"Ha-Ha! Don't make us laugh!"

poverty...

Not all perfect there at all...Plus housing is expensive as fuck- Vancouver has been going downhill for a while now.


Vancouver Downtown East Hastings

I will grant you the winters were a bit chilly but overall things were a lot better than in the States. The poor weren't as poor and the rich weren't as rich. Society seemed to be more melded there and not nearly the hate I see almost every day in the States. I wanted to stay but it just didn't work out.

My family was making the move out west to Alberta from Ontario, and Kenora was a little pit-stop along the journey.

I never, ever forgot that place.

If it gets too bad at least I've got an "in."

It's effing cold in Canada, and Switzerland!!! I take Australia and Japan over some ice box where the spring-time sun rises at 9am and lowers at 5pm ANY DAY. Germany? Sweden? Every German and Swede spends 6-8 weeks of vacation each year trying to get the hell out of their country for some place that's better suited for human survival. And how did Australia get beat out by the US with Trump as President?

I live north of 60 and while it does get dark in the winter right now in early March it is sunshine from 8AM till 6PM and will only get longer.

And yes it does get cold, but this weeds out all the weak and whiny from living here.

Your statement has hurt me deeply so I will have to go to the doctor and have our FREE HEALTH CARE pay for it.

Good luck with your right to bear arms though....

Nice try though.

BTW, the weak are the ones that don't have the resources to find and afford a warmer place to live.

I live in Toronto and while our weather can be extreme, it's not Fargo! Nor is it the UK where I was born and seems to rain all the time. Sunrise is currently 6:44am and sunset 6:15pm and we haven't hit the vernal equinox yet...oh, and I currently get 5 weeks of vacation which I can take whenever I wish seeing as summers here are pretty damned nice.

I grew up in apartheid-era South Africa and had friends who emigrated to Australia and went back to SA because Australia was too racist, and apparently it's still too conservative to even consider same-sex marriages (Canada has had them for approximately 12 years now).

So, no, the weather isn't always great, but on a whole bunch of other things that make life worth living, I wouldn't trade with you for anything.

Toronto can't compare to Cape Town, Perth, Melbourne, or Tokyo. I never lived in Toronto, but I did lived in Ottawa. I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there! I visited Toronto, and it was cool. Not as good as Montreal, but decent.

I've also lived in Perth, Tokyo, and Cape Town. All I can say is WOW to all 3! I cried when I left Tokyo. What parts of SA did your friend leave and return to? SA still has some apartied-lite areas. Even where the laws have changed, the old social norms are still prevalent. Pretoria is SA's Mississippi, and White S. Africans told me that! What part of Australia did your friend move to? I didn't experience racism as a Black American Perth, but some Australia areas did remind me of the Deep South.

It's a drab, lifeless bureaucratic burg, where our tax dollars come to die. Montreal really rocks, and Toronto is good too, if you like really big cities (I don't). If I had the ability to move, I'd probably choose Victoria, BC. Since I don't, I grit my teeth and bear it here.

But I wouldn't move to any other country.
I'm sorry, eh?

but you Canadians don't want us retired Americans, even though my father's family came to the US from Canada (from England)
but, that's not worth anything anymore.

I was born here, but my parents moved me to Vancouver, where I did all my school years (Grade 1 through university) then some years after that.

Moved back to Victoria in 79 and I just love it here. Vancouver is a pricing nightmare, all right, but it's much less here. You can still buy a house within city limits for under $600,000.

Also, there are no truly shitty areas. The most notorious public housing in town just floors American visitors who want to see our "slum." No kidding....I've been asked that more than once.

Your exceptionalism is showing... and it seems petulant.

In true Canadian fashion.

I'm Sorry.

Did I say America was better? I said that I would take Australia and Japan over Canada...which are more exceptional than Canada

Perhaps even longer growing seasons.

Happy Hump Day

Sun worshiper, maybe? Sunshine is overrated.

My body shuts down in temperatures below 40F/4C. I still sleep at night with the heat turned to 80. I currently live in Phx. I don't complain about the AZ sun until the temp reaches 110F/43C. No humidity though, unlike NC...

Wait! Why am I providing Celsius temperatures?! This is Uhmehrika!

No country is perfect.

"No country is perfect..."
Has anyone argued the case of "perfection"?

Relative comparisons seem to stump far too many people.

People in the city of Toronto voted for Rob Ford.

The rest of the country is officially 2nd best...

Raised in Charleston SC (now living in STL) I could care less if I ever saw the beach again. I hate summer and heat!

When I retire Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are looking nice. I could live in an igloo as long as I had a dog, a daily paper and cable TV!!!

Iceland is outrageously expensive, as is Norway. But, admittedly, they are beautiful and they have their shit together.

Was in Iceland last summer. I fell in love with it.

My sister worked for the Cdn. govt. for years, and because the UN mission with which everyone in her field worked was in Geneva, she was there a lot. Went everywhere in the world, but Geneva almost 50 times.

A woman that had worked at that mission as a UN employee came to retirement age, and as her final day of work was filed by the US with the Swiss govt. (mandatory for a non-Swiss citizen) the Swiss gave her 30 days after her final day of work to be out of the country. This, after well more than 20 years of working there and paying Swiss taxes.

We have lotsa lakes, love hockey and are known for bein' pretty nice

?

Hockey players treat each other nicely?

(Kings fan here.)

please do not forget that in between polishing his halo, Bonnie Prince Justin is pushing KXL. Being nicer than the US is not a high bar, and the rest of the world knows it.

Top 10 from the article at link in OP

Here are the top 10 best countries in the world, according to U.S. News & World Report, BAV Consulting and Wharton School.
1. Switzerland
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Germany
5. Japan
6. Sweden
7. United States
8. Australia
9. France
10. Norway