Comment by 0xRusty | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 0xRusty | Hacker News Reader

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As a Brit living in Canada and working in the visual effects and creative industries for the last 9 years, your point about their culture being all about "not being you" really hits the mark. Canadians think they're the country the whole world loves and wants to be. The reality is they're irrelevant on the world stage. Culturally they offer the world very little. There are basically 3 maybe 4 cities. With the exception of Montreal (which has some history and culture to call its own) they all spout "diversity being our strength" - this leaves cities like Toronto and Vancouver as the most soulless, boring places I've ever had the misfortune to live in. They have no culture of their own, instead borrowing from everyone else. There is no "Toronto food", "Toronto music", "Toronto scene". Politically they're led by a smug, manipulating, self serving narssisist who calls you a racist and a Nazi yet wears blackface and suspends civil liberties, rushing through emergency war powers to deal with a protest. The healthcare system, as the last two years have shown, are completely inadequate. Quebec was locked down from 8pm while the sun was still shining for fear of overloading a health system they have done nothing to improve since the start of the pandemic. I'm counting down the days until I leave for America and never look back.

> The healthcare system, as the last two years have shown, are completely inadequate.

If by "inadequate" you mean "can be improved", then of course, all systems can be improved. If you mean it is fundamentally unsound then I feel this is completely unfounded. My family has had 3 seperate health-care events during their lifetime, the latest cancer related in an COIVD-overloaded emergency setting, that would have bankrupt us multiple times over had we been in the US (and yes, they are all remarkably healthy individuals, no diabetes, etc. in general). Even in the latest case the health-care we recieved was amazing, over a month of hospitalizatoin, for which we will see ZERO bills. The latest treatement, monoclonal antibody based chemo, ZERO bills. Was there stress? Yes, but I can hardly imagine a better overall outcome.

If you are rich, in Canada, you can get whatever healthcare you want, just like in the US. If you are middle-class or poorer, the difference betweent the two systems is so vastly different it's mind-boggling.

> Culturally they offer the world very little.

what do you mean? you say that you work in vfx but do canadians creating television and movies not count as "offering something culturally?" Not to mention the long list of actors and famous musicians/bands from canada. more specifically, I wonder what you consider to be important cultural contributions.

anyhow, your prognosis of 'borrowing from everyone else' is factually correct. canada is a land of immigrants. though, if you don't think toronto has a specific toronto food culture, you'll be disappointed when all you find is the usual gaumet of international food options in new york and la. unless if you want to tell me that italian food is somehow a cultural contribution of new york.

Your comments regarding our current political leadership are mostly accurate. It feels like we were living in some kind of alternate reality in some ways. The pandemic seemed to cause the worst sides of us all to come out while our government really fanned the flames. It really is inexcusable in my opinion.

I think Canada is better if you are an outdoorsy type person. Access to nature is really the primary appeal of the country in my opinion. Of course the US is awesome as well in this regard.

As a Canadian I disagree with most of this. Everyone I’ve heard whine about being called a racist or a Nazi seems to in the next breath say something racist or at least homophobic. So you might want to take a look in the mirror if you’re mad about being called those things.

Also, if you want the healthcare system to improve then are you supporting parties and candidates that want to improve it? Or do you just want the Conservatives in power because they don’t call you a Nazi?

Trudeau called people who were waving Nazi flags Nazis. What else do you think he should have called them? Please point out specific instances in which he labelled people as Nazis other than those ... waving Nazi flags?

Also, there is no "Montreal food" as much as there is no "Toronto food". I don't know why you think there is a distinction.

The healthcare you seem to be upset about is years long effort by the conservative governments to gut it down including the current conservative government in Ontario. And yet, not a word from you about that?

Good luck for your move to US but I think you have some other things you are unhappy about and I don't think moving countries is going to help.

Given that they Nazi flags were not a statistically significant component of the protest (perhaps only one person of unknown motivation) a serious person would not have mentioned it at all. Of course, today's politicians in Canada are generally not serious people it seems which is unfortunate because of their outsized impact on everyone's lives.

I'd never heard of this senator before watching this video, but he really did summarize the situation well and seems to me to be a legitimately serious person unlike many of our current politicians (all parties).

https://youtu.be/YIZO3OhqCUY

What do you call people that hang out with Nazis? It sounds like you are nitpicking that adjacent white supremacist groups with their own iconography (and merch) are somehow different.

I don't think anyone believes that these groups were a statistically significant component of the protests. Of course, if we legitimately think that Nazis and white-supremacist groups present a serious problem in Canada we should be addressing it - not using it as a kind of guilt by proximity argument to delegitimize protests of other causes.

That's sort of the issue with informal groups and protests. Anybody can show up, and they may or may not be rejected by the crowd at large. When the loonies are kicked out, it doesn't make the news. A left-leaning example of this is when Boogaloo Boys participate in Black Lives Matter protests. I'm not saying they're equally common, but the concept is the same.

One Nazi flag, many Confederate flags, and white nationalists in the group:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-conservative-swasti...

> A small number of the assembled protesters have displayed Nazi insignia, including the swastika and yellow stars of David, while others have flown the Confederate flag during these anti-government demonstrations.

> Other groups have since attached themselves to the movement, including some far-right and white nationalist elements.

What should we call these people? Your being upset at them being called Nazis says more about you than Trudeau.

Note that the protest organizers made no attempt to dissociate themselves from these and only did so in the later days of the protests.

Trudeau's criticism of his conservative colleagues was more about them not criticizing these people (which they didn't) and not calling them Nazis.

It's also telling that the protests against lockdowns criticizing Trudeau, calling for his death (https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-protest-racist-deat...) were not addressed towards Doug Ford, the Ontario premier responsible for the lockdowns. No politician in Canada should get any death threats but the point I am making was no criticism was directed towards Doug Ford for something he did (the longest lockdown in North America in Ontario) but towards Trudeau, who had no role in it.

That tells you everything you need to need to know, that is, if you want to know it and not be willfully obtuse.

> A small number of the assembled protesters have displayed Nazi insignia, including the swastika and yellow stars of David, while others have flown the Confederate flag during these anti-government demonstrations.

So, it sounds like there was a small number of such people. Of course, if that's not true, I'm happy to be convinced otherwise. I will not accept an argument based on guilt by association however (or in this case guilt by proximity which is even more absurd).

Finally, the truckers were protesting the federal trucker mandates (with their trucks no less) so it was not a particularly abstract demonstration. I guess these people were in the right location by your calculus but non-truckers should have disbursed to protest at their own provincial capitals. That is a reasonable argument but I think many of the protesters were also there in support of the truckers.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8543281/covid-trucker-convoy-orga...

> Now, as the convoy descends on Ottawa with the stated aim of opposing all COVID-19 mandates, anti-hate experts allege those with white nationalist and Islamophobic views don’t just represent the fringes of the movement but are among the organizers of the convoy.

There is no guilt by association. These are the people themselves.

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