8. I've met many immigrants here who get jobs in their desired fields. In fact, that's how we get a lot of doctors in the country.
7. Cost of living varies from city to city, but is on par with many American cities. Minimum wage is $10/hour, exceeding the USA's.
6. Health care problems are overblown. Life expectancy is better than USA.
5. PST varies from province to province. GST is 5%. In Sask, PST is 5%. In Alberta, it's 0%. But yes, taxes are generally higher, mostly to cover health care. But dollar for dollar, this is cheaper than a private insurance system like the USA has, which is why most developed nations have free public health care.
4. We do rely on immigration to keep our population from declining. It's also why we are a very multicultural society. The 39,000 Syrian refugees we took in in the past year didn't have to pay a dime, and we gave them free health care, and free education. Many were taken in by Canadian families.
3. We don't really have a culture, I agree. What culture we have is centered around hockey, Tim Horton's, and priding on ourselves as being nicer and more egalitarian than Americans.
2. It does get pretty cold, but there are warm spots if that's what you prefer. Kelowna gets just below freezing in the winter, and that's all.
1. Unemployment rate in Canada is 6.8%, USA is 4.9%. In 2010 and other years, our unemployment rate was lower than the USA... Generally Canada does well when commodities are up. Not the case right now. Despite this, just a couple years ago, median Canadian net worth exceeded median American net worth.
Reasons Canada is better than the USA:
1. Free health care
2. Most provinces have legal minimum vacation time of 3 weeks.
3. On top of the vacation time, most provinces have around 11 statutory holidays. That is, companies pay you to not work, or if you do work, you get double time by law.
4. Better international reputation than the USA, due to our international efforts in peacekeeping and not invading tons of nations.
5. Abortion is legal in Canada everywhere. And free.
6. Far less fundamentalist religious people in Canada
7. Better laws in many cases. Example: you can't call yourself a news organization if it's been proven you get the facts wrong, and don't correct them.
8. No inhumane death penalty
9. Less wealth inequality
10. Better gun laws, meaning very few school shootings. Less shootings in general.
11. BC and Alberta have a carbon tax, and nationwide we will have one in 2018. More evidence based policy like this.
12. Longer life expectancy than USA