt from France that I was able to bring home with me. This product was like $1.99 at the Safeway store in Regina, here it would cost me $8.00 for a similar quality from France.
It seems that every country has their own problems with racism.This is not a national condition but rather a human condition. In Regina Canada there is a lot of racial tension still against the Native Americans and the rest of the people and visa versa. In Canada they have some treaties they still honor between the Canadian government and the Tribal Nations. I had most of this perspective from my daughter in law and her family who are Native Americans from the Cody Nation. But I believe she did a good job being objective about the history of the tensions.
- The Canadian government takes care of the Natives. The Natives get health care, dental care, eye care and any other kind of medical care. The rest of the Canadians only get health care. Dental Care and Eye care is not included in the government healthcare program. The Natives get their college paid for if they get through high school and graduate. The Natives don't have to pay taxes just like here. They get to buy their cigarettes and gasoline without the taxes. They have a Tribal Identification card that they get to use to cross any North American continent borders and are not required to have passports.
So needless to say there are a lot of people who don't like that they have to "pay for the Natives".
The gang problems in Regina are mostly within the Native communities, where there is violence one against the other and at times it is directed at non natives. This is a subject I am very interested in learning more about and am making plans to go up there next January to learn more. Native Americans have always had a special place in my heart since my mother taught me all about their history when I was younger.
Like I said in my Travels in Real Estate posts- the only thing that I did not like was that Canada does not have freedom of speech like we do. I also did not like the political correctness for that is a form of repressing free speech. We drove by a used car place and the sign outside said, "Challenged Credit" instead of "Bad Credit".
- Canada has made the top ten list of Best Places to run a business. They have great grades on all aspects of low tax rates, strong personal investment grade, strong protection of private property and many other areas where it is important to create a financially successful life. They are even above the United States. Unfortunately, now the United States has the highest corporate tax rates in the entire world. The U.S. has now dropped down the list to #9.
Read my other posts on Canada-
Travels in Real Estate- Regina Canada Part 1
Travels in Real Estate- Regina Canada Part 2
Canada Courts Businesses- Should you Move Your Business To Canada?
I will have to come back and put the links in later. I have been trying since last night but every time I go get the link, AR is buggy and I don't have the patience to keep clicking and waiting for AR to behave and stop giving me proxy errors. So I will come back once they have this situation worked out. You can scroll through my blog, these posts are on the first two pages you scroll.
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