Contrasting Canada and America: My learnings based on some time across the border - General

[B]In this paragraph I explain why I went to Canada[/B] So I just returned from Canada. I live in Michigan, about an hour and a half north of Detroit. Two years ago my family and I were considering immigrating to Canada, so we took a week long vacation in Ontario, going from Windsor to Toronto, stopping in London and Mississauga to get an over-all feel of the area. We loved it so much, we decided to take another small vacation from Friday until just a few hours ago in Windsor. If you don't know, Windsor is the city on the opposite side of the Detroit River from, well, Detroit. [B]In this paragraph I explain why I had the idea to write this and the overall opinion of it[/B] If you take the near luxurious walk along Riverside Road and the parallel sidewalk through the park along the river, and look across to Detroit, it's almost as though you're looking into a completely different world, not just a different country or city. The difference between Windsor and Detroit, in my opinion, is a fitting stand-in for the difference between the countries in general. [B]This paragraph has a little on Detroit[/B] To go to Windsor, you must first travel through Detroit. I've been to Detroit before on rare occasions, so I wasn't expecting anything other than what there was. As we traveled down the highway, you could tell you were getting closer: with every mile closer to Detroit, things got worse and worse: the roads became in worse repair, the litter piled up, the surrounding landscape became more degraded, more ill-maintained, more urban and crunched. [B]This paragraph is about how bad Detroit sucked[/B] By time you reach the city limits, it's disgusting. On either side of the highway are houses of vastly varying ages crammed close together and surrounded by old and broken vehicles. They have chipped paint, broken or boarded up windows, sofas in their yards which have not been cut for god knows how long. The highway itself becomes more and more filthy. Litter of all kinds masses along the hills to either side and in the middle and sides of the roadway. The overhead bridged walkways are cracked and crumbling, and of course fenced ever since someone found it funny to drop bowling balls on cars passing underneath, not that it matters as most of the fences are rusted and broken. As more litter masses and you begin to smell the stench of the industrial urban environment, they took the task of setting up rope, then soon chain-link fences at both the top and bottom of the hillsides in an effort to keep the city from the highway. The center concrete guards are now broken off in chunks, cracked, covered in graffiti. The roadway itself is cracked, and the paved sidelines on the outer edge of the road are missing small craters of material. Piles of garbage bags, broken and mishapped roadsigns, battered traffic cones and rubber tires pile up. We passed a dead dog left along the inner edge of the road. As you begin to see the giant concrete buildings, some fifty stories high, completely empty with every window broken out and covered with graffiti, they decide it's just damn easier to get rid of the fences they never take care of and build giant concrete walls on either side of the highway. The inner city is swarming with people on the filthy streets and cars weaving between the construction cones that block of sections of the streets for projects that have gone untouched for months. Blacks and whites intermingle, but no other minorities are to be found. Suits mix with hoodies as billboards fill the sky and the towering buildings block out the sun. You approach the border, you pay the toll to the bald, white US border patrol guard with sunglasses, an earpiece, and a nasty look, 4$ US, and continue on to the tunnel. You pass through and make it to the other side. You are now in Canada. [B]This paragraph is about how awesome Canada is[/B] We pull up to the next toll. The Korean guard in the blue uniform checks our cards briefly, asks why we're here and if we have any open containers of alcohol in our cooler, gives us a smile and says "Welcome to Canada". Immediately the difference is apparent: the streets are extremely well maintained, and there is no litter to be found. The people are immediately more courteous and the businesses less 'pushy'. There are just as many small ma-and-pa shops and small independent businesses as corporations (except for Tim Horton's, which are the equivalent to Starbucks). The roadways are clear, the people generally nice and carefree, and everyone basically walks- no traffic jams here or pushy drivers. All the buildings are maintained, even if they're 40 years old and looking like it, the paint is redone, the grass and weeds are properly handled, and they look just as nice as every other building near them- people have a sort of pride for their place. Just walking down the street we saw latinos, muslims, europeans, and black. We must have heard seven different languages in just one day (Hebrew, Arabic, Russian or some similar language, Portuguese, Hindi, Korean, and Vietnamese), and no one seemed to have any prejudice against anyone. The elderly jewish couple sat across from the muslim man and woman and exchanged a friendly smile. We saw several obviously gay couples who weren't receiving any strange looks from anyone except from us because we weren't so used to seeing such public openness. There were few homes for rent or to buy, and the number of tall buildings were small. The community overall, as is the case for all of Canada that we saw, was fairly wealthy upper-middle class to lower middle-class by American standards, with hardly any construction that was handled by the end of our stay, tons of maintenance and up-keeping that made everywhere look nice, and a large amount of acceptance and diversity that seemed to be fully welcomed. The fact that the independent shops from all walks of life and people could compete with the mega-corporations like McDonalds and the like and exist side-by-side made me really think that this was more the land of the free than America- here an immigrant could come in and in a few years have a successful small business- arabs and indians weren't limited to cabs and gas stations; blacks and whites lived side-by-side in the same communities, earning the same income; gays and straights could openly be themselves without anyone judging them. I gathered all of this from a week and a half of traveling around southern Ontario. And when I looked across to Detroit on our final day there I felt like shit knowing I'd have to go through that hell hole to get back to my country that paled in most every way to Canada, whose culture is diverse, markets are more free than ours to the average person, accepting to all, and economically better-off (being the first to bounce back from the global recession and with a higher average income than the US. At the time that we got there, the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US one in exchange. By the time we left it was worth slightly less.) [B]In this paragraph we explore the intricate happenings at the strict US border, or rather just how I was kinda scared and the guard seemed like a jerk[/B] On our way back, we stopped for the US border guards. Mr. Baldy aka Serious Sam glared at us and stopped everyone of non-white ethnicity before and after us to check their trunk. As we handed him our IDs he inspected them closely, scanned them in his fancy machine, asked us why we visited Canada, what our purpose was, was very suspicious of us...after a while he waved us through, no "Welcome back" or "Have a good time". We passed the four or so rows of car inspection filled to the brim with vehicles being town apart and inspected while a range of people, all of them seemingly fairly normal, some families, watched in confusion and anger. We had the mind to hide our digital devices and our books from view of the guard and we neglected to announce "all articles purchased outside the US" (which was a large amount of books, mostly, and some pocky) because I didn't feel like getting my new Scott Pilgrims and my collection of Trotsky and Lenin confiscated and our car torn up. But such is life in America. [B]Here is my tl;dr[/B] tl;dr-Windsoe is better than Detroit. Read the headings if you want more.

You just generalized both countries to the point of inaccuracy

Fuck yeah Canada

Detroit is a shithole and does not represent the entirety of the USA.

Go to quebec

Detroit? Wow, that's not America.

This thread is wrong, as obviously Canada is extension of New England, which is part of US.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;24275473]You just generalized both countries to the point of inaccuracy[/QUOTE] He made it readable for Facepunch

Going to Detroit and comparing it to the rest of the United States is like going to a port-a-potty and comparing it to the entire amusement park.

Oh I know I generalize, but I found the contrast between the two communities, which are neighbors, pretty symbolic of the similarities to the two countries: best of times, worst of times stuff. The whole of America isn't like Detroit and the whole of Canada isn't like Windsor, I know that, but just overall, very general, each city represents its own country in that the better community of Windsor has all of the positive qualities common in Canada and Detroit has all of the negative qualities common in America.

Unless you've been to every of the 50 states along with every part of Canada, I don't think you can really judge both countries.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;24275473]You just generalized both countries to the point of inaccuracy[/QUOTE]

montreal, vancouver and anywhere in the greater toronto area are the best urban areas in canada

K Reworded. Why is a second thread made about another popular thread even though we already have one?

[QUOTE=Detective P;24275660]and Detroit has all of the negative qualities common in America.[/QUOTE] No, these qualities are by no means common in America. Detroit is literally the worst city in the states.

[QUOTE=ACupXOfXNoodles;24275702][B]Why is it someone always makes a thread when the first thread talking about it when it gets more then 20 posts?[/B][/QUOTE] I swear I read this like five times and I still can't understand it.

I live in Vancouver, fucking love it here.. I'd never move to the states.

I think got Canada just about right. Though, I've never been to America so I can't comment on that.

[QUOTE=BaconDioxide;24275746]I swear I read this like five times and I still can't understand it.[/QUOTE] Fuck. I messed up, Gimme a sec. :v:

[QUOTE=ACupXOfXNoodles;24275702]Why is it someone always makes a thread when the first thread talking about it when it gets more then 20 posts? Also Detroit doesn't represent America.[/QUOTE] I know this, it's the worst shithole in the country. But I've been to Hawaii, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Missouri, and California and I have to say that overall, Detroit is simply the more extreme version of the whole of America. Windsor is, from what I've seen, the more extreme version of Canada, but int he opposite way of Detroit. The point of this thread was to show how these two extreme versions on two opposite sides of the spectrum are so close together.

Now does it make sense?

You didn't really learn anything about either country by your trip. You both acknowledge Detroit doesn't represent American and then say it does one sentence later.

[QUOTE=ACupXOfXNoodles;24275822]Now does it make sense?[/QUOTE] It does. Which other thread are you referring to? never mind, I see it. sorry, making you reply to stuff for no reason :v:

Dammit ninja. Also I understand what your getting at Detective P

I see what he's saying; he just thinks it's weird that such an awful city like Detroit is so close to a nice place like Windsor.

[QUOTE=BaconDioxide;24275843]It does. Which other thread are you referring to?[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=989973[/url] Like how that canada thread was made and now this one. Nothing wrong with that, but just stating what i see alot.

[QUOTE=Regulas021;24275827]You didn't really learn anything about either country by your trip. You both acknowledge Detroit doesn't represent American and then say it does one sentence later.[/QUOTE] It does, in the form of economic decay, anti-diversity and xenophobia, lack of overall maintenance and pride, and lack of economic freedom due to super-corporations, but in a more extreme way than the rest of the US. Windsor is the opposite extreme, that represents the general whole of Canada from what I know from news and research and what I've seen, but I'm not saying everywhere in Canada is as good-off.

[QUOTE=Detective P;24275801]I know this, it's the worst shithole in the country. But I've been to Hawaii, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Missouri, and California and I have to say that overall, Detroit is simply the more extreme version of the whole of America. Windsor is, from what I've seen, the more extreme version of Canada, but int he opposite way of Detroit. The point of this thread was to show how these two extreme versions on two opposite sides of the spectrum are so close together.[/QUOTE] that's not what your tl;dr says

Go to Quebec and refuse to speak anything but English. Come back and post results.

[QUOTE=raccoon2112;24275934]that's not what your tl;dr says[/QUOTE] Fine I'll change it.