I have, of course, no right to insert my view of American politics, but as your closest neighbour and as both a proud Canadian and a close observer of what goes on in the U.S.A., I would like to express my thoughts on two current issues from a Canadian point of view.
Abortion
In the U.S., it would appear that everyone has the God given right to play god, or at least determine what God wants Everyone has the right to tell everyone else how they should live. Education, Health Care, Religion, and Life Style, are all on the list of God given rights that people have to determine how others should live. And everyone has an opinion on how others should address abortion. Women who have never had to decide whether to have an abortion or not feel that they have a right to force other women into their chosen decision. What is even more absurd is that men, who have no idea what giving birth, making the decision to have an abortion, or actually having an abortion is like, feel that they have the right to impose their opinions on women who do. Politicians take sides in order to get support from one side or the other, governments take sides in order to appease donors, and even the Supreme Court takes sides, somehow determining what the country’s founding fathers thoughts were. As a result, no decision ever gets made. The rights of the individual don’t matter, its the opinion of the current majority that determines how people live,
In Canada, the most basic principle is that individuals have the right to their own opinions and the freedom to live as they please, PROVIDED, that they do not interfere with those same rights and freedoms of other Canadians. In Canada you can determine that you don’t want to smoke weed, but you can’t tell other people that they can’t smoke weed. With the exception of inflicting violence on others, you can act as you like in your bedroom, but you cannot tell others how they must act. You can worship as your beliefs and your religion dictates, but you cannot stop others from worshiping as their religion dictates. As an extension of this principle, the government has no right to interfere with these individual freedoms. If a person decides that they do not want to go through a surgery that may save their life, the government has no power to force them to comply. And here is where we get to the question of abortion. Any woman faced with the decision to have an abortion or not has the right to make that decision, but they do not have the right to tell others how they should deal with the same decision. The decision to have or not have an abortion must be the most difficult decision any woman in that position will ever make. But, it is that woman’s decision to make, and her’s alone. No one has the right to make that decision for her. Outside organizations can advise her either way, but no one has the right to force her into a decision, No matter what decision she makes the decision as well as the longer term effects can be emotionally devastating. but it is her decision and hers alone that matters. In Canada it has been made clear that the Government has absolutely no role in that decision. As a result the subject of abortion does not come up in elections. Certainly, no man other than the woman in question’s sexual partner has any say over her decision, and that is an issue between them alone. In cases of rape, no one has any say. The role of society is to provide the medical and emotional care that women may need in order to make their decision and to deal with any emotional and psychological aftermath.
Immigration
Immigration in the U.S. appears to be driven by fear. Fear of the nation being over run and taken over by the other. The assumption being that once the others have taken over, those in the majority today will be in the minority and then the new majority will somehow mistreat the new minority. At the same time the current majority praise the social, economic and political advancements to the U.S. society that immigrants have provided. These two ideas obviously cannot coexist. Either, the country needs immigrants in order to continue to evolve and develop, or immigration is bad, the population rejects immigration because of fear of immigrants, the country stagnates for lack of the innovation and creativity brought by those immigrants, and the live Americans have and expect to continue fades away Part of the conflict in ideas is the closed view that America has imposed on their children through their education system. Lack of knowledge of the world outside of the U.S. and the full concentration on an unreal view of the U.S. and its greatness has stifled the population’s view of the outside world. The whole idea of American exceptionalism assumes that the U.S. alone has all of the best ideas, all of the best technologies, all of the best science, all of the best of everything. This is obviously not true. Other countries in the first, second and third world have given the global society scientific, economic and social ideas that have helped create the world we live in today. Some of the biggest parts of our everyday life were not created by native Americans, but by immigrants. They were products, not of American, but of Russian, German, and Croatian education as well as from many other countries.
Immigration in Canada
Canada needs immigrants and is actively trying to streamline the immigration process. The country has initiated a burden reduction plan for immigrants to reduce and simplify the immigration process. No new administrative burdens have been added to IRCC’s (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s) Administrative Burden since July 1, 2015 . With a strong economy providing numerous opportunities and a culturally diverse population, many foreign-born citizens have reaped the rewards of immigrating to Canada. Its educational system makes it attractive to immigrants, and has laid the foundation for future innovation and progress for all of Canada.(1). Immigrants contribute to our economy, not only by filling gaps in our labour force and paying taxes, but also by spending money on goods, housing and transportation. The income tax paid by working Canadians pays for health care and other supports for older Canadians. (2). The movement of individuals of one country into another for the purpose of resettlement is central to Canadian history. The story of Canadian immigration is not one of orderly population growth; instead, it has been — and remains one — about economic development as well as promotion of Canadian attitudes and values. Many immigrants are entrepreneurial. Beyond creating jobs for Canadians, immigrant-owned businesses improve trade ties to Canada. Immigrants often have a desire for goods from their home country, which broadens the variety of imports available to all Canadian consumers. Immigrants are also able to export more because of their networks in their home countries. Some employers are already having trouble finding Canadian-born workers to fill jobs. More than 6 in 10 immigrants are selected for their positive impact on our economy. The top 5 occupations of people invited to immigrate under our Express Entry program are as follows:
- software engineers and designers
- information systems analysts
- computer programmers
- financial auditors and accountants
- advertising, marketing and public relations professionals (3)
Canada as you can see has embraced immigration. The same opportunities identified here are available to the U.S. Within the hoards of “criminals and rapists” ( Donald Trump) being held at the Mexico border are engineers, scientists, educators, and entrepreneurs ready to add their creations to the American story and who knows what their children or their children will create. The U.S. has a population of about 350 million people yet a night time map of the U.S. shows that the vast center of the country is sparsely populated. Surely there is room for many more people.
