Good Riddance, Eh?
I what honestly reads like a parody, a man who moved to Canada with his wife after George Bush was reelected in 2004 writes the LA Times to tell the world why the happy couple is staying in Canada.
MY WIFE AND I AWOKE, as usual, to NPR. Before political correspondent Mara Liasson got to the end of her first sentence, I knew the news was disastrous. George W. Bush had been reelected.
"Honey," I said, "remember when we talked about moving to Canada?"
I'm sure a lot of other dyed-in-the-organic-wool liberals muttered something similar that dark morning in 2004, but unlike most of them, we meant it. Plan A: John Kerry wins, we build that dream ski house in Vermont. Plan B: Move to Vancouver, Canada.
So, Plan B it was. We'd had enough of Bush, the direction the United States was going, and this was the last straw. Never mind that we lived in Cambridge, Mass., arguably the most liberal city in the bluest of the blue states. We were packing our bulk granola into our diesel Beetle and heading out.
Eight months later, we were settling into a new home and jobs in British Columbia, when Canada had its own election. For those unfamiliar with the Canadian system of government, the prime minister is elected by parliament — not every four years but after losing a no-confidence vote. After a few of those there was a parliamentary election in January, which led to the election of a new prime minister, Stephen Harper, of Canada's Conservative Party.
Harper ran on cutting taxes and turning a federal child-care program into a monthly payment per child. The opposition's negative campaign ads sounded eerily familiar: He supported Bush's war in Iraq, was against signing the Kyoto environmental accord and wanted to "reexamine" gay marriage (which is legal in Canada). A shiver rippled down from our berets to our Birkenstocks.
"Our berets to our Birkenstocks". Oh. My. God. Well, all I can say is have fun up there. Hopefully you've also renounced your American citizenship. He mentions universal health care. One presumes he has not actually had the experience of dealing with it yet. When I lived in upstate New York it was astonishing how many Canadians who could afford to would come to the US for medical treatment and surgery rather than surrender themselves to the Canadian health care system. It can be very unhealthy to go into a Canadian hospital. As Canadians well know even if self parodying expatriates don't.
Left Wing, Politics, World news | Gaius Saturday, 25 November , 2006
By Arlo, Saturday, 25 November , 2006 @ 10:49 am
British Columbia is a nicer place to live than Cambridge, MA, too, IMO. I guess these are folks who can live whereever they want.
By syn, Saturday, 25 November , 2006 @ 12:13 pm
Unlike the Iraqis under Saddam, Mr. And Mrs Peacenik are free to leave American borders, granola and all.
Thank God Bush isn’t Hitler. Now they’re Canada’s misery.
By Doug Ross, Saturday, 25 November , 2006 @ 12:41 pm
I’m sorry, but that’s got to be a brilliant parody, something along the lines of BlameBush.
By TC@LeatherPenguin, Saturday, 25 November , 2006 @ 1:49 pm
“Our berets to our Birkenstocks”
Says it all.