What Makes Canada a Great Place to Live?

[Dagenais]

What is more important: Liberty or safety?

Complete liberty would be Anarchism. Not many want that.

I think the liberty we are allowed in Canada is perfect. I can say I feel relatively safe. There are less gang-related crimes, but they still exist.

Also, Canadians, please explain this:
The Queen reigns but does not rule.

She finished touring Canada a couple of years ago. Last time she came to B.C., she watched a hockey came. The cost of her trip was outrageous enough to make the papers. I don't remember how much it cost, but it was an offensive amount.

As far as her influence in Quebec? We can't stand her and she knows that. I don't recall her even visiting Quebec in 2002 on her "Tour of Canada."

She probably realizes she's not welcomed there and we'd "boo" her. Quebec is too smart for a monarchy. You might want to read this news link. It's pretty interesting:

http://www.canada.com/national/features/royalvisit/story.html?id=5E8D9C01-72FE-4B1D-A2B2-41FDD4368FD2

There are currently four political parties represented in Parliament and with a minority government like we have now, there’s really a lot of restriction on what the Prime Minister and party in power can do.

At least the Democrats have a chance against the Republicans. The Liberals aren't losing a national election anytime soon.

I favour Kerry over Bush, but I don't think Georgie is that bad. Like Don Cherry or Harper, I'm more upset at Canada not backing the US in it's war against Iraq.

The United States is ready to back Canada's ass up when trouble occurs. Too bad we can't do the same.

 

[Smurf]

What pisses me off is that with the merging of Alliance and Conservative parties, Canada is practically a 2 party system (Can you name other countries with 2 party systems?). I just don't see the difference between this and a 1 party system except its easier to fool people into thinking they have a choice.

Also, Canadians, please explain this:
The Queen reigns but does not rule.

We didn't have a violent revoultion like America. Instead we fought the Germans for the English and in return they gave us independance. We gained control of our foreign affairs at the treaty of versailles negotiations, (canadian government set up apart from england's in 1863 or something).

The main advantage is that we get a bunch of awsome traditions like a bar in the house of commons that the queen isn't allowed to go past because in the middle ages she would walk in and kill people who disagreed with her.

Also we get her face on our coins but meh. (as long as charle's face stays off our money)

 

[fourier jr]

The United States is ready to back Canada's ass up when trouble occurs. Too bad we can't do the same.

w t f i thought you quebecers were the most antiwar province... king didn't conscript anyone during WWII because quebec would have gone crazy, correct? maybe you're just a minority...

& i don't think the US would "help us" anytime soon, unless by that you mean install a US-friendly dictator. I'm more worried about our own politicians saying things like the following, than anything the US does to us:

"You must not take the Militia seriously, for though it is useful for suppressing internal differences, it will not be required for the defence of the country, as the Monroe Doctrine [proclaiming US military hegemony in the Americas] protects us against enemy aggression." - Wilfred Laurier

 

[Smurf]

I favour Kerry over Bush, but I don't think Georgie is that bad

Ok, thinking bush is good and kerry bad I can understand,
thinking kerry is the lesser evil I can understand,
even thinking bush is the lesser evil I can understand.

But this blows my mind.

 

[ShawnD]

What pisses me off is that with the merging of Alliance and Conservative parties, Canada is practically a 2 party system (Can you name other countries with 2 party systems?). I just don't see the difference between this and a 1 party system except its easier to fool people into thinking they have a choice.

It's better than what we had before. Before the parties merged, we had basically a 1 party system - liberal party. Now we have a 2 party system - liberal and conservative.

We didn't have a violent revoultion like America. Instead we fought the Germans for the English and in return they gave us independance. We gained control of our foreign affairs at the treaty of versailles negotiations, (canadian government set up apart from england's in 1863 or something).

I might be mistaken, but wasn't our independence part of the Statute of Westminster in 1931?
Canada became a country (dominion?) in 1867.

[about Bush not being bad]
Ok, thinking bush is good and kerry bad I can understand,
thinking kerry is the lesser evil I can understand,
even thinking bush is the lesser evil I can understand.

But this blows my mind.

Relative to past presidents, he's not that bad. He's not doing a hell of a lot to stop outsourcing, but it's not like he's the antichrist. Allow me to compare to hotshot Clinton. The following was taken from another forum

I'm trying to get all this political stuff straightened out in my head
so I'll know how to vote come November. Right now, we have one guy saying
one thing. Then the other guy says something else. Who to believe. Lemme
see; have I got this straight?

Clinton awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Yugoslavia - good...
Bush awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Iraq - bad...

Clinton spends 77 billion on war in Serbia - good...
Bush spends 87 billion in Iraq - bad...

Clinton imposes regime change in Serbia - good...
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...

Clinton bombs Christian Serbs on behalf of Muslim Albanian terrorists- good...
Bush liberates 25 million from a genocidal dictator - bad...

Clinton bombs Chinese embassy - good...
Bush bombs terrorist camps - bad...

Clinton commits felonies while in office - good...
Bush lands on aircraft carrier in jumpsuit - bad...

No mass graves found in Serbia - good...
No WMD found Iraq - bad...

Stock market crashes in 2000 under Clinton - good...
Economy on upswing under Bush - bad...

Clinton refuses to take custody of Bin Laden - good...
World Trade Centers fall under Bush - bad...

Clinton says Saddam has nukes - good...
Bush says Saddam has nukes - bad...

Clinton calls for regime change in Iraq - good...
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...

Terrorist training in Afghanistan under Clinton - good...
Bush destroys training camps in Afghanistan - bad...

Milosevic not yet convicted - good...
Saddam turned over for trial - bad...

Ahh, it's so confusing!

Then before him was Bush senior who didn't get re-elected because the economy sort of sucked under his watch.
Before that was Reagan I believe. I'm not quite sure if Bush beat the record, but Reagan spent more money than anybody in the history of the world.

Basically all presidents are crap. There is no good president.

 

[Smurf]

ok, we became a country in 1960-something, i was only off by a century.

I can't compare it to what it was like before (cuz I didn't follow politics back then) but It still sucks, I like the idea of proportional representation - but that would give too much power to the people and allow direct action as oppoed to indirect representation, bad for big business, so we don't have it.

The thing about that post is it's slanted to support bush, allow me to revise it:

Clinton awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Yugoslavia - good...
Bush awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Iraq - bad...

Cheney major stock holder in Halliburton, who was clinton's vice? If halliburton did as bad a job in yugo as they are doing in Iraq I'll give him this one.

Cinton spends 77 billion on war in Serbia - good...
Bush spends 87 billion in Iraq - bad...

1. The main argument is bush's reasons for going to Iraq, he misused information and lied to the world, went against the UN and now the US has already broken many articles in the geneva convention, and no one is being held responsible! except for that one thing at abu ghrave or something prison where a few lowly officers got minor sentences.
2. Clinton was first president in like 7 consecutive presidents to leave office without a deficit, Bush went throught this and into deficit in his first term, and then achieved the largest deficit in American history.

Clinton imposes regime change in Serbia - good...
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...

don't know much about this but i'll take a shot:
Yugoslavia vs http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/images/jan-june03/map_ethnic_iraq.gif

Serbia was seen as an international threat to other states in the area, Kuwait didnt even consider Iraq a threat when Bush invaded.

Clinton bombs Christian Serbs on behalf of Muslim Albanian terrorists- good...
Bush liberates 25 million from a genocidal dictator - bad...

I resent the use of religion in this statement, the serbs were murders no matter their faith and the Albanians (oppressed freedom fighters?)

Clinton bombs Chinese embassy - good...
Bush bombs terrorist camps - bad...

I think he's mainly being criticized for bombing Red Cross bases and British Tanks.

Clinton commits felonies while in office - good...
Bush lands on aircraft carrier in jumpsuit - bad...

*cough* this one is completely unparallelled

No mass graves found in Serbia - good...
No WMD found Iraq - bad...

I don't know much about this but didn't you find mass graves in Serbia? I'm pretty sure this is flat out not true.

Stock market crashes in 2000 under Clinton - good...
Economy on upswing under Bush - bad...

See #2 but add 'Massive Outsourcing' to Bush.

Clinton refuses to take custody of Bin Laden - good...
World Trade Centers fall under Bush - bad...

America had the means of stopping WTC, when bush was warned by the CIA some time (several months i believe) before it he took no action and the air force was completely unprepared for WTC.
Bush incapable of taking Bin Laden into custody?

Clinton says Saddam has nukes - good...
Bush says Saddam has nukes - bad...

Clinton was wrong, realized it, didn't go to war.
Bush was wrong, didn't care, lied, went to war.

Clinton calls for regime change in Iraq - good...
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...

See: Imposes vs Calls for.

Terrorist training in Afghanistan under Clinton - good...
Bush destroys training camps in Afghanistan - bad...

Bush moves training camps to Iraq [closer to infidels now] where there are 'no-go' zones and Terrorist Hot beds like Falluja. terrorist activity increases.

Milosevic not yet convicted - good...
Saddam turned over for trial - bad...

Discussed in another thread, Bush finally did something right.

Now I don't know much about Yugoslavia since it was before my time, so take my opinion about as seriously as you take the other one. And yes I agree all presidents are crap which is why this American experiment should end, its gone on long enough - we have enough data to confidently state that its not working.

 

[russ_watters]

The following was taken from another forum

Do you have a link to that? Its pretty good.

 

[BobG]

Well, that's about 30% too much but Gokul's comments might explain this misguided group.

As of right now, I have always loved Canadian Hockey. :!)

Just keep in mind that foreign outsourcing is an even bigger problem in Canada than the US:

Quebec Nordiques to Colorado
Minnesota North Stars to Dallas (using revised map, of course)
Winnipeg Jets to Pheonix (and they still can't win the Cup)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Just keep in mind that foreign outsourcing is an even bigger problem in Canada than the US:

Aside from the fact that compared to the US, in so many ways Canada seems to be going the right direction, I know quite a number of US companies exporting work there. In fact for the last ten years I have watched Canadian industry demand more and more attention here. Several of my customers have each had several large projects in Canada - new industrial manufacturing installations. I have also seen that Canadian industrial electrical standards have been absorbed by many manufacturers here. This is common when dealing with a future competitor.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Oh yes, as for Spain, Brunei, the UAE and the others, I appreciate your comments and they do each sound wonderful in their own way. Unfortunately it didn't take long to realize that we are not up to that much risk yet. BC is virtually in the neighborhood for us. We can still be relatively close to family and I might even maintain some of my customer base. From what I gather, Canada wants new businesses.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

And yes I agree all presidents are crap which is why this American experiment should end, its gone on long enough - we have enough data to confidently state that its not working.

I think it still can but it will take a long time to correct itself; depending of course on the damage done to the Constitution. However, since hardly anyone seems to care about the Constitution my hopes are quickly diminishing. At the least, I don't see this being a place that I care to live for a couple of decades or more.

The people have failed, not the system.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Back on topic

What is the price of milk, gas, coffee, a dinner at a decent restaurant, and a good steak from the grocery store?

What do you consider to be a high, moderate, and cheap price for a home?

How much of your income goes to taxes?

 

[Gonzolo]

All in Cdn$

Milk : 5$ for 4 liters

Gas : 0,9-0,95 $ /liter

Coffee : 1-1,50$/cup at the Donut shop.

Dinner : Ponderosa : 10-15$/complete meal, Pizza Shack : Probably about 20$ for the most expensive pizza (Largest with all ingredients). McDonald : 6$ for a Big Mac combo. Everyone has his definition of "Decent", for foreign specialty restaurants, you can easily find 15-25$ / meal.

T-Bone steak at grocery : 8-15$ (15$ for 1-inch thick)

Income tax and sales tax depends on what province you're in.

 

[fourier jr]

milk is more expensive here because of our supply-management system in agriculture. i don't really have a problem with it because it's besically an embargo on stuff from other countries & it protects the family farm. it must be good for us if every other country in the wto wants us to get rid of the system. too bad ralph goodale caved to pressure to change the quotas to tariffs, because with the nafta we can't increase tariffs, only decrease them. eventually we'll see the us corporations take over all our dairy & poultry if we don't get a strong government in ottawa.

 

[ShawnD]

ok, we became a country in 1960-something, i was only off by a century.

I made a typo; It was 1867.
I'm not trying to be a dick. I just want the world to know a little more about Canada

The link to that forum is here
http://www.techimo.com/forum/t123077.html

Cheney major stock holder in Halliburton, who was clinton's vice? If halliburton did as bad a job in yugo as they are doing in Iraq I'll give him this one.

Cheney being a big stock holder isn't the point. The point is that both administrations wanted quick results (bidding can take weeks), but only one administration got bad pres over it.

The main argument is bush's reasons for going to Iraq, he misused information and lied to the world, went against the UN and now the US has already broken many articles in the geneva convention, and no one is being held responsible! except for that one thing at abu ghrave or something prison where a few lowly officers got minor sentences.

I'm not too sure he lied to the world. He used information that the CIA discovered during Clinton's reign.
He had to go against the UN if he wanted results because Iraq had France (a country with veto power) in its pocket.
About the Geneva convention, which articles were broken exactly? That prison scandal was one thing that was managed very poorly, but what else has gone against the convention?

Clinton was first president in like 7 consecutive presidents to leave office without a deficit, Bush went throught this and into deficit in his first term, and then achieved the largest deficit in American history.

As for Clinton being the first in 7 to leave without a deficit, it depends on how you see it. If you compare the debt with the GDP, you'll see that Clinton isn't really a first over any extended period. He certainly did do a good job of the budget; there's just no disputing that.
Bush's deficit isn't entirely his fault. The war spending is definitely his fault, but the bear market was inherited from Clinton, and a bum economy always follows a bear market.

*cough* this one is completely unparallelled

The point is that Bush is getting criticized for absolutely everything he does, but Clinton is still infallible. Whenever something goes wrong, people are immediately blaming Bush.

I don't know much about this but didn't you find mass graves in Serbia? I'm pretty sure this is flat out not true.

I believe they did; I think it's why Milosevic is on trial.

See #2 but add 'Massive Outsourcing' to Bush.

No arguments here. Bush really is screwing that one up.

America had the means of stopping WTC, when bush was warned by the CIA some time (several months i believe) before it he took no action and the air force was completely unprepared for WTC.
Bush incapable of taking Bin Laden into custody?

The main point was that Sudan actually offered to give Bin Laden to the US, but Clinton's administration didn't want Bin Laden. They could have had him right then and there, but they didn't take him. Bush basically inherited another one of Clinton's screw ups, and now it's suddenly Bush's fault that Bin Laden is still on the run.

Clinton was wrong, realized it, didn't go to war.
Bush was wrong, didn't care, lied, went to war.

Clinton actually supports the war. CNN link

What is the price of milk, gas, coffee, a dinner at a decent restaurant, and a good steak from the grocery store?

What do you consider to be a high, moderate, and cheap price for a home?

How much of your income goes to taxes?

milk: $5 for 4L.

gas: $0.80 per litre in Edmonton

coffee: $1 from vending machines, a little more than $1 at dohnut shops, and up to $4 at coffee shops like Second Cup and Starbucks.

Prices at restaurants are about the same when you factor in the exchange rate. For example, a $0.99 burger in the US will cost $1.29 or $1.39 around here.

steak: T-bone steak is about $6 per pound.

homes: You can probably get a used house in Edmonton for about 100k-150k. A nice new one will cost about 200k. Houses near the river cost a hell of a lot more.


Taxes:

Highest tax bracket starts at something like 60k, and you pay around 29% on a federal level. Alberta has a flat rate income tax that doesn't change depending on how much money you make. In 2001, the flat tax in Alberta was 11%; I'm not sure what it is right now. I have no idea how Edmonton's taxes work.

Split between federal and provincial income taxes, 40% of your money is gone right off the top. After that you add in all the other BS stuff like UI, union dues, etc. Basically you can expect 50% of your money to be taken from you before you even get a chance to spend it.

After income taxes there are the sales taxes. Canada has a 7% national sales tax called GST. Alberta and the 3 territories have no provincial taxes. The provincial sales taxes get insanely high as you head farther east peaking at 15% in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. So sum it all up, Alberta and the territories have the lowest sales taxes at 7%. NB, NS, and Newfoundland have the highest sales taxes at 22%.
Provincial Sales Taxes

 

[ek]

milk: $5 for 4L.

gas: $0.80 per litre in Edmonton

coffee: $1 from vending machines, a little more than $1 at dohnut shops, and up to $4 at coffee shops like Second Cup and Starbucks.

Prices at restaurants are about the same when you factor in the exchange rate. For example, a $0.99 burger in the US will cost $1.29 or $1.39 around here.

steak: T-bone steak is about $6 per pound.

homes: You can probably get a used house in Edmonton for about 100k-150k. A nice new one will cost about 200k. Houses near the river cost a hell of a lot more.

If you plan on moving to British Columbia, looking at prices in Alberta is going to be totally misleading. Home and gas prices as well as taxes are totally different.

Gas: .90-1.00/L
Tax: 7% PST and obviously 7% GST; Income tax is high, that's all I know.
Homes: Vancouver/Victoria is NOT Edmonton. Similar homes will probably cost you double here. Average home price in Victoria is around 350,000. Similar for Vancouver I think. Average price in my municipality is about 500,000.

 

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

All in Cdn$

Milk : 5$ for 4 liters

Gas : 0,9-0,95 $ /liter

Coffee : 1-1,50$/cup at the Donut shop.

Dinner : Ponderosa : 10-15$/complete meal, Pizza Shack : Probably about 20$ for the most expensive pizza (Largest with all ingredients). McDonald : 6$ for a Big Mac combo. Everyone has his definition of "Decent", for foreign specialty restaurants, you can easily find 15-25$ / meal.

T-Bone steak at grocery : 8-15$ (15$ for 1-inch thick)

Income tax and sales tax depends on what province you're in.

where did you gt this data, since no one can say for sure what the prices are in BC unless you are from there, prices are different all over, especialy gas, which the highest I've seen was 94cents a liter, but everywhere else was under 90cents a liter, but i don't know about BC

 

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

If you plan on moving to British Columbia, looking at prices in Alberta is going to be totally misleading. Home and gas prices as well as taxes are totally different.

Gas: .90-1.00/L
Tax: 7% PST and obviously 7% GST; Income tax is high, that's all I know.
Homes: Vancouver/Victoria is NOT Edmonton. Similar homes will probably cost you double here. Average home price in Victoria is around 350,000. Similar for Vancouver I think. Average price in my municipality is about 500,000.

thats what i was trying to saw, every city has a different living cost, property and house prices are different in different municipalities, you will never know for sure unless you go there Yvan

 

[Gonzolo]

NB, NS, and Newfoundland have the highest sales taxes at 22%.
Provincial Sales Taxes

Correction : NB, NS, and Newfoundland have a flat, total sales tax of 15%, which includes the GST (not 15% + 7%), which is near average for the country

Ontario, Quebec, BC, Manitoba, PEI, and Saskatchewan have 7% GST + (7 to 10)%. So, in effect, PEI has the most sales tax (7 + 10), while the other eastern provinces are about on par with Ontario.

 

[Gonzolo]

where did you gt this data, since no one can say for sure what the prices are in BC unless you are from there, prices are different all over, especialy gas, which the highest I've seen was 94cents a liter, but everywhere else was under 90cents a liter, but i don't know about BC

The data is mostly from what I have seen in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. 94 cents max for regular gas maybe, but I've seen higher (up to 99 cents a few months ago) for higher grades. The last I've seen was probably 88 cents for regular.

 

[JasonRox]

I don't even look at the gas price.

I just fill up and pay up.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

btw, we were very impressed when we saw the selection of restaurants in Vancouver -there is anything a person could want! Portland is a real hot spot for culinary delights; in fact we even have a good little Mexican R in our local town. I was most worried about losing access to good Mexican food.

 

[Smurf]

Ah yes the infamous Restaurant blocks of vancouver. My favourite part

(chinese is my personal favourite - mexican is too spicey for me)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Okay, this is looking really good. This seems to be a real growth economy.
http://www.cse.gov.bc.ca/ProgramsAndServices/bcbusinessclimate/Default.htm

 

[revelator]

Also, Canadians, please explain this:
The Queen reigns but does not rule.

Her power here is symbolic, we keep her as a figurehead out of tradition. There are many Canadians who are opposed to this. She has a
representative here called the Govenor General, Adrienne Clarkson. The GG is not very much liked, as she is known for spending outrageous amounts
of taxpayer's money, even on personal trips.

What is the price of milk, gas, coffee, a dinner at a decent restaurant, and a good steak from the grocery store?

What do you consider to be a high, moderate, and cheap price for a home?

How much of your income goes to taxes?

I can't tell you about milk, I don't touch the stuff. Gas is friggin expensive, between 75-80c/litre where I live (suburb outside of Toronto), but
still not as expensive as in more rural areas (ironically where fuel consumption is harder to avoid). An extra large cup of coffee at Tim Horton's
runs me $1.55. $15-25 for a dinner at a decent restaurant. Steaks I have no clue, as I am young and broke :D.

I have not yet looked into trying to buy a home, I still rent. But I know my mother's condominium has a market value of $170,000 some odd dollars.
In the condominium where I look after security, the condos average about $400,000 and the most expensive is worth over $1 million. This however is
an upscale building. I believe a reasonalby sized house can be done f0r $250,000-$300,000, but I'm not certain. Remember, this is in Mississauga,
just 20 minutes outside of Toronto.

We are taxed heavily. About 10% of my cheque is automatically taxed for me. There are also income taxes at the end of the year, until recently I
used to get money back. Not anymore. Every time you purchase goods or services, you get taxed again. One federal tax, one provincial. In Ontario
it comes to 15% on every dollar. This wouldn't be so bad, if the government didn't waste and steal so much of it (ie, Sponsorship Scandal, Gun
Registry).

Okay, this is looking really good. This seems to be a real growth economy.

I believe are economy is doing quite well right now. Our dollar is doing well also.

 

[revelator]

I don't much care for Stephen Harper. Originally he had been all for joining the War in Iraq, but when election time came he changed his stance,
to be more inline with public opinion. He was for signing on to the Missile Defense Shield, but now is hesitant as it politically advantagous
to bring opposition to Paul Martin's minority government (not that I am for signing on to missile defense). He and his party have a conservative
stance on social issues, I don't agree with that either.

Keep in mind that our liberal party is not so great either. They are plagued with scandals, and in my opinion are also unacceptable, but better
than the conservatives. We have the NDP, Bloc Quebecois, Green Party, Marijuana Party, and others. But they don't usully get very many votes.

I recall reading in Time Magazine Canada a poll, that placed Canadian support for Bush at between 15% and 20%.

What is more important: Liberty of Safety

Both are very important. But liberty is more important.
"Those who whould give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Ben Franklin, 1755

If anyone cares to indulge me any more, I have reviewed your Constitution. How do you feel about it?

Truly sorry, but I really don't know very much about the constitution, I don't think very many other Canadians do either.


BTW, sorry bout the terrible formatting. I was typing into Notepad as I went through the thread.

 

[Smurf]

Remember, Canadian Dollars.

 

[ek]

Remember, Canadian Dollars.

Canadian dollar is pretty damn good right now. Around 83.5.

 

[Smurf]

Hense my need to mention it

 

[JasonRox]

The US was mainly free of terrorist attacks until the early ~90's.

What happen there?

Note: You should know.

 

[check]

Canadian dollar is pretty damn good right now. Around 83.5.

It's not so much that the Canadian dollar is good, but rather that the US dollar sucks right now.

 

[Dagenais]

x
Quebec Nordiques to Colorado
Minnesota North Stars to Dallas (using revised map, of course)
Winnipeg Jets to Pheonix (and they still can't win the Cup)

Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis.
Montreal Expos to D.C.

Sports analysts predict more to come (Blue Jays, even Raptors).

What do you consider to be a high, moderate, and cheap price for a home?

A decent home? Define "decent." If you've been living affluently your whole life, decent is in a whole different category than someone who came out of inner city US.

Houses in British Columbia are high (mentioned many times already). A large majority of the very large houses or custom built ones are owned by Chinese or East Indian immigrants.

This link should be very helpful:

Check: here

BTW, you're from Portland Ivan? Big sarcastic thanks for helping the MLB in its effort to take our baseball team. Merci de rien!

 

[ek]

Houses in British Columbia are high (mentioned many times already). A large majority of the very large houses or custom built ones are owned by Chinese or East Indian immigrants.

If they are custom built, why do they all look identical?

 

[Tsu]

BTW, you're from Portland Ivan? Big sarcastic thanks for helping the MLB in its effort to take our baseball team. Merci de rien!

Thanks for the link. I've been looking there and at other sites, too.

Ivan and I lived in Portland for a few years, but most of our time in Oregon has been in the Willamette Valley. I also lived in Portland many years ago and most of my family is/was in Portland. So - a big sarcastic 'you're welcome' from a bigger Portlander than Ivan. Although I have to admit that, being really no kind of sports fan at all - well, I am sort of a half-baked cheesehead having lived and gone to school in Green Bay -(oh, yeah. and except for HOC-KEY! ), it wasn't ANY of my doing in trying to take your team. Honest! (HOC-KEY! )

<hmmmmm... Half-Baked Cheesehead... I believe I might be able to concoct a pretty good recipe with that name...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Both are very important. But liberty is more important.
"Those who whould give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Ben Franklin, 1755

Now you're talking!