We Are Canadians (Not American)

Rights, Freedoms, Advantages and Benefits of being Canadian

I have spent the better part of this last week assembling some of the key differences between Canadians and Americans. This was a result of President-Elects absurd statements surrounding annexation of Canada, calling us the 51st State. As a rebuttal I wrote a satirical fake “counter offer” of what we would expect in making any kind of deal to merge with the USA.

After writing it, I realized I had missed several other points that would be of concern to Canadians. So I created a “Part Two” list of demands/terms. I’m still adding to it as a few other Canadians have messaged me about items I have missed. In the first “counter proposal” I suggested 41 trillion dollars as the “purchase price”. In hindsight that might have been too low. After all, how do you value a country? The lifetime value to each and every Canadian might be 3 million dollars average today (going forward adjusted for inflation). That would indicate a purchase price value of 123 trillion dollars (the cash part of a transaction). Think of each citizen as a “shareholder”. In either case, its highly doubtful that the USA can afford even the lower number. Annexation requires fair compensation. You can’t just steal your neighbour’s property.

Here is the unedited original fictitious proposal.

Don’t just laugh them off. Why would we walk away from equalized government representation. We would be giving up about 55 Senate seats for example and we have 338 seats in the House of Commons so we would be losing about 280. Each province is very equivalent to a state. Saskatchewan is no less of a state than Wyoming or North Dakota for an example. Eligibility to be President. We are equals as human beings regardless of where we born.

Our dollar is highly undervalued based on our natural resource strength. We are a bargain. Our Banking regulations are tighter and better protections for consumers.

As for the Paris Climate Accord. Ask the people in Florida, North Carolina and Los Angeles whether or not climate change is real. Preventative spending to mitigate climate issues is just good sense. Whether or not climate change is caused by natural cycles or human activities the results are the same. We can make a difference, therefore we should, regardless of the cause.

Purchase Price. As I indicated earlier it should be in the neighbourhood of 123 trillion if we are talking serious business.

Gun control. Huge misunderstanding by Americans. You can own a gun in Canada and we are well armed. You just can’t own certain types of weapons. Handguns are very restricted. You need a special license, registration mandatory, several restrictions and you can only use them at an approved shooting range. The right to safety for the many outweighs the right to carry. Assault style weapons aren’t meant to be in our communities. Year to date mass shootings in the USA 585 incidents. School shooting incidents — 330. Gun violence has been rising in some cities in Canada, but overall the incidents of mass shootings and school shootings remains rare. Official stats are not readily available but I found one stat last week indicating 3 mass shootings and 3 school incidents this year. Our kids don’t need active shooter drills at school. Our banks, schools and stores do not have armed security. It’s totally foreign to us.

Universal healthcare and our one payer system. First off, there are no premiums. There are no denials of coverage and no deductibles. We have to take optional secondary coverage for prescriptions, dental, vision care and chiropractic or massage therapy. Our true cost per person is half of what coverage in the USA is. Our outcomes are generally similar. We do have a shortage of doctors that could be resolved by less stringent licensing requirements or through educational channels. Wait times are exaggerated in some cases and usually reflect “elective surgery wait times”. Urgent or emergency surgeries happen immediately. Our system isn’t perfect but its fair and no one is denied coverage.

Legalized marijuana. Although many of your states have legalized it the Federal government has been slow to do so. The war on drugs has been a huge failure and totally costly. Border security agents and tools for detection are needed. You have many inmates in your prisons that are there due to possession charges. Another unnecessary cost. Commute sentences and release inmates who are being held for possession charges.

Environmental protection laws. This is self explanatory. Over exploitation of mineral resources, especially oil and coal can’t continue. Water resources and quality remain unresolved issues in many cities. We need to increase our protections rather than eliminate them.

Part Two

• Amending the constitution in several places would be necessary. For example. We would insist on the adoption and preservation of the Canadian Human Rights Act R.S.C., 1985, c. H-6 It’s the foundation for the following
• Guarantee of abortion rights in the first trimester, with additional rights for the health of the mother, incest, or rape.
• LGBTQ+ rights to same sex marriage and protections from discrimination
• Include language and cultural rights for French-speaking citizens (including labeling, etc.) and indigenous peoples.
• medical assisted dying

Labour Law Amendments and other benefits

• Establish a 40-hour work week (or 32–36 becoming common)
• Set a federal minimum wage of $22 per hour. Rights to a living wage.
• Minimum overtime pay rate at 1.5 times the regular rate. Double time on statutory holidays.
• Shift differential rates for evenings, nights and weekends.
• Provide one year of unemployment maternity leave benefits/parental benefits up to 18 months
• Unemployment and Workers Compensation benefit programs.
• $10/day childcare (daycares)
• Carbon Tax Rebate (90% of the Carbon Tax that everyone is pointing at is rebated to consumers.)
• GST Tax Rebate for low income households.
• Child Tax Credit of up to $7200 per year per child, paid monthly to recipients.

Political Changes and Amendments

• Trump must resign as convicted felons cannot run or hold any government office or position.
• Determine how members of the Supreme Court are appointed to avoid unfair appointees.
• Eliminate the electoral college to ensure the person with the most votes wins.
• Hold state and municipal elections at different times from Presidential, Congressional and Senate elections to make ballot counting faster and more accurate.

Other Considerations

Trump must apologize to the world and admit his mistake in backing out of the JCPOA agreement with Iran. Man of Peace he claims. Claims he can end wars in less than a day. Recently said he wanted to negotiate with Iran — we had agreement with Iran and he withdrew because he didn’t like the fact that it was negotiated by Barack Obama. Pettiness and now look at the situation. The Iran situation is all on Trump.

NATO spending. Trump doesn’t understand it. He could solve the issue by reducing the military spending in the USA to 1.5% and encourage a membership drive so that more countries would join based on the lower amount. After all he says he’s a man of peace. This would also help his DOGE initiative to reduce federal spending waste.

Continue indefinite support for Ukraine.

Clearly:

• Maintaining free trade between nations is the best deal for both countries. The USA would benefit by removing the tariffs on softwood lumber. This would ease some costs of materials for housing construction. Besides, the biggest lumber producer in Canada is Weyerhauser which is a USA company operating a subsidiary in Canada.
• Honor previous commitments and agreements. Free trade isn’t set to expire until 2026. Tariffs being implemented now breaks trust in any agreements we have with the USA. You want to negotiate early, no problem to end up extending the free trade deal that has benefited both countries.
• We don’t accept crypto. It’s not real. You can’t just add it to the money supply. It should all be seized as most of it is based in fraud and criminal activity. We already complete most of our transactions digitally through credit card and debit card use.

Closing.

We value our friends, family and business partners in the USA. I personally have extended family in the USA. I have travelled there extensively. I have been to 36 states and spent significant time there over the past 40 years. Many Americans have never been to that many states.

He damages the earned respect, admiration and reputation of our closest ally. For all of you Christians, he claims to be a man of God, but he breaks the commandment of coveting your neighbours property. How many other commandments has he broken? He exhibits the seven deadly sins and you continue to give him a free pass. He has hoodwinked you like a conman does. He publicly chastises Judges and undermines the rule of law by his total lack of accountability. He breaks the laws and suffers no consequence. He refuses to pay his civil judgements. He disrespects the court.

In business his reputation as a great businessman is a total myth. Six business bankruptcies including casinos. One, ok. two, you get a pass, but six? Give me a break. He learned nothing. The Art of the Deal and his negotiation skills. Oppression style tactics are against Business Corporations Act in all North American jurisdictions. The oppression tactics are for a whole other article.

He makes agreements with contractors and then when its time to pay he refuses to pay the full agreed upon invoice. He’s notorious for it. His campaigns owes millions to cities in the USA for that very same reason. That isn’t negotiation. He becomes what's called a “delinquent debtor”. Is that how the USA wants to be viewed? I doubt it.

One ignorant bully isn’t the true measure of the USA. He insulted us hugely the past couple of weeks. It forces us to retaliate. We would prefer not having to take retaliatory measures. He underestimates us. We are not inferior to him. Nor are we his subjects to abuse. We are not anti-American. Please don’t be insulted that we want to stay an independent people and nation. We enjoy many benefits that our USA cousins unfortunately don’t have.

The lie from Trump that he could reduce Canadian taxes by 60% is just another example of how he believes Canadians are just as stupid as the cult followers. Sure, he could get rid of all the important safety nets we enjoy and probably cut some taxes. But here is the catch. The most common tax bracket between the two countries is approximately between 75k and 135k. In 2015 in Canada the tax rate for this income level was 26%. The Trudeau Liberals have reduced that to 20.5% today. The USA rate is 22%. His idea of tax cuts is aimed solely for the super wealthy. That’s true in the USA and in his bullshit lie to Canadians. Overall, we pay approximately 2% more in taxes in Canada, but the benefits are huge.

We would rather invite you to implement some of our examples and ideas to improve the lives of your own nations people. As for military “protection”. We have a military. Heaven forbid that war should come upon us all. We would enlist more men and women like we did in all the big wars that came before. NATO agreements call for unified protections between members. And just who does Trump think we need protection from? From the Canadian view point today, its from him. He’s the only one threatening us with harm.

We are Canadian, the true north strong and free. We are a free nation. We have free speech — -we can criticize our leaders without fear that they would suggest prison as a punishment for speaking out against them. That isn’t true in the USA today. We wish the best outcome for all Americans and Canadians. We are friends, we are not the enemy.