Bests to You, Neighbours

​

I was reminded in another post how we package our milk differently (and I left the UK method in the pic, too) :

​

So maybe we should sort out some of the really important issues like this out first. And how about this ?

​

​

 

That's a GREAT idea!!
It should be done on both North and South borders here.

 

The metric system is just an inferior non-scientific arbitrary system. The Imperial system might have some rather weird things about it, but it's an ancient base-12 system that uses divine proportion, which is superior to a base-10 system that some idiot just pulled out of their butt because they don't like the Imperial system. Base-12 measurements are found all throughout nature from the quantum fractal to the proportions of the planets within a solar system. Metric makes no sense as a system for anything other than maybe measuring minute quanta of meth & cocaine.

 

There is truth in what techie76 says, but since our bodies, senses, and common math, follow the base ten aspect which
is so much easier to calculate almost everything concerning our daily lives since the beginning of time, Metric System
is a natural to use.

Nature (the cosmos) does follow base 12, (some have argued it's base 6, which is an aspect of 12), but man in inherently
base 10. (fingers, toes, 2 being a sub factor of 10, 2 eyes, ears, breasts etc)

Ergo, using Metric system is by far a more logical way to go. I wish the worldwide conversion attempt was successful back in the
early 1970s.
Would be a lot easier now in all trade and international acceptances.

 

​

Regardless of the system's merits, I think Canada's move to it when we did was ill-advised.

Why switch without your neighbour and largest trading partner ? Makes no sense - it was an emotional decision, not rational.

​

 

Sure, makes sense.

 

Oh we know it, especially when it comes to working on cars, tv wall mounts, most every gadget in the home that is not U.S. assembled.
Or anything bought at IKEA! lol

I help out a friend who owns a hardware store and I convinced him to carry more metric hardware (nuts, bolts and the like)
and once he saw the sales jump, he reset the whole plan-o-gram to accommodate the 30% more inventory of metric.

 

I don't come here for political discussions, and I'm reluctantly joining in on this one, but this kind of abject prejudice (is this something the TOS allow, moderator or not?) has to be addressed.

I'm an American who has had a long and mostly positive relationship with Canada. I've been in all 10 Canadian provinces plus one territory, my first wife (with whom I'm still friends 40 years on) is Canadian, I've lived and worked in Canada, Canada, out of 70-something countries and territories, remains the only country in the world to have turned me away (the result of Quebecois resentment following the referendum of 1980), and I have had many Canadian friends over the years. But this kind of arrogance, which I've seen all too increasingly often among Canadians, has, I am sad to say, turned me off to many things Canadian. There is much misinformation and propaganda pushed by the media on both sides of the border, and people on both sides who are all too gullible to believe it. But thankfully here we have a First Amendment that guarantees free speech, even and especially unpopular speech, and we don't have the kind of "hate" speech laws and prosecutions you have there. When a country closes its collective mind, nothing good can come of it. We're seeing the same attitude expressed on the streets of our cities right now, and it gives me fear for the future of this country.

I find it hard to believe that "95% of Canadians want the border closed." You can call that "fact," but it's as specious a claim as it would be saying the same about Americans, or that 95% of Canadians feel the same way about anything. You may express your own prejudices, as I might express mine, but that doesn't extend to lumping everyone else in the same embittered boat. To put things back on the topic of this site, maybe 95% of Canadians, or Americans, or whoever, would condemn many of us for our views on incest, though I would doubt even that kind of statistic. The bigger point is, prejudice, of whatever nature, does none of us any good.

 

I've no problem with Canada at all. Toured there quite a while back & always got the red carpet treatment.
Can also say the same with most every country my band went to- Belgium, Holland, U.K., Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Croatia, Serbia, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Armenia, etc. The only places we went to & were treated poorly were Argentina & France.

Canada's a great place tho. I love Vancouver. Nice skateboard parks for the kids & good architecture for everyone. It's a bit grey & rainy like the U.K., but so are a lot of other places.

 

I'm all in favor of immediately going isolationist, taking care of the US first, solving our problems first, then we can worry about the rest of the world.

 

Thanks for your response. I was pointing out the kind of anti-American prejudice you expressed and wonder if that sort of thing is permitted by the TOS. It's one thing to disagree on things and I have no problem with that, but expressing such blanket prejudice I have a problem with.

I can't address the polls you mention because I haven't seen them, but if that's what they show they're probably as inaccurate as our polling has become. I've been in touch with my Canadian ex-wife during all this and she certainly never expressed such a thing to me. She did say how the situation with nursing homes in some areas up there had been mishandled, as they have been in some of our states -- most notably New York, which has by far and away the highest number of cases and deaths and completely skews our national numbers -- and how that led to many unnecessary deaths. Perhaps your polls or news sources have ignored this fact as some of ours have.

I can say that if you really believe what you say about what is going on down here, you have no good information on the situation. There are places that never needed to shut down. There are places that flattened the curve and began to reopen, as they should. And then you have places with completely ineffectual and unscientific rules in place and are just being kept closed for political reasons. Most people, myself included, have been plenty concerned about the virus and are taking it seriously, but that doesn't extend to doing stupid things that make no logical or scientific sense. That's called an intelligent reaction, and in a democracy, which stems from the people, people's right to make intelligent decisions should be respected. Some things, further, are Constitutionally guaranteed, and those guarantees supersede the whim of some politician.

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but lots of countries, including ones that have been hit hard by the virus, have been reopening for the simple reason that extended shutdowns are unsustainable, have limited effects, and destroying the economy leads to all sorts of unintended negative consequences. I would assume, from what you say about the U.S., that you want to close your borders to all those countries, too, right? Or does your prejudice only encompass the country south of your border?

Arrogance doesn't sit well with me and I think it reflects poorly on Canada, which has the potential to be a pretty decent country if it would get its head out of its own ass. When I lived in Canada what thoroughly amazed me was how such a big country, with so few people, and with such vast resources, could have so many problems. As for the Quebecois, you don't have to explain that mentality to me because I am quite conversant with it. And I don't get your reference to Texas, which further shows how little you really know about this country. I've always had a great time in Texas and have found most Texans to be open and welcoming and, while proud of their state, I haven't felt arrogance from them as I've felt in Canada (and that isn't new-found, I hate to tell you). One hopes the more recent transplants to the state from places like California don't bring all their stupid ideas with them and ruin the place, which unfortunately seems to be happening.

 

I'd like to add a little statistical clarification you might not be familiar with. In terms of our deaths from COVID-19, more than half -- approximately 77,000 out of 140,000 to date -- have occurred in just six states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, all with the most stringent lockdowns and several where stupid policies caused thousands of deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. If you take out the numbers from these states (leaving out California, which has moved up in raw numbers but still has a fairly low death rate), and their roughly 71 million people, you have 63,000 deaths in 44 states with a population of about 260 million. That yields a death rate of 242 per million people, fairly close to Canada's death rate of 234 per million (8,800 deaths in a population of 38 million). In fact, even including those six states, the U.S. overall ranks ninth in the world, with several major European countries -- including Belgium, the U.K., Spain, Italy, Sweden, and France -- all having worse, and in some cases much worse, death rates. So how do you feel about what people in those countries have done, and are you and that 95% ready to close your borders to them, too? That would simply be a logical response, would it not?

Additionally, the U.S. has tested far more people than Canada -- 136,000 tests per million people versus Canada's 88,000 per million. What that indicates is that your actual case numbers are probably much higher than indicated and higher than those in, collectively, 44 of our 50 states.

Don't believe my numbers. You can see them for yourself:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries (you can click on the heading of each column to order that column)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1103688/coronavirus-covid19-deaths-us-by-state/

And here's another factoid to chew on. The death rate in the U.S. from COVID-19 is 3.9%. In Canada, it's 8.1%, 17th worst in the world. What does that say about medical care on both sides of the border?

https://epidemic-stats.com/coronavirus/

If you're going to be arrogant, you really should have something to be arrogant about.

 

Okay, read it, and no sale. According to the article, Canada's proportion of the population over 65 is 17%. Well, guess what. The percentage of the U.S. population over 65 is 16%, pretty close. And in the state I live in, Florida -- which has a lower death rate than Canada's and more than half as many people as the whole country of Canada has -- 20.9% of the population is over 65. And then there's this:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/excess-deaths-covid-1.5619723

We can do battling statistics all night, but the point is Canada doesn't have a great deal to be arrogant about. Maybe if people in all countries were a bit more empathetic we'd all be better off.

 

Gee, where did that come from? Here I was thinking we were having a discussion and next thing you're shutting it down rather summarily.

No one asked you to have respect for anything. So I guess nothing lost there.

This is the reason, as I said at the outset, I don't come here for political discussions.

 

I started this thread to enjoy some good-natured banter with folks whom I have spent much time with, and out of respect for this being an American site, too.

Sadly, it has turned into a showcase for self-centred, mean-spirited, and petty jabs at our cross-border neighbour. And in the process, I also find my own Country being represented in a negative way here, and by a fellow Canadian.

How can a site official just summarily discard member contributions here as 'bullshit' and not to be believed ?

I apologize for this, that is not what Canada is about, or what we as good neighbours should be - and I too will now question why I come here.

So as I was saying at the start ... " Bests to you, Neighbours ! "