Are You Sure You Want To Flee To Canada?

Hey, Kerry voters! John Leo provides a whole host of reasons for some other option rather than running to Canada. And some of them should really leap out at you. After all, you claim that the US under George W. Bush is a fascist state that unduly restricts your freedom. You might want to reconsider your choice.

A national infatuation with censorship. Canadians tend to be a benign people who value niceness. So they have a strong tendency to suppress speech that they see as lacking in niceness. Un-nice books and videos are seized at the border or banned from libraries. Any material cited for "undue exploitation of sex" or for being "degrading or dehumanizing" can be banned. Speech is illegal if it "promotes hatred" or spreads "false news." Advertising "directed at children" can be ruled illegal. If the recorded message on your answering machine is deemed discriminatory, you can be prosecuted for it. In Saskatchewan, a newspaper ad listing four biblical citations against homosexuality (just the listing, no text), accompanied by two hand-holding male stick figures with a line drawn across them, was ruled a human-rights offense, and the man who placed the ad was directed to pay $1,800 each to three gay men who were offended by the ad. "Canadians put up with an insane amount of crap that Americans might not," said David Sutherland, former director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

Canada's trying to be European. Canada has been aping trends in Europe, from the obsession with multiculturalism to the rising contempt for religion, greater censorship, and even a declining birthrate. Canada's birthrate is 1.49 children per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1. Canada's elites behave much like those of the United States, favoring judicially imposed decisions over democratic and legislative ones. In Canada, a smaller and less varied nation than the United States, the elites meet less resistance. But there are signs of a pushback. Though the Canadian and American press consistently give the impression that gay marriage is overwhelmingly favored in Canada, a February 2 National Post /Global National poll found that two thirds of Canadians oppose gay marriage and would most likely vote against it in a national plebiscite. The polls suggest that Canadians are close to Americans on this issue. It's elite opinion and judges that make Canada look different.

There are also the standard problems of higher violent crime rate, candidness cuisine, Canadian football, and Canadian music -- plus the screwed up Canadian healthcare system that sends Canadians south to the US for ordinary American healthcare that they must literally be dying to get in Kanuckistan.

Besides, it is only a matter of time before incorporate Canada into the United States (maybe we'll cut loose Quebec and British Columbia). Might I suggest you consider Cuba, Venezuela, or North Korea instead?