hodor

I didn't have a job like that but I had a decent wage, a car, a place to live, two computers and I spoke the language. My wife was worth it though, and after two years I start to speak french pretty good. I have a good job here now and we have bought a car. We have our own place and a baby on the way and we are happy. I will never NEVER forgive this administration for its discrimination against the french!

TGirlPaula

I have retained an immigration lawyer to expedite my move to Canada to be with My Sweetness.

How Bush can look in the mirror and sleep at night is beyond me.

If you think that the foreign policy is bad the domestic policy isn't very good, either, Hodor. It is hateful, narrow-minded, and bigoted. Such things make political "hay" by appealing to the worst in humanity. It reminds me of the Ku Klux Klan in business suits instead of bedsheets and hoods.

Canada looks great from here.

I will not renounce my American citizenship but will apply for dual citizenship.

I am planning on having landed immigrant status before Canada Day on July 1.

hodor

tgirlpaula there is a cheaper and faster way to get to canada with your sweetness if you get married. I went through the same thing with my move to France. You see we almost paid 1000$ to retain a lawyer for this but with one call to the american embassy we had gotten all the infromation necessary and I have been living here for two years now with permission to work and will be a french citizen in a few months. I will retain my american citizenship and my unborn baby (when it is born) will have both citizenships as well.

PS my mother is not to happy about the health insurance policies in the usa right now either. Her health insurance rates have increase 150% in one year.

Arnold J. Rimmer

Well, like others have said, I can't make a generalisation of american people. I know there are select idiots that let EVERY country down eg; English football riots.

The difference being that the select few idiots who let USA down happen to be in government. (I'll assume the thread was referring to American government rather than people in general). It is my opinion that any country not signed up to (and actively trying to implement) the Kyoto Protocol should have severe sanctions imposed, America included (what with US being world leading polluters). I get the feeling environmental issues aren't even the governments job there Any American i have spoken to about such issues seems of the opinion that the environment is immaterial. Money however is always up there on the agenda (still, kinda like the rest of the world i suppose) and gay marriage - those kind of issues.

And the case for Americas latest imperialist trends? Well, i believe that any arguments for Iraq, etc have been refuted so strongly so many times that nothing really remains to be said. You cannot "liberate" a country that has not chosen to liberate itself (especially one whose culture/history shares nothing of your own). Imperialism doesn't work, we as Brits should have learned this by now considering our own dark history.

Well, thats my serious thought for the day now back to my book....

hodor

QOUTE: Any American i have spoken to about such issues seems of the opinion that the environment is immaterial. Money however is always up there on the agenda (still, kinda like the rest of the world i suppose) and gay marriage - those kind of issues.
How many americans have you spoken to about this. The rich ones that happen to live in Europe. Or have you actually spoken to the average american like me. I could list you 100 people who consider the environment VERY material and VERY important. Those people would constitute the 99% of the people I know in the USA. As I have lived there in both Oregon (one of the least polluted regions in the world) and phoenix az (rather polluted) I can tell you that us non rich people (who can't afford to travel to europe on vacation (i just happen to be married to a european)) don't necessarily feel the same way that most of the americans you british see and meet. It's a completely different kind of people and also the majority of the people. It would be like me basing the English on the English I have met in Arizona.

That's just my take. After all I have met a few americans here in france and they have NO clue whatsoever as to what the common american is.

Alexa

That's one of the busiest day in Canada. Is your sweetness a Canadian ? Which province ?

Btw Canada looks great in here, too. Except for the snow and cold and ice, all the pleasures of winter in other words. But I can tell you, you'll get used to it.

__________________
"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true" (R.W. Emerson)

Maryjane

Alexa

But you got used to moan (chialer) against it, MJ, like the rest of us.

__________________
"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true" (R.W. Emerson)

Cricket

So, what's your point?

I have lived and travelled many places with my family. We live in the states now, though only my oldest sister was born here. Our father is American. My mother, as we are French. I am proud of that, only, I am torn in some ways.

I can only say, that wherever we travelled, if there was the problem, there was only one cry when there was trouble. "Where are the Americans?"

When I was young, I did not really understand what this meant.

One summer, our father came home. He is an engineer, but worked for a French national company at the time. Instead of saying, "letting us relax for the summer," he packed us all up, and to Mozambique we went to do the mission work.

It was so hot, and that summer, there were many problems there. So many soldiers and bandits. My father told us not to worry, but because of the drought, so many animals I remember were dead everywhere.

One day, we were building houses, well, the best we could, and doing this and that. But armed men came to the village from the Mieht Doule(sp?), a little place in another valley many kilometers away that meant lions mound. Everyone was afraid.

They found my father, and asked him to come. I did not know what was happening, but I knew from my mother and the way that she gathered us that perhaps we had reason to fear.

We did not see our father for almost 4 days. He walked back to the village all day, the took the truck back to the capital. For most of the summer, we worked our mission in the village, while our father returned to help them. The little dam and bridge was broke, and there was little if any water for the entire area. The people were dying. My father called friends in Kenya and back in the states, and arranged by begging and borrowing all that he could do fix what he could. From one missionary that came to see us one two weeks ago, the dam and bridge are still there.

My point is this. My father is American. He lived most, well, almost all my life in France. But, when we were in Mozambique, in the middle of nowhere, people in trouble heard that the "Americans" were in the next village. We did not think ourselves "Americans." I always thought I was French. But just one man, who was American, my father, was enough for these people to believe that all would be well if he came.

I am not sure if this is true. All I can say is that, yes, my father helped them, and he is American. Yet, from somewhere came this belief that, instead of turning to their own governement, or the other aid programs in the country, they walked 22 kilometers to seek out the "American."

You can read whatever you want into my little story. All I know is that, on that day, for the first time in my life, eleven years old, I wondered for the first time, who are these Americans? I wanted to know.

They are my father. He is the greatest man in the world. He is an American. He is a former soldier of this country, an army Ranger. I can not speak for those who may have been born here, eat here, drink here, and give up nothing to others in return. But I have seen him all my life, and through him I know America. Being American, as he says, is a blessing from God to be all that you can be, so that we can serve others through Him all over the world.

Thats all I have to share about this.

McMurphy

I grew up six miles from the Canadian border and have been privy to enough information and real life experiences to not for a second buy into the illusion that Canada doesn't suffer from its own political faults, inner social strifes, and less-than-remarkable landscape.

I also notice that the people moving to Canada mentioned in this thread are doing it to be with their loved ones, not for political reasons. They already have a reason in mind. It is like me saying that I don't own a car because I am against the national dependance on crude oil and the war with Iraq, while it is actually more about me not being able to afford a vehicle. Just because I am against the war doesn't mean that I should skirt the real reason behind my decision.

Like the millions of immigrants that have moved to the United States because their neighbors had sold them on the tales of roads paved with gold, don't be surprised when you find that you have only traded one set of problems with another set when moving to Canada.