# I'm an old Canadian and America is starting to freak me out **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 3, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546 "2016-11-03T18:40:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/41 "2016-11-04T00:32:48Z")
So, if you’re Canadian and old, do you still have to shovel your own walk, or does the Government send a guy around to clear it for you? Asking for a friend. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/42 "2016-11-04T00:51:53Z")
I think they just pound it down. Permafrost. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/43 "2016-11-04T01:04:42Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > So, if you’re Canadian and old, do you still have to shovel your own walk, or does the Government send a guy around to clear it for you? > > Asking for a friend. Around here, the streets and sidewalks are plowed if they are besmirched with even a single snowflake, then plowed again just to make sure. But tell your friend that I think it’s just a make-work project by socialist communist unions who drive up property taxes. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/44 "2016-11-04T01:12:56Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Around here, the streets and sidewalks are plowed if they are besmirched with even a single snowflake, then plowed again just to make sure. But tell your friend that I think it’s just a make-work project by socialist communist unions who drive up property taxes. Well, there you go, ay? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/45 "2016-11-04T01:16:11Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Having lived in Canada, I’m amazed how Canadians come to predominately American forums and spout how different they are, whereas most Canadians that I’ve gotten to know very well are pretty much exactly like us. > > So either Michiganders are anti-American, or Ontarians don’t represent the rest of Canada. I was actually surprised at the amount of racism I encountered in Canada, as I’d always been led to believe how “enlightened” things were there. What you encountered probably isn’t statistically normal. From a statistical perspective Canadians are much less racial than Americans. No, I don’t have a cite, but if you look back in history of race relations in Canada we never had the Jim Crow issues, and really don’t have much of an “us versus them” mentality for any ethnic group. Where did you live in Ontario? Was it Windsor? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/46 "2016-11-04T01:20:45Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How so? > Bill Clinton has admitted that it was a bad move. You might be confusing Bill with his wife and her electioneering. [Bill continues to defend NAFTA](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/bill-clinton-trump-nafta-228795) while acknowledging (correctly, IMO) that in all trade agreements the devil is in the details. In the story cited at the above link, the Carrier corporation used NAFTA to do some profitable union-busting. The problem in this case wasn’t the trade agreement, but unregulated, unprincipled corporate avarice. The economic relevance to Canada of a Trump presidency in this context might be the loss of an estimated 700,000 jobs, plus the possibly a worldwide economic depression. But that’s not the only way Trump would affect Canada. There’s also the loss of trade and tourism in both countries due to the permanent closing of the US-Canada border wherein both sides agree, each for their own reasons, that a ten-foot high concrete wall topped with electrified barbed wire would be a fine idea, plus my cost and inconvenience in having to build a nuclear fallout shelter. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/47 "2016-11-04T01:46:10Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How so? > Bill Clinton has admitted that it was a bad move. NAFTA got a bad rap, but it was just an extension of the FTA deal that had already transpired a decade previous to that. The thing is that a Trump administration might be good for Canada overall. Right now the money boys want order, and not chaos. So clearly they would prefer a Clinton Administration and what the rest of the world wants is irrelevant. If putting Americans back to work in industries that have sought sanctuary in Mexico and further south means ripping up NAFTA and laughing at the TPP, then thats whats going to be first and foremost on his administration’s agenda. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/48 "2016-11-04T01:53:37Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > NAFTA got a bad rap, but it was just an extension of the FTA deal that had already transpired a decade previous to that. Edit timed out, extension should be read as evolution, as NAFTA covered more and included Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/49 "2016-11-04T02:43:31Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > If putting Americans back to work in industries that have sought sanctuary in Mexico and further south means ripping up NAFTA and laughing at the TPP, then thats whats going to be first and foremost on his administration’s agenda. 😕 Wow, you almost sound as though you actually believe that Trump gives even the minutest of shits about “putting Americans back to work in industries”. We have constantly seen throughout Trump’s entire career that he’s a self-obsessed huckster whose one sincere interest is amassing more money and attention for Donald Trump. His fundamental _modus operandi_ has always been to ginger up people’s enthusiasm with some kind of glitzy-sounding plan—investors, contractors, employees, customers, media—and then pursue whatever path will lead to more money and attention for **him personally** , with blithe disregard for the interests of anybody else or his own responsibility to safeguard anybody else’s interests. Truly, the most bizarre aspect of this whole election for me has been the eager willingness of so many Trumpublicans to pretend their candidate is an actual politician instead of an ignorant limelight-addicted reality-TV celebrity. I could almost wish for Trump to be elected just for the lolz of watching the Trumpublicans eventually wake up to the reality that _no, you don’t have a hard-hitting, straight-talking Chief Exec who will go to the mat for the downtrodden little guy. **What you’ve got, and what it should have been blindingly obvious to you all along that you’ve got, is the same old bloviating narcissistic publicity hound that Donald Trump has always been.** Plus a bunch of backroom boys from the conservative establishment **who are actually going to run the administration, and who are going to go right on screwing over the downtrodden little guy just the same as they’ve always done.** _ ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/50 "2016-11-04T03:11:44Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > 😕 Wow, you almost sound as though you actually believe that Trump gives even the minutest of shits about “putting Americans back to work in industries”. > > We have constantly seen throughout Trump’s entire career that he’s a self-obsessed huckster whose one sincere interest is amassing more money and attention for Donald Trump. His fundamental _modus operandi_ has always been to ginger up people’s enthusiasm with some kind of glitzy-sounding plan—investors, contractors, employees, customers, media—and then pursue whatever path will lead to more money and attention for **him personally** , with blithe disregard for the interests of anybody else or his own responsibility to safeguard anybody else’s interests. > Truly, the most bizarre aspect of this whole election for me has been the eager willingness of so many Trumpublicans to pretend their candidate is an actual politician instead of an ignorant limelight-addicted reality-TV celebrity. I could almost wish for Trump to be elected just for the lolz of watching the Trumpublicans eventually wake up to the reality that _no, you don’t have a hard-hitting, straight-talking Chief Exec who will go to the mat for the downtrodden little guy. **What you’ve got, and what it should have been blindingly obvious to you all along that you’ve got, is the same old bloviating narcissistic publicity hound that Donald Trump has always been.** Plus a bunch of backroom boys from the conservative establishment **who are actually going to run the administration, and who are going to go right on screwing over the downtrodden little guy just the same as they’ve always done.** _ Take a moment and breathe, your world might end , but not the actual world itself if Trump takes it. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/51 "2016-11-04T03:14:19Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I think a lot of us Americans got a wake up call about just how racist, sexist and just plain hate-filled our own nation is. Yeah, we knew it was always thus, but we kidded ourselves, saying most people weren’t racist, they were just ignorant, etc. > > Nope. We were wrong. We’re still chest deep in hate and bigotry. ☹ Its not just that. A lot of us have had to face the painful fact that lots and lots of people here are perfectly comfortable having a deranged, sociopathic narcissist who lacks the emotional maturity and intellect to be president, to have as our president. That is really demoralizing and disappointing. It is like finding out that 50 million people are perfectly comfortable having a mentally disabled klansman as president. Or perfectly happy having a rabid dog as president. Nobody like Trump has been this dangerous, incompetent, destructive or unstable that I can think of running on a major ticket in the last 100 years. And most people could honestly care less. Less than 1 in 5 republicans refuse to vote for him, the other 80% are perfectly fine with him. I thought I was cynical, but I had no idea that voters were this clueless or indifferent. I can’t fathom how a moral, informed person who understands that the presidency is not a game show could support Trump. Even if you hate Clinton with a passion, I still don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/52 "2016-11-04T03:18:11Z")
> [@Trancephalic](#): > > BTW, any you canucks got a room for rent? I’ve considered trying to marry a foreign girl for access to her nation’s health care and civilized politics. I need to put myself out there more. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/53 "2016-11-04T03:26:45Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > … If putting Americans back to work in industries that have sought sanctuary in Mexico and further south means ripping up NAFTA and laughing at the TPP, then thats whats going to be first and foremost on his administration’s agenda. In case you haven’t noticed, Trump doesn’t _ **have** _ an agenda. He bloviates random things that make no sense and are rarely the same from one day to another. You think he’s interested in “putting Americans back to work”? What he’s interested in is feeding his insatiable narcissism and laying the groundwork for further enriching himself with his next series of reality TV shows that appeal to the apparently burgeoning population of feeble-minded yokels. > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > It is like finding out that 50 million people are perfectly comfortable having a mentally disabled klansman as president. It’s not “like” that. It is _ **exactly** _ that. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/54 "2016-11-04T03:30:51Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’ve considered trying to marry a foreign girl for access to her nation’s health care and civilized politics. I need to put myself out there more. Progressive Canada doesn’t have open borders? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/55 "2016-11-04T03:43:28Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > Take a moment and breathe, your world might end , but not the actual world itself if Trump takes it. Yes, I know. But how feeble and half-assed an argument is that in support of a Presidential candidate? _“Hey, at least Trump won’t actually cause the literal end of the physical world, so really nothing to worry about, right?”_ :dubious: This is just another instance of the completely bizarre cognitive disconnect that Trumpublicans are exhibiting about their candidate. On the one hand, you’re evidently committed to going through the electoral motions of behaving as though Trump were an actual national politician with genuine considered policy goals. But at the same time, on a rational level, your belief in his actual capacity is so paper-thin that **the best you can come up with as a response to serious critiques of his ignorance and shallowness is a reassurance that he won’t literally destroy the world.** This is by far the greatest mass outbreak of Emperor’s Clothes Syndrome that I’ve ever witnessed in our political system. You carry on talking up your Emperor’s impressive (imaginary) outfit as though it actually existed in the way that real clothes do. And when somebody points out that _in fact this alleged outfit is completely illusory_, you shrug and mutter that oh well he’s probably wearing **some** kind of garment or at least a [hand-jock](http://lurkerfaqs.com/boards/400-current-events/67351580/), so who cares? Reality has just become completely irrelevant to the Trumpublican thought processes this election. On some level, it’s an amazing phenomenon to watch, but on another level, holy shit. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/56 "2016-11-04T03:45:46Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It’s not “like” that. It is _ **exactly** _ that. A sociopathic narcissist. A sex criminal and suspected pedophile. A buffoon who acts like a 4th grader giving a book report on a book he obviously never read. A bigoted misogynist. An empty suit who has 0 understanding of policy, civics or government. An emotionally unstable 3 year old. A fraudster and charlatan. An authoritarian proto-fascist. A shameless pathological liar. A criminal with no respect for the law. All perfectly reasonable descriptions of Trump. He will still get 50 million votes to have him in charge of the country. That is something that is going to take a long time to process and make sense of. It is really disappointing how dumb, blindly loyal and indifferent people really are. Also keep in mind the people who actually bother to vote tend to be more educated, more financially successful and more in tune with civics than people who sit out elections. So that 50 million is pulled from people who are more educated and successful than average. I disagreed with Bush, but I didn’t feel this way about the people who voted for him. Same with Romney, McCain, etc. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/57 "2016-11-04T03:58:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Well, there you go, ay? Oh my gosh. Is that you trying to say “eh”? That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all day. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/58 "2016-11-04T05:21:17Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > … but unregulated, unprincipled corporate avarice… Ahem. The vibrant, creative spirit of entrepreneurship interacting synergistically with the free market to efficiently monetize human existence. No need for expressions of gratitude, it is presumed, and nobody gives a rat’s anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/59 "2016-11-04T12:59:40Z")
Going forward I have only one answer to any Republican issues with the Democrats and anything they do. “You were the clowns who voted for Trump. I wouldn’t trust you to handle scissors at this point.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546/60 "2016-11-04T13:17:04Z")
> [@FloatyGimpy](#): > > Oh my gosh. Is that you trying to say “eh”? That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all day. 🙂 And who made The Band famous? Those Canadian guys? No, Arkansan Levon Helm, a…eh? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-old-canadian-and-america-is-starting-to-freak-me-out/770546.md?page=4)