Canada: classic or dud?

Like successive federal and provincial govts and lots of our fellow citizen still deserves a shit ton of criticism but let's keep it in perspective and remind ourselves how lucky we are to be here, at least comparatively to what Canada used to be, and what other countries are.

The Walrus published a piece a few days ago about moving to the US from the perspective of someone who works in the arts. It's definitely a personal opinion and reads more like a journal entry, but with Canada's GDP down so much, overvalued housing and the price of goods (and fuel) skyrocketing, I assume this kind of rumination is on a lot of Canadians' minds.

https://thewalrus.ca/why-success-in-canada-means-moving-to-america/

I'm actually not sure I agree with a lot of it. I've never been to Toronto, but this doesn't seem the case in Vancouver:

Toronto’s energy flows endlessly toward the impulse to win, to never stop working until you hit your head on the visible ceiling. Then you work some more. New York has that vibe too, maybe even more so, but I feel like everyone’s more self-aware about it. And, more importantly, there’s no ceiling. You can try to dominate the world and touch the clouds, as foolish as it would be.

Toronto does not have this reality check; if it did, we would all live better and more balanced lives. The things I’d worried about—being too soft for New York, not being quite enough for it—were true.

I was talking with a fellow Vancouverite last night and he was talking about a friend who moved to the US and how he worked every single day, including weekends, for the last couple of years or so. It was along the same lines as what the author of The Walrus piece describes. At any rate, this sounds like a west coast-east coast difference, because people in Vancouver are highly aware of the ceiling and do, in fact, get complacent at times. The ones that don't end up moving stateside, sure. And it is true that we are too soft, but it's probably more of a symptom of Canadian society, where we're forced to be nice to each other and get along and maintain a semblance of outwardly peace, while venting and trash-talking people behind their back. Many just don't seem to be "soft" behind closed doors. I guess the rest of it would be psychoanalysis, which gets really murky

It's an interesting article, but off-the-mark, in my opinion. My issue with Toronto is simply the "mean rent to mean income" quotient, which is extremely off; more of our income goes to rent than anywhere else in the world except Hong Kong. (And Vancouver, but I was told Toronto has surpassed it.) The expense of it all fucks with everything here, not just threatening the viability of living here financially, but the way people exist in the city psychologically, and the way people behave socially.

I myself did not find, in my field, that there was a substantial enough difference in the "ceiling" between Canada and the US to warrant moving South; plus, Canada is less scary politically, my health care is taken care of, and grants are more readily available for subsidy. (Also: this article seems to ignore that there is a world outside of North America, and/or urban city centres in general, but that's OK, sometimes I forget, too)

That makes sense. I'm not in the arts, so I try to read up on it just to balance out my own views

As for places outside of urban city centres, a friend just moved to Nelson, BC, and it's always amazing to find small towns where arts and culture are basically thriving in Canada. I can't speak to what it's like, because I've never been but plan to visit soon!