What do you Americans think of us Canadians as?

[Grey Acumen]

skip said:

Grey Acumen said:

I think of cheap, but poor medical service, low religious tolerance, and hazardous military. I know the last part cause my dad has a friend who was in military service in Canada, and one of his biggest complaints was that the quality of their equipment was just generally more hazardous for the Canadian military than what the US military had to work with. Though I'm also aware that the rest is probably localized areas/situations.

On the less serious note, i think about dudley do right say "Ya Hosers, that's what hockey's all aboot, ey?"

In 2001 Canadians paid $2,163 per capita versus $4,887 U.S., according to the Los Angeles Times (also, see table above). According to Dr. Stephen Bezruchka, a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle, Canadians do better by every health care measure. According to a World Health Organization report published in 2003, life expectancy at birth in Canada is 79.8 years, versus 77.3 in the U.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care

 

See, this is the type of thing I'm talking about.

Though I'll be honest, Los Angeles Times is not anywhere near to being a news source I take without a grain of salt, I don't know the doctor at all, but I won't hold that against him, and I consider anything that is a "World Organization" to be treated with absolute cynicism. It's sorta like how Greenpeace had that whole thing about Nintendo being the lowest ranked in Environmental Policies, purely on the basis that Nintendo didn't bother pandering for their approval.

The real problem with any of these points (going both ways) is that there is such a diversity of policies that can affect any statistic you can quote. The life expectancy is a perfect example; sure that may be affected by Health Care, but there are also cigarettes, alcohol, gang violence, Fast food chains, STDs, and a general lack of personal responsibility stemming from frivolous lawsuits that will change the average life expectancy as well. To say that a 2 1/2 year difference in average life expectancy is a definitive sign of better health care is really kinda absurd when you consider just how many other variables play a part in that.

And like I pointed out with my now-bolded statement up there. I recognize that a lot of those issues are localized, as many of the issues people have with america are localized, not true for the majority of the country but just get the most media coverage because the squeaky well is the one that gets the most notice.