# 10 Reasons NOT to move to Canada



## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

Published on Wednesday, November 3, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada
by Sarah Anderson

Ready to say screw this country and buy a one-way ticket north? Here are some reasons to stay in the belly of the beast.

1. The Rest of the World. 
After the February 2003 antiwar protests, the New York Times described the global peace movement as the world's second superpower. Their actions didn't prevent the war, but protestors in nine countries have succeeded in pressuring their governments to pull their troops from Iraq and/or withdraw from the so-called coalition of the willing. Antiwar Americans owe it to themajority of the people on this planet who agree with them to stay and do what they can to end the suffering in Iraq and prevent future pre-emptive wars.

2. People Power Can Trump Presidential Power. 
The strength of social movements can be more important than whoever is in the White House. Example: In 1970, President Nixon supported the Occupational Safety and Health Act, widely considered the most important pro-worker legislation of the last 50 years. It didnt happen because Nixon loved labor unions, but because union power was strong. Stay and help build the peace, economic justice, environmental and other social movements that can make change.

3. The great strides made in voter registration and youth mobilization must be built on rather than abandoned.

4. Like Nicaraguans in the 1980s, Iraqis Need U.S. Allies. 
After Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984, progressives resisted the urge to flee northwards and instead stayed to fight the U.S. governments secret war of arming the contras in Nicaragua and supporting human rights atrocities throughout Central America. Iraq is a different scenario, but we can still learn from the U.S.-Central America solidarity work that exposed illegal U.S. activities and their brutal consequences and ultimately prevailed by forcing a change in policy.

5. We Can't Let up on the Free Trade Front Activists have held the Bush administration at bay on some issues. 
On trade, opposition in the United States and in developing countries has largely blocked the Bush administrations corporate-driven trade agenda for four years. The President is expected to soon appoint a new top trade negotiator to break the impasse. Whoever he picks would love to see a progressive exodus to Canada.

6. Barak Obama. His victory to become the only African-American in the U.S. Senate was one of the few bright spots of the election. An early opponent of the Iraq war, Obama trounced his primary and general election opponents, even in white rural districts, showing he could teach other progressives a few things about broadening their base. As David Moberg of In These Times puts it, Obama demonstrates how a progressive politician can redefine mainstream political symbols to expand support for liberal policies and politicians rather than engage in creeping capitulation to the right.

7. Say so long to the DLC. 
Barry Goldwater suffered a resounding defeat when he ran for president against Lyndon Johnson in 1964, but his campaign spawned a conservative movement that eventually gained control of the Republican Party and elected Ronald Reagan in 1980. Progressives should see the excitement surrounding Dean, Kucinich, Moseley Braun, and Sharpton during the primary season as the foundation for a similar takeover of the Democratic Party.

8. 2008. 
President Bush is entering his second term facing an escalating casualty rate in Iraq, a record trade deficit, a staggering budget deficit, sky-high oil prices, and a deeply divided nation. As the Republicans face likely failure, progressives need to start preparing for regime change in 2008 or sooner. Remember that Nixon was re-elected with a bigger margin than Bush, but faced impeachment within a year.

9. Americans are Not All Yahoos. 
Although I wouldn't attempt to convince a Frenchman of it right now, many surveys indicate that Americans are more internationalist than the election results suggest. In a September poll by the University of Maryland, majorities of Bush supporters expressed support for multilateral approaches to security, including the United States being part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (68%), the International Criminal Court (75%), the treaty banning land mines (66%), and the Kyoto Treaty on climate change (54%). The problem is that most of these Bush supporters werent aware that Bush opposed these positions. Stay and help turn progressive instincts into political power.

10. Winter. 
Average January temperature in Ottawa: 12.2°F.


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## Rob (Sep 14, 2002)

Number 10 says it all.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Now THERE's a backspin compliment if I ever heard one.
Makes me proud.  
Seems a given Canada has the "better way".


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

One reason TO move to Canada:

(AP) A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission strafed an elementary school with 25 rounds of ammunition, authorities said Thursday. No one was injured. 

The military is investigating the incident that damaged Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School shortly after 11 p.m.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Hmmm on the other side I came up with this article.




> * Flight Not Fight*
> 
> By Joy Lanzendorfer, AlterNet. Posted April 2, 2004.
> 
> ...


I'd like to see th efollow up article  

http://www.alternet.org/story/18303


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## Rob (Sep 14, 2002)

I doubt there's going to be any significant increase in Americans moving to Canada. Don't forget that there is a lot of diversity between the individual States in the U.S.. It would make more sense to move to another State than to move to Canada.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Hey I'm the messenger - that's a US post.


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## GratuitousApplesauce (Jan 29, 2004)

I talk to tons of American tourists in my business and I have heard the moving to Canada sentiment more times than I could count, for the last few years, giving reasons of eroding freedoms and Taliban-like tendencies among those in power.

Also, I get lots of apologies about their current and future president.

Real estate agents have told me that property here in the Gulf Islands has been selling to Americans like never before, in the last 2 years. Many of the reasons given by the purchasers often go along the lines of "Want a back up plan for when the **** really hits the fan down here."

I wonder if the fan has enough manure on it now, or will they wait for Patriot Act II?


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Yep...lots' of US licence plates around here these days. I parked behind an SUV with New Mexico plates on it yesterday. And, since this is november, I can hardly believe that they were here to enjoy the beaches.









One of the reasons that macspectrum listed...number 10...doesn't apply to this area. Maybe that's the attraction.  

But I seriously doubt if we will see any sort of major influx of Americans due to the results of the recent Presidential election. Most of the bitterly dissappointed American left/lib types who are threatening to "move north" are simply giant bags of hot air. Always have been.

Especially the celebrities.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Oh yeah...and one more thing.

President Nixon never "faced impeachment". He resigned long before that became a real possibility.

Bill Clinton is the only President in modern times to have ever been impeached...which is the ultimate humiliation for any sitting American President.


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## Gretchen (Aug 16, 2004)

Yep she's pretty funny, of course you just hit on something that I think really hurts her cause.....she's nasty lookin'! 

Oh! Ya well she is.  So she comes off as some bitter insane teletubbie like hag who's all strung out on some never ending sugar high.









I wonder how much she would go for on ebay?


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

As pet food...I'd guess about a buck eighty-five. Strictly for the biomass. I doubt if she'd be worth anything in any other sales category.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Gretchen...and anyone else who is listening...

I have numerous friends in the USA from my many years of working in that country. I am in daily or weekly contact with many of them.

Most are oilpatch professionals. Usually people with earth sciences masters degrees in reservoir engineering or geology or the like. (I worked in mobile laboratories all my life).

An American geologist buddy of mine from North Dakota just emailed me today, after hearing about the latest Federal Liberal case of "foot-in-mouth disease". (He is a gentle old guy in his early sixties. A Democrat, BTW...and he just loves Canada).

He...like George W. Bush...is a graduate of Yale University. He knows from personal experience that NOBODY gets an easy pass from that particular house of learning. No matter who they are related to. 

He is one of the millions of Democrats who voted for Bush. Because he thinks that George W. is the better of two bad choices. He is, like the majority of the American public, pretty pleased with the outcome.

He asked me, in his email, "Who is this Carolyn Parrish critter who seems to be a part of the Canadian Government? And why does she hate us so much!?"

(There was, apparently, an extensive news article highlighting all of Ms. Parrish's many anti-US comments, on a local ND TV station today)  

So...I dashed off a hasty email explaining the situation.

I reminded him of Banting and the discovery of insulin. I reminded him again of our many tech acccomplishments up here in the great white north (the oilpatch is totally dominated by Canadian high tech gear...so he bought it without much trouble)..

Then I told him that, back in the fifties, Canada was on the very forefront of the earliest DNA research...and that our Canadian government had embarked upon a radical type of gene splicing experiment during the Cold War.

I told him that we had attempted to splice human DNA into a root vegetable...and that Carolyn Parrish was the unfortunate result of one of the early gene-splicing experiments that had gone terribly wrong..

I also told him that we all felt so bad about her obvious disabilty, once she (it?) had grown to full adulthood...she looks a bit potato-like, does she not...that we compassionate Canadians decided to give her a top government job, to make up for the obvious medically-induced handicap. And I also told him that we Canadians regularly put up with her vapid public ravings, as a part of our collective penance.

I'm pretty sure he bought it.

He emailed me back and said "You Canadians are so darned compassionate! That's one of the reasons I just love your country!"









WHEW! That was a close one.  

No...can someone in Ottawa please stuff a sock in her pie hole before she REALLY turns into a major embarassment?!?









Or...better yet...send her out to pasture so she can graze quietly in a nice cool meadow, in her declining years. Preferably well away from the public eye. And away from all microphones and cameras, as well.

We really don't need to have our worst mistakes from the past on display before the rest of the civilised world...do we?

It just makes us look stupid. And crude. And terribly impolite









Soooo un-Canadian. 

[ November 05, 2004, 03:04 AM: Message edited by: MacNutt ]


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## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

macnutt,
don't forget to remind your buddy of;

1. How Cdn. embassy officials in Iraq *smuggled* out 7 US hotates in Iran. All at great peril to their own lives.

2. That Cdn. airspace and groundspace was immediately and without question opened up to US ariliners on 9/11. US bound passengers were housed and fed by some of Canada's poorest families during that crisis.

3. That Canada entered WWII long before the US did. We went to war to defend our British allies.

4. Remind him how the US is trying to singlehandedly destroy Canada's softwood lumber industry by opposing, again in viaolation of NAFTA, duties on our lumber products.

And let's not forget the ban on Canadian beef.

Remind him of these items as opposed to apologizing for Ms Parrish's comments.


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## IronMac (Sep 22, 2003)

Macnutt says this about his North Dakotan friend:



> so he bought it without much trouble


Yes...that's a very telling statement about how gullible Americans can be.


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## Gretchen (Aug 16, 2004)

> which is the ultimate humiliation for any sitting American President.


I don't think it's even possible to humiliate Clinton, remember this is a guy that pretty much ran around the White House with his pants off looking for someone to stick it in a great deal of the time, if you believe the stories.  And he never seemed all that terribly broken up or regretful about any of it. 

The guy's just as popular now as he was when no one knew who Monica was. Have you read his book? PUUULLEEEEZZZE!!! 

Well we'll see what happens when Hilary finally gets her kick at the can. See how the public deals with her after she gets caught blowin' Manuel from the lawn care company by the side door.  OH! "Is that mayo on your chin sweety?" Billy asks.









Oh ohh.... time for another drink....


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Too cool Gretchen!









You always "boldly go where no man has gone before" on this forum.

I was going to mention the fact that Bill Clinton was too busy humiliating HIMSELF, and in becoming a national embarassment, to be even slightly concerned with his own impeachment. I doubt if he even noticed. Or cared. (Or even understood what it meant. Bubba's not the sharpest tool in the shed, after all.)


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

BTW...I don't think the Dems are crazy enough to actually run Hillary in a Presidential election.

Not if they want to actually WIN, anyway.


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## Gretchen (Aug 16, 2004)

Hmmmmm, here's four that I can think of.

Roger Wireless

Fido (soon to be toast)

Bell Mobility

Telus

And let's add this one just for fun shall we?  

Tim Hortons (sorry people this isn't what real coffee tastes like)  

I think the real question should be '10 reasons why we should let dopey f#@ckin' 'Mericans move here at all?'  

Carolyn Parrish told me to post that, sorry.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Anyone here want to get together next wednesday and nab the redoubtable Carolyn Parrish...then airdrop her into the middle of the next Republican Party policy meeting with a "kick me" sign taped to her saggy butt?
















I'll bet you'd be able to hear the high pitched scream as she free-fell into the lion's den, from all the way out here!


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Ironmac...

Every time this sixty year old masters degree Geologist is working at his chosen profession, he is using computer programs that say "made in Canada" all over them. The instruments that gather his data in such an exacting degree all say "made in Canada" all over them. Each time some brand new whiz-bang tech improvement comes down the pipe that makes his job easier...it says "made in Canada" all over it.

And he works alongside a bunch of technicians who are also, largely, "made in Canada". (like me)

Thus...he has been convinced, over a period of several decades, that we are a nation of freakin geniuses. I chose not correct this false impression, while I worked with him for several months. 









It wasn't a giant leap of faith for him to believe that we Canadians had been far ahead of the rest of the world in gene-splicing, way back in the fifties.

The idea that we had tried splicing human DNA into a root vegetable, way back then, was a bit of a stretch...but he went for it.

Especially once he had seem a photo of Carolyn Parrish. And had listened to her speak. That convinced him.
















It was a near-miss, though (whew!)  

Now...can someone please remove this silly turnip from the power base in Ottawa? Before she makes us look truly STUPID...and before she manages to undo a whole LOT of good hard work that the brighter lights in this country have accomplished?

There's not a moment to lose!

Paul Martin seems to feel the same way. He gave her a pretty big verbal slap in Parliament today. And loudly pointed out the "her views were NOT the views of this Government, or of the Canadian public in general". 

Save Canada's good rep. Duct tape her main vent and then use her as a doorstop for an obscure bar in Yellowknife.

Do it now.


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