CANADA BECKONS
Fourteen years ago, I bought a condominium in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It overlooks the Saskatchewan River and the bustling downtown of this rapidly growing city. There are 250,000 residents in Saskatoon, a city on the same parallel as Moscow. So, it’s cold in the winter, but beautiful in the summer and fall. Saskatchewan was once the poorest province in Canada. Now, huge potash mines, uranium in the north, oil in the south and rising crop price have set off a boom. All this took place after they kicked out their socialist government.
Canada looks better and better as a place to hold assets and property. I’d rather have a retreat in English speaking Canada then somewhere in South America. The people are law abiding, friendly and conservative. The federal government is less invasive, spending is under control and the Canadian dollar (Loonie) is sound. The financial and social problems that beset America are modest factors here.
I’ve been coming to Canada to hunt ducks every fall since 1961. Over the years I would stay longer until loneliness became an issue. My wife would fly up on an occasional weekend, but she was unhappy staying in the farmer’s basement that I inhabited. So, we got the condominium and she began to stay as much as four weeks. Now she has many friends and enjoys the bustling city.
When you’re sitting in a duck marsh with your Black Lab staring at a mostly empty sky, your thoughts cover a lot of ground. I worry about the inroads that progressives are making in America. So many of their social initiatives are aimed at improving the lot of the underclass. However, their subsidies have locked people into poverty. In Minneapolis, a married couple was recently indicted for murdering their three year old child. They had nine children. You have to suspect they had these children partly for the money. What will be the future cost to society of the eight surviving children?
Another Minnesotan was recently killed in Syria. This 28 year old Jihadist also had nine children. No doubt most of their mothers are on welfare. A social worker in the welfare office reports that immigrants comprise most of the new applicants. Many too will fall into the trap of dependency and misbehavior. The whole world will be happy to come to America for welfare. Our forefathers and hardworking immigrants of the last two centuries would weep over our folly.
Progressives are planning to reshape our cities to fulfill their goals. They want to eliminate automobiles and relocate both rich and poor into affordable housing complexes around public transit and light rail. They plan on expanding public (free) housing. They intend to push greater levels of subsidized housing into the suburbs. Everything these leftists think about is how to level the affluent and raise the indigent. Unfortunately, the trillions spent on eliminating poverty have made social problems incredibly worse. Rather than see this failure, liberals are absolutely fanatical to do more of the same.
Imagine someday an alliance between the bomb throwing revolutionaries of the Bill Ayers, Weathermen variety and the growing criminal class thriving in the inner cities. It makes Canada look pretty good. My grandchildren aren’t worried, but they should be. When they inherit our condominium in Canada, they should keep it.