“Contrary to the conventional wisdom it appears that Canadians, not Americans are more willing to innovate and take risks, at least in public policy.” So says David Morris in the Alternet article O Canada; Oy Vey United States.
It’s always flattering to get compliments from Americans, but I think there’s a bit of “grass is greener on the other side” effect happening here. It’s true we enjoy certain freedoms that Americans have been denied, especially recently.
Some people think Europe has a one-up on the US these days too. In Robert Kagan’s controversial book, “Of Paradise And Power: American and Europe in the New World Order”, he has a few choice words [via NewsScan]:
“Europe is turning away from power, or to put it a little differently, it is moving beyond power into a self-contained world of laws and rules and transnational negotiation and cooperation. It is entering a post-historical paradise of peace and relative prosperity, the realization of Immanuel Kant’s ‘perpetual peace.’
Meanwhile, the United States remains mired in history, exercising power in an anarchic Hobbesian world where international laws and rules are unreliable, and where true security and the defense and promotion of a liberal order still depend on the possession and use of military might.”
But it’s not all fun and games; our healthcare may be mostly free, but we also have longer lineups. We still have to rely on company benefits to cover essentials such as eyeglasses and dental checkups.
Then again, we Canadians actually get real sugar in our soft drinks and desserts, instead of corn syrup.
I was born in Canada. I once asked why my parents immigrated here to raise their family. The answer was simple: the United States at the time had a military draft to send soldiers to Vietnam. They simply didn’t feel that a country that believed history was made with the barrel of a gun was a suitable place to raise a child.