Being Canadian eh?

I was reading K's blog after she so nicely commented here (thanks eh?) and she got me thinking about the positives (and some negatives) of being Canadian and specifically in Alberta...

So before I get all political, here's a giggle...

Top 10 reasons why it's great to be Canadian

10. It beats being an American.

9. Only country to successfully invade the US and burn its capital to the ground.

8. You can play hockey 12 months a year, outdoors.

7. Only country to successfully invade the US and burn its capital to the ground

6. Where else can you travel 1000 miles over fresh water in a canoe?

5. A political leader can admit to smoking pot/getting laid/having oral sex and his/her popularity ratings will rise.

4. Only country to successfully invade the US and burn its capital to the ground.

3. Kill Grizzly bears with huge shotguns and cover your house in their skins

2.Own-an-eskimo scheme.

And the number 1 reason why its great to be Canadian...

1. Only country to successfully invade the US and burn its capital to the ground

So my rantings about Ralphy...

Now any baby born in 2005 or afterwards gets a $500 grant towards post secondary education provided the parents open an RESP. The cost of PS in Alberta is already astronomically out of proportion, so are they anticipating with the small bit of interest that perhaps that this $500 might make a dent in 20 yrs???

We may be debt free... but we have nothing left. We have little funding for education.. my daughter has to take city transit at 11 yrs old because her school has no busing. In a city of nearly a million people and according to Ralph the best education system in the country, how is it that we cannot afford a bus???

Our health care system sucks. It took me two years to get an appointment at the Fibryomyalgia Clinic and my followup appointment is months after my initial. It took 6 months for me to get an appointment for an MRI. Good thing I don't have MS or Lou Gherig's. It gets so bad at emerg, that when I had to take my daughter in as she had broken her ankle, that we took 2 books each because we guessed at least 5 hr wait. We weren't far from wrong. Our family doctors keep going to the US because that is where the money is and then we wonder why we spend half a day in emerg or months/years for specialist appointments. Ante up Ralph baby.

The ONLY reason Ralph keeps getting elected..ok make that two... is a) the evil that you know (much like the american election but I will go further on that next post) and b) he keeps sending rebate cheques (even to inmates!).

Ok so this wasn't a lovey-dove life is grand post and in some ways not really a gripe either. I choose to live here and I have choices.

This is home. The house I grew up in til I was six in Ottawa... is just that, a house. The farm I grew up on from 6-18 is now just a house and land that belong to someone else. This house that I bought 10 yrs ago, that I have made mine, the mountains I can see from my bedroom window, the goosebumps I got from cheering on my home team all the way to the Stanley Cup, the spirit of this city... is my home.

When you look at the cost of living in other countries... for example the UK (sorry Chaz), is astronomical. Lee's house in Stanford-Le-Hope was a terrace house (a townhouse or row house depending on your country) and cost 65,000 sterling and was a two bedroom closet. I paid 95,000 CND about the same time he purchased his... I could take his house, stick it inside mine and live around it and still not be fussed over the fact that it was there.... a cd there is 15 quid... about 38 cnd. Granted, their salaries compensate but when you import everything, you pay up the wahzoo. I was last there in summer of 2003, so based on what I remember petrol was at about 79p a litre... so thats about 2 cnd a litre or 8 cnd a gallon so about 5 us a gallon... if my conversion is a little off, sorry. A Fronterra was 19,000 sterling for basically the same thing as a Jeep Liberty (but it was tomato soup orange, so I think you paid extra for that)...

Anyways, my rant is over, I have run out of plot... bugger.

The point being... Canada rocks!