By far the single biggest thing that bothers me about Canada is our somewhat forced perspective. What I mean by that is we live next to the United States. It's akin to building a cabin beside a large circus. No matter what happens inside our cabin, we can't help but compare it to the spectacle happening right beside us.
So why is this such a problem for me? Let me show you in a graphic.
Most people (including Canadians) look at this and say "Cripes, what is wrong with Americans? They need to fix their bizarre obsession with guns."
I agree with them, but the problem is people stop looking at the graphic when they see the wild-west circus that occupies first place.
When I look at the chart, I also see who is in second place... Canada.
When Canadians look at this chart and say "wow, thank goodness we're not as bad as THEM" they do a disservice to their country.
We have less gun crime than the US, but we still have unacceptable levels of gun crime compared to everyone else.
We have more freedom than the US, but we're not doing as well as other countries.
Our health care system is better overall than in the US, but it's FAR worse than western European countries.
We have far less racism than the US, but we still have appalling amounts of racism.
And so on.
Anyone can feel normal when they live next to a circus, and it's easy to feel a bit complacent when your neighbor's leader is clinically insane... but it is a terrible disgrace for us to say things here are good enough because we're not quite as crazy as the MAGAts who live next door. We should strive for better.
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