Do Canadians have any Problems or Complaints with their Country?

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Explorer

Canada is a great place.
Only one complaint is that to many immigrants come here looking for a hand out.
Canada has started sending them back.
Other than that, Canada is a beautiful and experiencing economic growth

tess

To start with every country is going to have "issues", you can't keep everybody happy.
In response to isotope2007, I don't know where she got her facts, they're absolutely ridiculous.
You do not wait years for emergency surgery. You are treated immediately. I know from experience. We have had 3 emergencies in our family & all were dealt with within minutes of arriving at the hospital. This included surgery @ 3 a.m.
And no you do not wait years to see a specialist; maybe a couple of months depending.
Yes, sometimes people who are admitted to the hospital have to stay in a hallway until a room becomes available. This happened to my mom after she had a stroke. It DID NOT affect the care she received at all. She was still looked after.
I have never heard of somebody dying while waiting in emergency.
And as far as paying for medical, there is no comparison between the U.S and Canada. My sister lives in Colorado. She pays well over $800.00 a month. My husband pays 14.40 for regular benefits and he pays 3.40 for extended medical. His work picks up the difference.
As far as knee replacements go, it's nowhere close to 7 yrs. My friend waited not even 18 months. I believe the average is around 2 yrs. The waits are due to the aging population.
So in short, yes we have some problems with our healthcare system, but if you need care especially emergencies you are well taken care of.

pinkpiglet126

Heavens yes we complain. What would life be without something to complain about. Heath care, taxes, etc. Isn't that the state of the world today??

However, compared to so many other countries in this world we really need to remember just how good we all have it in North America. I mean really.

So, yes, we complain but overall I love it here and would never even contemplate moving anywhere else.

I'm sure you read isotope's reply. It is indeed a pack of lies. Yes there are waiting lists. Yes bad things happen but she's way out to lunch.

frankfarter!

i wouldn't completely agree with " touch my bird" our taxes are higher, it's not astronomical or anything. but living here and paying taxes i don't feel as though i can't survive because taxes. i would prefer to pay a little more in taxes to have the right to walk into a hospital with a broken arm and not be turned away. or have to pay insane amounts of money for insurance for something i shouldn't have to worry about. and no, you don't have to wait months to see a doctor. the only time you may have to wait month's is if your going to see a specialist. perhaps for something extensive. for day to day issues or emergencies you don't have to wait forever! also the care you receive is different. the doctors and nurses are concerned about your well being as oppose to how much $$ they can get out of you. this is because the gov't is paying the hospitals... not people or insurance companies. ( i know this because i have many people in my family who work in the medical field both here and the states)

everyone is going to have issues about their country, no one is going to be totally happy. i think the question should be if you moved here, would your standard of living go up down or stay the same and if it changes do you want to live that way?

where would you move to? why are you moving? work school? what kind of job would you have? these are all questions to ask, which would be relevant to the issues you may encounter. if your a full time student you could get medical coverage and tuition would be much less then the states. if you move here for work, being a lawyer will have different issues then working in a clothing store. where you live could depend on the the price of homes, city taxes etc.

it's a good question, i feel perhaps there are too many opinions and too many different points of view to generalize what to complain about. our country isn't perfect.... but i think maybe because you are thinking of moving here ask about the issues you may encounter depending on what your situation will be when you move here!

good luck...

isotope2007. where do you live???? people dying in er's?? 7 years for knee surgery??? no homes for the elderly??? no specialist for womens health??? my sister in law is a physio and 600$ for user fee's sound wrong!!!!

** CAPITAINVANADIUM**
i guess all my family members who work in hospitals and in the health care system are complete morons or have all their heads up their asses! yes there have been deaths in er's and yes i do watch the news... have you ever heard of sensationalism by the media? situations like that will happen no matter where you are, maybe it isn't so much the health care system in a whole. maybe it was the staff at the time or the operation of the er was disorganized!?!? what about the countless Americans living with acute problems who die? im sure the # of those people (per capita) is astronomical. the reason why you don't hear about it is because they are being sent home with no insurance or just barely being treated because of their insurance companies won't fully cover them. so why would the news care to report cases like that? it's not shocking or flashy enough! im sure there are many many more people dying in er's in the states than Canada because of the simple right people don't have... a healthcare system...

and yes we have had serious emergencies in our family, and we have never had an issue with getting prompt thorough treatment.

millet_0220

totally agree with the last two contributors. all countries have their own internal problems. with health care, I don't mind paying 88CND per month for my entire family's health insurance. it's not bad, waiting times for emergencies are not bad. if you have life threatening problem, they will surely look after you. I rather have an affordable monthly insurance than none at all. I don't mind paying it really as long as me and my family are healthy, the money is being used to treat someone else who needs it.

SteveN

Here is the perspective from a Canadian born and raised in Quebec.

We complain about the taxes, the weather, the poor state of our roadways, the health-care system, and the wasted money on the French-English debates and referendums.

Every once in a while, we have problems with the First Nations people (or they have problems with us depending on your P.O.V.), especially when some white folk decide to build condos or a golf course on native sacred grounds. This is mainly caused by the government either ignoring unsettled land claims or not enforcing the laws about them.

My personal pet peeve is that the Canadian Radio & Television Comission (CRTC) regulates what shows we can watch or what songs we must listen to because they have certain "Canadian content" quotas that must be met. Good example, in the past Superbowls, we got to see crappy repeated ads about Kraft products, Kellogg's cereals, and what's happening in Toronto, when everyone else is tuning in to see the game and the new commercials. And you get to see re-runs of B-movies like Habitat or Screamers because they were filmed or produced in Canada. There is only so many times I can take Andy Lauer saying "Get off my back" before I want to stab him myself.

Every few years, we kick out the current political party and try to put another one in. Of course the separatist parties in Quebec never take control, and the New Democratic Party can't seem to break out of the west, so it just keeps flipping from the Conservatives to the Liberals and back.

The thing you have to understand is that most Canadians are not completely happy unless we are complaining about something!

peter k

No, Isotope2007 you are an out and out liar and a plant from the US medical fraternity

strat59_00

Taxes. Healthcare. The QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The state of the Montreal Candiens.
There are some Canadian groups in google groups where you may get better reposnses from Candian citizens. Good luck with your move, it's an awesome country full of wonderful people. I hope you like hockey :)

Fizz400

Like others have said, everyone can find reasons to complain about the way their government runs their country and it's no different here. Overall, Canadians like Americans have pretty damn good lives. Taxes are high but we get a lot for our tax dollars too. I for one don't have a problem with Quebec like so many others seem to, their existence doesn't affect my daily life in the least. They only try to get the most they can for themselves like everyone else and if they've got the population (votes) to sway the government then power to them. My biggest complaint with this country is the weather and that's not something that can be changed anyway.

W H

Don't listen to lllooooonnnnggggg windend answers. That person has an axe to grind. Every country has pros and cons.

nbr660

It's the same everywhere, politics,health care,taxes. I'm American living in Canada. The only difference (and I say this lightly), is Quebec & the indians.

captainvanadium

Barb, Peter, Pinkpiglet, and WH.

There have been a number of deaths in ER waiting rooms in Canada, and a young mother suffered a miscarriage sitting in a waiting room in Calgary, several people died sitting in the ER waiting rooms in BC. One old man was left by the elevators because there was no room in the ER ward and died there without seeing a doctor.

These deaths have been all over the news, you should watch it sometime.

My friend saw an older woman go into a diabetic coma, even though her husband get going and telling the nurses his wife was a diabetic and was in insulin shock. He was told she had to "wait her turn".

My step son waited in ER for 15 hours for surgery on a broken arm, compound fracture. My step daughter was put on a waiting list that was two years long for a very serious condition - she started having seizures and she needed to be on medications.

My wife has a frozen arm and is waiting 21 months to see a specialist, and God only know how long for surgery.

My wife's Grandfather waited 10 months for surgery for an aneurysm and died before he got it. There was a documentary on TV not too long ago about a man who has been waiting SEVEN years for a hip replacement surgery.

Isotope is NOT lying, you are eithr very young and healthy, or have had never needed emergency surgery or emergency care. The average wait list for "emergecny" surgery as in life-threatening conditions can range from a week to 2 months.

I have a friend who has been living with a blood clot for six months now.

You are clearly NOT informed on the state of Canada's Health Care System.

Was Readers Digest also "lying" when they wrote the following:

A Statistics Canada study released in June 2004 found that 3.6 million Canadians did not have a family doctor. Dr. Jack Burak, president of the British Columbia Medical Association, says, â€œThere is no question that if every Canadian had a family doctor, we could reduce the pressure on the acute-care system and the number of inappropriate admissions to the ER.â€

Shorter Wait Times
British Columbians were particularly concerned about reducing the waiting time for hospital beds and surgery. Forty-three percent said it was either first or second on their list. Right now as many as 80,000 British Columbians are waiting for surgery.

In the other provinces, nearly one third of respondents said speeding up access to surgery was either their first or second priority.

Across the country, some 800,000 Canadians are waiting for surgery. And the waits are long. A 2004 study by the Fraser Institute found that the median delay from referral by a general practitioner (GP) to surgical treatment was well over four months.

According to Dr. John Rapin, president of the Ontario Medical Association, the waits in his province are now â€œlife threatening.â€

In Cape Breton, N.S., Judith MacQuarrie, 55, was bedridden for five years, suffering excruciating pain because of a circulatory disorder called Raynaudâ€™s Syndrome. It took three years before a GP was able to refer her to the proper specialist. Then MacQuarrie waited another two years before a corrective procedure could be scheduled in January 2005.

Quicker Access to Specialists
Three out of ten respondents made quicker access to specialists and treatment one of their top two priorities. When Catharine Gordon-Campbell, a 42-year-old living in Bradford, Ont., had to see a gynecologist, she was shocked to be told she would have to wait three months. â€œIf you have some bizarre condition, you expect a delay. But for a gynecologist? Itâ€™s ridiculous.â€

Kathleen Summers, a 41-year-old woman in Carman, Man., waited a year for her first appointment with a rheumatologist.

Last year a Quebec judge allowed a class-action suit involving as many as 10,000 breast-cancer patients to go ahead. All of the women had to wait longer than the recommended eight to 12 weeks for radiotherapy following breast-cancer surgery.

Here is some more information from more "lying" people:

Emergency room waiting times at some Ontario hospitals are prompting seriously ill people to walk away, sometimes with fatal results, health officials say.

Dr. Sean Gartner says 11 per cent of the people who came to the emergency room at his hospital in Guelph last month ended up leaving without receiving treatment.

A few months earlier, Gartner said an elderly man who left after he became tired of waiting was later found dead.

In February, Patricia Vepari, a 21-year-old engineering student, arrived at a Kitchener hospital emergency room with a fever, sore throat and nausea.

Facing an eight-hour wait, she decided to go home, where she died of an infection.

How about this article? Ontarians are ''on a fairly regular basis dying when they don't need to die'' because of long waits in hospital emergency rooms.

The bald acknowledgment came yesterday from Sean Gartner, a 37-year-old emergency physician in Guelph.

Most are elderly, Dr. Gartner said, and fall into one of two categories -- those who leave hospital because of the lengthy delays in seeing a doctor and then die at home as their conditions worsen, and those who, despite alarming symptoms, such as chest pain, delay going at all because they fear they may have to wait for 8 hours or longer.

For instance, he said, last month at Guelph General Hospital, where he works most of the time, about 3,400 patients came to emergency.

Between 355 and 380 of them -- or one in nine -- left without ever being seen by a doctor.

"They asked for us to help them," Dr. Gartner said, frustration edging his voice, "and 11 per cent said the wait was too long and went home."

About a third of those who left had been triaged as Level 3, or in need of urgent care.

Another article: Meanwhile, wait times in Emergency Rooms have grown to unprecedented levels â€“ an average of seven hours and often much longer, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information - yet the McGuinty government refuses to implement a benchmark for ER waits or a plan to reduce long waits and end hallway medicine.

â€œHereâ€™s how out of touch Dalton McGuinty is when it comes to working families and their priorities. It only took him eight short days to give himself a $40,000 pay raise. But here we are, one year after patients were almost locked out of 19 hospital emergency rooms and nothing has changed. We need to keep those emergency rooms open for patients. Anything else is completely unacceptable,â€ said Hampton.

Its my opinion that you should do some research, listen to the news, become familiar with what is REALLY going on before you call someone a liar. Maybe you should all apologize?

A"long winded" answer is better than having nothing to base your answer on so you accuse another person of lying - Jay wanted truthful answers about what people are complaining about in Canada, well THIS is what people are complaining about.
I talked to a family a few months ago who were moving back to the US because they couldnt find a family doctor and were fed up with long emergency room waits for their son who had a chronic ear infection going on.

Satan is Groovy

From what I've heard the taxes in Canada are outrageous. If you buy or sell a home you have to pay some sort of tax on it.

Also the health care might be free but you'll also be waiting forever to see a doctor. Like months.

isotope2007

Health Care - the quality of care is very very bad in Canada. Everyone receives the same standard and quality as the uninsured do in the US. Wait lists to see Specialists are up to 2 years or longer. Wait lists for sugery are hitting 4 to 7 years. Emergency surgeries wait list is up to 2 years depending on the emergency. If you have a potential critical condition that could endanger your life the wait list can be about 3 or 4 months for surgery.

ER's are being closed across the country because of lack of funding and staff. Patients are kept in the ER for months because there are no beds or wards open for them.

People are dying in ER waiting to see a doctor, and dying waiting for treatment for cancer, heart disease, etc.

People with things like knee injuries or in need of replacement joints are waiting for up to 7 years, and are disabled and prevented from working, having any kind of life while they wait.

Contrary to public belief in the US and other countries our Medical coverage is NOT free. People pay for it. Comparing costs for our coverage and your private coverages, it is almost the same - yours includes dental and optical coverage, ours doesnt.

There are no homes for the elderly who need assisted living or extended care, either their families have to care for them, or they end up homeless and on the street or tied into beds on hospital wards, where they isnt the staff to look after them.

I dont know if you have "user fees" in the US for physio therapy and things like that. We do in Canada. My son needs physio for his back, but it would cost him close to $600 a month for "user fees" and he cant afford it.

There are no "Womens Health" specialists or clinics in Canada. There may be ONE doctor in Eastern Canada who specializes in Breast Health, I havent been able to confirm that.

Many shelters for abused women and their children have been closed because the Government no longer funds them. Womens Programs have been denied funding and closed and classified as "Special Interest" groups, this would include such NGO's as "Sexual Assault" support etc..

Housing has become so expensive most Canadians have been priced out of the market. Homelessness is increasing rapidly because people cant even afford to rent. The new homeless are the disabled, young families with children, the elderly, people receiving cancer treatment etc. who are unable to work, single women, divorced women with children, anyone who doesnt make the grade financially.

There is a two tier minimum wage system in Canada. People being "trained" can be paid $2 less an hour than minimum wage earners. Canada has passed legislation allowing for child labour once again.

Wages are lower in Canada, a certain call centre employees start at $15 an hour in the US and $9.05 an hour in Canada.

Canada has the lowest assistance rates for the disabled, the unemployable, etc in the so-called "First World countries".

Canadians pay very high income taxes, then their income is taxed again when they buy anything, the Government has added the GST to make you pay even more taxes, then you pay an "environmental tax" on certain items on top of the sales taxes.

If you save money and it produces interest income you are taxed AGAIN on your interest earned . What you have left is taxed still AGAIN through Municipal taxes, school taxes, property taxes, etc.

Most Canadians "work for the Government" until about the end of July, up until then everything you make is taken back in taxes spread over the year.

IE: If you earn about $100,000 the Govt takes 47% of it, 12% when you buy something, plus an environmental tax and another 47% of any interest income you earn - nice huh?Then there is the "other" taxes.

When you purchase gasoline you pay an average of 35% above the actual price for Government taxes. This of course is on top of the 47% the Government already took in income tax from you.

You can do the math - its unbelievable.

Mortgage payments are not tax deductible in Canada. As near as I can tell people in the US pay higher property taxes and condo fees than we do in Canada.

What do Canadians get back in return for these exorbitant taxes that makes Canada better than the US? As far as I can see - nothing.

The 2010 Olympics is just another burden on the tax payers because we are going to end up paying for that too, and only the wealthy will be able to attend.

The majority of Canadians have no access to the legal system because they cannot afford it. Legal Aid no longer provides assistance to anyone other than criminals. The court system in Canada is accessible only to the wealthy.

Everything except maybe telephone service costs more in Canada than it does in the US.

There is a rapidly growing "community" of Ex-Pats working and living overseas, declaring themselves "non-residents" of Canada in order to have a decent standard of living, access to good Health Care etc

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