Is canada one of the best palces in the world to live?

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Stephanie

Five myths about Canada you need to know about!

1. Free health care.

Canada's health care is not free. It is funded by a heavy tax
regime that takes hard earned money from even the working poor. If
you make $C20,000 a year. You will be taxed. Make more? Like $C75,000
and up? Oh, you can bet you will get hit with taxes. In some
provinces like Alberta, you also get the additional privilege of
paying health care "premiums" on top of your taxes.

The big hospital unions like the Registered Nurses and various
so-called "para-professionals" have taken over the health care
system and destroyed it. This is what happens when you create a
a monopoly, and worse, a government owned monopoly.

2. High standard of living

Huh? Since when? This country has one of North America's biggest
drug ghettos. It's called Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Canadians
have a lower per capita GDP than Americans. They also make less
money than Americans, and ironically many other countries: Ireland,
Germany, Switzerland to name just a few.

3. Peaceful

Nope! There are just as many acts of violent crime, drug gangs,
domestic murders in Canada as in the U.S. It's just never adjusted
for per capita, ie. the actual population of the two countries
and the size of the cities in each country. Canada has serial
killers, drug shootings, pollution, gang violence. How come we don't
hear much about this in the world's media, the way the U.S.'s
problems are constantly brought up?

4. Strong economy

No! Canadians just piggyback off the U.S. economy and they still
can't manage to get their unemployment rate down to anywhere near
to the U.S. rate, which was hovering in the low 5's most recently.
Canada's rate has varied over the last decade or more from 11% to
a low of about 7%. The country just sells off its raw natural
resources rather than having a productive economy through
strong innovation or research. Yet the Canucks complain about
selling those resources to the U.S. Huh?

5. Canadians are polite self effacing and humble

Whoa! Canadians are anything but polite and "European" as they
like to tell the world. Most Canadians I've met are ignorant,
boorish, self absorbed anti-American bigots. Go to a Canadian
workplace: see how they treat you, especially if you are a brown
or black person.

Go to a restaurant or a store. The tone is very cold and "British"
in nature. Look at how they drive. I have driven in Britain, the
U.S. (San Diego, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Seattle area).
Nowhere have I seen such stupid backward drivers as I have seen
in B.C. and Alberta.

Basically Canada needs to have its huge pompous self absorbed ego
deflated. Canadians are hypocrites and they love to be delusional,
and self absorbed about how great they are. The U.S. incidentally is the
country where a lot of Canadians, (about 250,000 at last count), go
to live well, retire and of course, for employment. Hypocritical or
what?

Marcos N

no your moms pussy is the best go in there i highly suggest it

puffin

yes for sure. no better country anywhere in the world.

tbunny90

Yes, it is one of the best countries to live because it is safe, war-free and friendly.
And yes, Canada does make it rather difficult for educated immigrants only because we want our doctors, lawyers, nurses, engineers etc. to have some Canadian experience before we allow them to practice. Like any other country in the world, we have standards. Immigrants should do their homework and know this before moving here so they're not 'surprised'.
As far as our healthcare goes, of course there are some problems. We pay a lot of taxes and sometimes the service quality is lacking. But at least we don't have to take out another mortgage on our home in order to care for a sick relative or to have a baby.

Blingcosa

Vancouver always tops those 'quality of life' surveys

bigglesworthâ„¢

yes definitly. canada is soo gorgeous. its got soo many different cultures, cities, towns ans i will tell you something the crime rate is faaaarrrr less than the us.
when people are shot in the us, it doesnt even make the news, in canada its all over the news! b/c it doesnt happend that often.
i love canada and so will you, i would rather live nowhere elseâ™¥

Francois Quebequois

Yeah right!? great country?

Get Real people.

40 per cent of professional and skilled immigrants leave Canada within 5 years

Canadian HR Reporter
March 27, 2008

By Shannon Klie

While Canada does a good job attracting skilled and educated immigrants from around the world, government and businesses need to do a better job of keeping them once they get here, says a professor of economics at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont.

"We spend a fair amount of time and discussion on attracting immigrants, but we don't spend that much time on talking about retaining them. It's almost as if there's the notion that if they can get here, it's such a great place, they'll stay," said Chris Robinson.

Immigration isn't a permanent phenomenon and Canada needs to approach it as a firm would approach retaining an employee, he said. "We don't want to take it as a given that just because somebody's come here that they're going to stay."

One-third of young male immigrants leave Canada within 20 years of arriving and more than 60 per cent of those who leave do so in the first year, according to Return and Onward Migration among Working Age Men, a recent Statistics Canada report co-authored by Robinson.

The report, a study of male immigrants aged 25 to 45 at the time they arrived in Canada, found that over the past two decades business professionals and skilled workers, the most desirable immigrants, are the most likely to leave, with 40 per cent of them leaving the country within 5 years of arrival.

Because there are no exit interviews when an immigrant leaves Canada, the study made inferences about why they left based on landing records, census data and income tax filings. Immigrants who arrived during poor economic climates (in 1980 and 1990) were more likely to leave than those who arrived during boom times (1986 and 1996). Therefore, it's likely immigrants are leaving for better opportunities elsewhere, said Robinson.

The best way to keep these immigrants is to ensure they get jobs that match their skills and experiences, said the director of operations at the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.

"We know that good employment is the number one indicator of successful integration for immigrants," said Elizabeth McIsaac. "A key element in all this is having employers involved in the development of programs that are intended to bring immigrants into the labour market."

One such program is Toronto's Career Bridge, a non-profit internship program that matches qualified immigrants with appropriate jobs. Since the program started three years ago, 270 immigrants have found full-time work in their fields, but there are still 1,500 skilled immigrants, more than half with university degrees, on the waiting list. So far only 115 of the city's 2,760 businesses with more than 100 employees have signed up for the program.

HR professionals need to begin looking at international credentials and education as an asset, said McIsaac. There are tools available to help HR understand international credentials and agencies that can connect employers with immigrants, so employers have no excuse not to consider immigrants for job openings, she said.

"Once you begin to have more experience working with immigrant communities, it becomes a lot easier and you can do it a lot better," she said.

If Canadian employers aren't willing to take advantage of these immigrants, the Statistics Canada report proves they'll go elsewhere to find jobs, said Robinson.

"If a better opportunity comes up somewhere else and it happens to come up across an international border, then they're quite likely to move," he said.

Over the next 10 years, immigration will represent all of the growth in Canada's workforce because there simply won't be enough young Canadians to replace retiring baby boomers. However, Canada isn't the only country facing a looming labour shortage and other countries that haven't typically gone after immigrants, such as Japan and India, are now doing so, said McIsaac.

"We are in a global economy and we are competing for a high level of talent in other countries," she said. "We have to do a better job of receiving that talent."

darklydrawl

Yes, there are many worse countries to live in than Canada, although it is not generally in the 'top 10', but it depends on what you like I guess. Search the net for "Best Countries to Live" if you want the list. Ireland and Norway are often up the top.

Lego Indy

If you are thinking about immigrating to Canada, do yourself a favor and watch this news program from CTV about how Canadians treat their highly educated immigrants: http://www.notcanada.com. (Video will load when you enter the page.) In the midst of a doctor shortage, Canada recruits MDs from other countries and puts them to work scrubbing toilets and driving cabs.

Also, some stories about their healthcare system:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/304134
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=490db30d-06c0-48f4-a980-b71089f3dc1f

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