Loading ...My own informal observations of 2 countries
Hanging out in London hotel room with some time to kill before departing for Heathrow and flight home to Vancouver. For those interested, I am posting my own observations about Canada-England differences. Of course there are differences between every country, but I will limit it to those which are pertinent to this forum.
Will do separate post on the arrival and departure experience to each country once I’ve completed this flight leg.
Posted in comments section so as not to take up excess space
The Canadian nanny state: so…the London tube is old. So are the stations. At several stations, there is a significant gap (up to 10″ in some cases) between the carriage doors and the platform. In the UK, this is dealt with by an announcement at every station “mind the gap. mind the gap”.
I personally did not have a problem with this, and everyone seemed to cope.
Whereas I cannot help but think that, in Canada, all it would take is one person to complain that they tripped, and immediately the whole station would be shut down and the platform re-constructed “to conform to standards”. Of course, this would mean extra costs, which would be passed on to the ridership either in the form of higher ticket prices or decreased service. One person complains, everyone pays the price. Draw your own conclusions.
Talking about Covid and/or politics: I noticed that over here, very few people were even remotely curious why I would want to leave Canada. If I were to have said “I want to leave Ukraine” then they would have said I don’t blame you. But for the most part, my announcing that “I am over here to see if I’d like to move here because Canada is now run by a tyrannical dictator” was met with “oh”.
Along the same lines, those who did exhibit a curiosity to know what was so bad about Canada were shocked to hear about Turd-o, the travel restrictions on the purebloods, the Truckers convoy…..the increased crime rates, the homelessness….they had no idea
Having said that, very few Canadians are curious as to why I would want to leave either. It seems the world over, most people think that if we just don’t talk about it, it never happened 🙁
Face rags: when I left Vancouver, it was about 1 in 4 people parading around with a fucking mask on, even outside. Here? Even in London, I rarely see the damn things. A rough guess would be maybe 1 in 200 people? They stand out, looking like the idiots they are.
And this corresponds to far less face rags littering the sidewalks. Yes there is plenty of garbage on the sidewalks as with any big city. Very, very little of it is used face rags.
Covid advertising: With the exception of the one sign I posted a couple weeks ago, a road sign in Cheltenham saying “vaccine centre this way”, I have not seen a single poster or billboard urging people to get boosted/social distance/any of the other bullshit propaganda. Whereas in the province of BC, last time I looked there are still plenty of roadside billboards featuring scary-looking medical personnel urging everyone to go get another experimental gene therapy injection.
The lingering coughs and sniffles heard everywhere, probably as a result of shot-induced fucked-up immune systems: seems to be equally prevalent in both countries.
The verdict (where am I going to live?): undecided. Think it warrants another trip over come autumn. Columbia has been forewarned 🙂 and is encouraging it. In the meantime, for me anyway, having a second citizenship has provided a measure of relief. It means I have another place as a ready escape, and for that I am grateful.
And I am also grateful for this forum, and to FGC for welcoming me and facilitating this so that we can all share and express the truth.
GMG great write up and discussion. I am a retired airline captain who spent the past 25 years flying international to about everywhere one could think of. So I have some unique observations and a wide data base to draw from. One conclusion I have towards airport immigration is that the attitudes of the immigration staff and security personnel is a direct reflection of the heart and soul of the government itself. If one wants to know what a country is like just take a look at these people and how they behave towards incoming passengers.
After visiting over a hundred countries and some up to a hundred times I have to say the absolute worst country with the most abusive immigration staff would be, drumroll please: CANADA!
That’s right, worse than even Russia. Actually Russia’s not that bad, it’s just bureaucratic, not particularly abusive.
When I lived in Seattle I used to pop up to Vancouver a lot to attend mining conferences. It was just a 23 min flight and take the train direct downtown…. easy right? It would be if not for immigration. I learned to never tell the truth to these Nazis. Once when asked how long I was going to stay in Canada, I told them the truth, I said probably 2 days, but if the conference isn’t any good I will probably go back tonight. Well of course in this moron’s mind this identified me as a mule of some sort. Right, a 57 year old drug runner dressed in a suit and tie. So of course I was detained and interrogated for 30 min. Asked questions like what I did for a living and how much money I made, by some young punk who would have no clue how to draw conclusions from what I said.
BTW this was not a one off. Consistently border guards (especially the woman) were overwhelmingly abusive towards travelers. I have seen a lot over the years, but Canada stands out as the worst. I of course could write a book on my experiences. Believe it or not for US citizens the US is not that bad and has actually gotten better over time. When returning they actually welcome you back. But of course the US does have its downside, such as money sniffing dogs that I have witnessed on rare occasion.
As far as freedom, one simply needs to avoid the west.
Wow Sir Plunger that is an eye opener
I don’t travel anymore but when i did I was painfully aware that canadian Customs officials have NO class and no sense of humor !
I just didn’t know they were the worst in the world
And Go Figure…Part of the Canadian Identity is that we are “Nice ” and “Polite”
Sheesh…
PS…I did notice many Immigration “officials” were themselves immigrants .
Sense of humor; Ah yes that is the one universal quality that these people do not possess. Absolutely none of them. Immigration official must be one of the worst jobs in the world. The pay, benefits and time off along with security is probably very good, but to subject oneself for years of seeing humanity as all criminals has got to erode ones spirit.
Sir Plunger — based on your experiences, if there was one country in the world that topped your list of where to move to for permanent residence –> which country would you choose?
Kewi, That’s such an individual decision. 10 years ago I would have said New Zealand. But today that would be on the bottom of the list. I think the old Doug Casey principle is about right. Have three countries. One for money, one for residence and one for passport. Have at least 2 passports.
But for me personable living in Dubai/Abu Dhabi in the winters and traveling somewhere else in summers such as Europe appeals to me. Eastern Europe actually respects freedom more than Western Europe.