If you think about it, the US obviously has hundreds of thousands of actors vying to make it big while Canada has only a small percentage of that, so if there are a lot of Canadian actors who have made it big, to me this logically means that the pool of Canadian talent outweighs the US talent.

So I started compiling a list of Canadian talent not just as actors, but directors, etc.

Then I came across this list of actors who are either from the UK, Ireland or Australia & was shocked as to how many talented actors there are that we think are American, but really aren’t.

While this has nothing to do with Canada, the point I’m trying to make is that yes, there are many Americans actors who are talented, but as far as I see, most of the real talent comes from outside the States.

Here is the short list I’ve come up with & I’ll add more as I come across more Canadian actors:

James Cameron – Director (Terminator(s), Aliens, Titanic, & Avatar)
David Shore – Writer/Producer (House)
Victor Garber
Michael J. Fox
Keanu Reeves
Jim Carey
Martin Short
Kiefer Sutherland
Catherine Anne O’Hara
Ellen Page
Peter Jackson
Emily van Camp
Shawn Ashmore
Aaron Ashmore

– Americans vs. Canadians –

Americans vs. Canadians

Just seeing what was going on in Vancouver really made me want to go over there & party with them. LOL

Then when I saw the closing ceremonies, I was shocked at how beautiful it was.

It sounds like Canadians FINALLY opened up & started letting loose. They almost sounded American in their glee & joy LOL Hope that energy & drive continues & convinces the Canadian government to start protecting their citizens & give them the help they need.

I’ve decided that the way to tell how great a country is, is by how they treat their poorest of citizens.

Well Done Canada

Michelle

Laws may change, so please always check with a government site or official before taking my word for anything.

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So it came to my attention a few years ago that Americans have a LOT more regulations in place when it comes to landlords, while at least here in Ontario, landlords get away with murder.

Tenants are for the most part treated like 2nd class citizens & generally (not always) the landlords win every case in the Tribunal.

After being ripped off regarding a rent to own scam, I learned a lot more about the whole Landlord & Tenant situation within the Toronto area. It was my first time going to court for a really big case having to defend myself against a landlord who had ultimately ripped me off.

Of course who won? The landlord.

During  my many months defending myself, I learned the following:

1. About 90% of all cases brought to the Tribunal are brought by the landlord, NOT the tenants. I know for a fact that most tenants either just move to avoid having to face the landlord in court, they don’t complain because they know nothing will ever be done, or a 3rd option is that they pay for the problem to be fixed even though it’s not their house so the landlord gets their house fixed for them free of charge.I believe this is why there is a constant war going on between landlords & tenants. I know that the minute the landlord lies to me or starts to disrespect me, I lose all respect for their house & while I would never go out of my way to harm the house I live in, I no longer care about keeping it as if it were my own.Why should I, they don’t respect me, so I don’t respect them.

   To show you how bad the situation is amongst tenants, one time just as I was moving into a house, the guy living in the basement ran out to warn me about the landlady & what a bitch she was. He said I shouldn’t move in.

   He told me he’s had water from rain flooding in his apartment for months, & she won’t fix the problem. I asked him why he didn’t take her to court. He just shrugged his shoulders. He planned on  moving out within the next day or two.

   That tells me that tenants just don’t want to deal with the stress, or they think they won’t win anyway which is most likely true. So, they just grin & bear the abuse.

   Remember, moving is one of the top 3 stressors in life. People don’t want to have to move if they don’t have to.

   I know that in every single house I’ve ever rented, the landlord has NEVER wanted to fix any of the problems & they either stalled in fixing the problem, or they brought in cheap unlicensed unskilled handymen instead of real contractors so essentially the problem still remained.

   Since I was 18, I’ve lived in probably 10-15 different houses within the Toronto, Ontario area & it’s always been the same abuse. Either the house is freezing, the toilets don’t work, there is mold, the dishwasher doesn’t work well, the water pressure in the house is terrible, the lights don’t work, cupboards are broken, etc.

   In that house where the guy in the basement warned me… in the end he was right. The slum landlord had had around 7-10 different tenants going in & out of her house (that’s how much mail was piling up) & the utilities were in HER name, so when it came time for winter, the gas company REFUSED to turn the gas on because she didn’t pay her bill. Can you believe that???

   I called the property standards branch which is a joke, had them come over & you know what they said…

   Because I didn’t have a lease, it was as if I didn’t live there, so there was nothing they could do about it.

   I went the entire 3 months with NO heat in the dead of Canadian winter & no one cared. They didn’t even care that there was a child in the house.

   Then the slum landlord was allowed to put the house on the market & I had no choice but to allow tons of people into MY HOME on a constant basis.

   I was told this is the scam she pulls in order to get the tenants to move out. Once they move out, she changes her mind about the house going up for sale & she rents it out again.

2. I also learned that most tenants don’t even know the laws that protect them. For example, in Ontario, a landlord can not tell you that you can’t have a pet, yet in 98% of all rental ads they say “no pets”.
3. Most of the laws protecting tenants are not enforced & as you will see below, whatever laws that do exist, they definitely do NOT measure up to what the US has in place for their tenants.
4. A lot of the adjudicators don’t even know the laws & make tons of mistakes in court.
5. Lastly, I could tell that the adjudicator for my case was against me & for the landlord.That’s the problem, these people who judge these cases have biases against tenants because they are home owners themselves, & maybe some of them have also been landlords or they have a friend or family member who’s been a landlord, so in my opinion, there’s no way they can be partial to the situation.I know that almost ALL landlords think that all tenants are scum. I’ve even talked to governmental officials who let their disdain for tenants shine through during the conversation.

Here is what I learned about the States… If I don’t say otherwise, here in Ontario we do NOT have any of this available to us tenants in the Toronto area.

1. Each municipality has a body that overseas the tenants’ rights.
2. All landlords have to be licensed.
3. Lawyers can not show up in court to represent landlords or tenants because the Tribunal (not sure what they call it in the States) isn’t a criminal or civil court.
4. They aren’t adjudicators, but actual REAL judges who know the law.
5. Landlords have to paint the entire house before a new tenant moves in.
6. Landlords have to clean or replace the carpet before a new tenant moves in.
7. In some cities there are associations that help the tenants if they are having problems with the landlord.All the tenants have to do, is call up, explain what is going on with the landlord, & the association takes over to fight their cause.In some cities there’s even a hotline tenants can call, like 311.
8. In some cities there are housing inspectors that inspect the condition of the house, the quality of the contractor’s work, etc.
9. Landlords can NOT put a house up for sale while there is a tenant living in there.
10. The gas company can NOT prevent the tenant from having gas in the home, even if the landlord has not paid the bill.
11. Not sure if this is a law in the US, but over here in Canada, the landlord does NOT have to disclose why you aren’t getting the rental property even if they promise it to you verbally. This allows for gender, ethnic, single mother discrimination, etc. which of course has happened to me several times & I’ve been told I’d get the house & then within a few days or a week, suddenly they aren’t returning calls, or I hear I’m not getting the house & I just wasted my time.

So you be the judge of which country you’d like to live in. Your home is your most precious commodity, it is supposed to protect you & make you feel safe.

Many many Americans think Canadians have it soooo great over here & I feel we don’t & here’s why:

1. First I just found out that what the citizens receive regarding health is Provincial, NOT Federal like I had originally thought.
2. I live in Ontario, so I can’t speak for the rest of the provinces.
3. Over here, every year the Canadian government is slashing more & more health services the people in Ontario receive. I only notice this when I go to inquire about a health service I need which isn’t often because I don’t believe in conventional medicine, only holistic medicine, so you can imagine how much they have slashed that I don’t know about & can’t detail here.Some of the things they have slashed over the years…

   Chiropractic services – I’m not even sure what they cover anymore since I no longer see chiropractors, I see osteopaths, but back when I was seeing my chiropractor, he was complaining OHIP had slashed how much they would pay towards each visit.

   Eye exams aren’t covered under health care (kids under the age of 16 get them for free, otherwise unless you are over the age of 65 or on some sort of disability, you have to fork over the $85+ dollars.)

   It used to be that you could get an eye exam every year, then they made it every other year, now you don’t get anything at all & that’s a service I DO need since I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 7 years old.

4. I just recently heard that in British Columbia they are allowed acupuncture treatments, while in Ontario they allow for NOTHING holistic at all, so I pay through my taxes for conventional services I NEVER use.
5. While I agree that if I got into a car accident & needed emergency care I would need Canada’s health care system, but I don’t live in fear & think “what if”.I live in the here & now & I feel that holistic doctors & alternative health care should be covered. I should have the choice of how I deal with my health, I shouldn’t be forced by governments to use doctors who farm out chemicals to try & heal patients – which of course never works.
6. Speaking of emergency care…If you go to the hospital, you have to wait for minimum 2-4 hours to see anyone.

   I heard years ago that in the Toronto area people coming in on ambulances were turned away even if they were bleeding all over the place.

   So Americans, think AGAIN, Canada does NOT provide proper health care.

7. Did you know that MDs (medical doctors) are no longer taking on new patients?You heard me, as of about 8-10 years ago all the general practitioners stopped taking on new patients.

   That’s one of the reasons why the hospitals are always so full of people waiting to see a doctor. Several years back they closed own a ton of hospitals in the province of Ontario.

   In the Windsor area when I tried to find a doctor, I was told I had to APPLY LOL, can you believe that?

   Never in all my years have I heard of anything soooo ridiculous. You have to apply (like a job) to see a doctor? And of course this one doctor’s staff didn’t return phone calls, so when I kept pressing, one of his staff just turned me down right on the phone saying THEY choose who they want to take on & we AREN’T interested.

   Thank god I wasn’t seriously ill, clearly that Dr. is an asshole, so he treats his patients as such.

   My point is, he wasn’t the only doctor requiring an application AND the wait time to even be approved is minimum 3-6 months.

   CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT????

   If I needed health care right now, what would I do???

   One of the main reasons (I’m sure there are others I don’t know about) for this is because all the good doctors moved to the US to work over there.

   They couldn’t stand being ripped off by Health Canada, so they all moved down south.

   I remember 13 years ago approximately hearing that obstetricians weren’t being given the same amount of money to deliver babies, so this obstetrician I was seeing STOPPED delivering babies.

   It’s just amazing to me how Canadian citizens get the short end of the stick & other countries think Canada is sooo great. IT’S NOT!

8. Americans are generally shocked when I tell them that dentistry is NOT covered & this is a HUGE thing. I can’t send my son or myself to a dentist because it’s just too costly.
9. Many Canadians who need specialists go down to the States just to get immediate medical care. I’ve been hearing this for years.
10. Because I haven’t had a family doctor in years, I go to walk-in clinics for blood tests or anything else I may need & when I go, I receive very poor patient care. I was shocked as to how these doctors even managed to get their license to practice medicine in the first place. Any of the doctors in these walk-in clinics (one doctor had his own practice he wasn’t a walk-in) I went to didn’t know how to perform vaginal exams (they actually avoided it & had ME do it instead).

    Yes, you heard me people, the doctor was passing off HIS JOB to me, the patient. The woman at the lab who took my swab (the doctor made me walk it to the lab) was furious that the doctor himself wasn’t doing the exam & she had complained several times before.
    Another female doctor at a different walk-in clinic did a mercury blood test on me as per my instructions. It came back elevated, & she had NO CLUE what that meant.

    Her words, “I’ve never done a test like this before” AND, she wasn’t some young chicken out of med school either.

    This is WHY I don’t deal with conventional doctors, because unless I’m going in for surgery which I don’t believe in, they seem to be about as clueless as someone who isn’t a doctor.

So Americans, you tell me if you think Canada has a good health care system.

Here in Canada, when I had to ask the government for help to help put food on the table, not only was I put on a waiting list for months, their program was low end & here’s why:

1. Depending on how much money you needed every month, it would either last you 3 months or 6 months (I think it was 6, it could have been 12). I needed every penny, so I went the 3 month route because you got a lot less if you went on the program longer.
2. You didn’t get the full amount of money, because you had to PAY them $40 to get the gift cards to go grocery shopping at Superstore. Yes, you heard me, you have to pay the government to get their help.
3. The entire program is geared towards trying to get the family to budget their money better & while I agree with the concept, the total scrutiny by telling me I was paying too much in rent when I didn’t feel I was was disheartening. They tried to make it seem like I was overspending when nothing could have been further from the truth. These ARE the prices for rent in Canada, they are THROUGH the roof & the Canadian government CLEARLY doesn’t know this or just looks the other way.

   In fact, every time I tell people how much I pay in rent for my house, they are shocked at what a good price I pay.
   The case worker wanted me to move from a home I feel comfortable in (I work from home, so my surroundings have to feel comfortable to me.)

   Her logic was also out to lunch, but I expect this from these people. They don’t listen to each case individually, they use a formula that THEY feel should cover EVERYONE.

   Somehow in her mind it was better for me to pay $1-2k to move (that’s how much it costs me every time I move) to a government house that was more disgusting plus go through all the stress & the lost days of work & school for my son, then to just stay put.

   She “claimed” the government houses were as nice as the one I was in, but I didn’t believe her.

4. She gave me the woman’s information who was supposed to help people find new housing, I called & left a message, but I never heard back from her. Told my case worker, nothing ever came of it.

This may not have been a typical welfare program, I was never sure, but when comparing it to a program in the States, it once again shows that Canada doesn’t take care of its citizens if you have no money.

My sister in Monsey, New York is on the food stamp program & it’s an ongoing program, they don’t try to guilt her, tell her to move (she’s paying double what I pay in rent every month), in fact she says they encourage her to get the help.

Keep up the GREAT work Canada, you are a LOVELY country – NOT

When I told an American what Boxing Day was because he didn’t know, he was shocked our sales don’t start until AFTER Christmas, whereas American’s sales (Black Friday) is like a month before Christmas.

Since he thought it was a benefit to living in the States, I decided to add it to the blog.

I only know of these instances, if you want to add more, feel free:

1. I purchased the Charmain toilet paper pack from a Costco in the US & when I got it home, I was sure the rolls (not the pack itself) were larger than what I normally get in Canada.I finally ran out of it & bought more Charmain toilet paper from Wallmart here in Canada & low & behold was SHOCKED that the rolls are now narrower than they were even before I bought the large pack from the US.

   So that’s one rip off.

2. I was talking to a hairdresser about it & she goes to shop in the US at least once per month & she said yes, at McDonalds in the States, they get way bigger drinks than Canadians get over here at McDonalds. That’s comparing each size to its equivalent in Canada.

So clearly the Canadian versions of the US companies think they can slide this underneath Canadians’ noses & guess what, THEY ARE!

Canadians thought things would be better when Obama was elected, but now I can see that Obama is no better than Bush when it comes to US Canada relations.

I remember a few years back when I was treated like I lived in Siberia instead of just next door. I was trying to do business with banks & get a simple merchant account, & was told because I was in Canada I was considered a foreigner.

I was upset & shocked at how I was treated.

Then over the years some American companies have treated me like I live a million miles away first not allowing Canadians to call their toll free number, or refusing to ship their products to us Canadians.

If an American company doesn’t consider Canadians their customers when they open their door for business, that message reeks of “attitude”, & this is exactly why Canadians have grown to distrust Americans.

I had one guy who sounded like he didn’t even know where Canada was. I chalked that up to him being a below average American, & I’ll never forget the time that a new friend in the US didn’t want to call me long distance because he thought the prices to call here were the same as him calling Russia LOL

Man I’d love to deck those ignorant Americans, but my point is, is the US going to treat Canada like garbage & alienate Canada as an ally too?

Isn’t it bad enough that they have alienated almost the entire rest of the world, now they want to alienate the only other country that sits right next to them & does a lot of business with them?

The Canadian people are feeling it, AND DON’T like it!

GIVE ME A BREAK!

Read this article…

I needed to get some extra money by working from home & realized very quickly that while there are TONS of American companies that will hire people to work from their home, so I consider that to be a sign of progression. Unfortunately NONE of them will allow Canadians to join their workforce.

When I tried to search online to find Canadian companies that hire workers that work from him, I found NONE.

Lovely.