I do think Canada’s healthcare system is better than what we have here in the U.S. But I also think that our American political system, the way our government is set up (and I’m not talking who is currently in office, I’m talking structure and how it functions) is definitely better. Have you, other than when you were forced to back in high school, really sat down and read and thought about how the government is set up? I did. When the election was going on last year Den dug out his old textbook and I spent several days reading all about the founding of this country, how and why the system was crafted the way it was, and how it functions. It’s not only fascinating, but brilliant. I couldn’t help but marvel at how very well it was done. I love the fact that we elect the actual president. I like how the politicians do actually listen to their constituents’ phone calls and letters. I like how the states do have some form of autonomy to form a mini-government that better serves the ideals of the people within that state, while still all being part of the federal system.<\/p>\n
One thing that stands out to me quite starkly is how different the Canadian and American people are. To be perfectly honest I think some of the problems with the Canadian healthcare system (like the fact that infertility treatment is NOT covered) exists simply because the Canadians don’t DO anything about it. They’re not really a very vocal, outspoken people. They don’t flood town hall meetings, they don’t protest, they don’t get into a huge uproar every election. I don’t want to say that they’re less engaged, but, well, they’re less engaged. Canadians don’t consider themselves to be under the rule of the Queen or any part of the United Kingdom. But, well, they just have never had the energy to put up a fight to formally become independent. That’s just how Canadians are. It’s all okay, it’s all good, they aren’t really perfectly happy with it, but eh, it’s an effort to change it and it’s not really worth getting upset over.<\/p>\n
And in this way I definitely don’t fit in with Canadians. I’m far too opinionated.<\/p>\n
I’m in this very strange in-between. I’ve been living here as a resident for four and a half years now. I still feel a lot of pride in my country of birth, and I still definitely consider myself a Canadian. When I visit home I feel a rush of contentment and comfort when I see all the Canadian flags. But at the same time I’m slowly starting to consider myself an American, too. It’s happened in little bits and pieces, I didn’t really notice. I started saying things like “we” and “us” when talking about the United States. I get anxious now about politics and social issues not just because it affects me now, but because I want this country to succeed.c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I do think Canada’s healthcare system is better than what we have here in the U.S. But I also think that our American political system, the way our government is set up (and I’m not talking who is currently in office, I’m talking structure and how it functions) is definitely better. Have you, other than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[280,281],"class_list":["post-2180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-america","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2181,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions\/2181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}