What I find most interesting with this and all those stories about how great Scandinavia is in general, the better the weather the less desirable a country is.

Isn't this like comparing a grape to a fruit bowl. Canada is a small country (39 million) primarily homogeneous, compared to the USA (330 million) and very diverse I am sure we have a lot of places/states in our country that would do much better on their comparisons list, and then we have Louisiana.

A population of 39 mil. is only small relative to the US. Canada is 38th of 230 nations in total population (USA is #3). Population density is another story - Canada is 219th there. This is because the north is very sparsely populated. 90% of the population lives in the more temperate and arable region near the CAN-US border.




Big misconception that Canada is homogeneous. Canada's population is approximately 22% foreign born. No one group dominates and most urban areas are a veritable tossed salad of ethnicities and cultures. Take a walk down the streets of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary or Montreal - you will likely hear as many 'foreign' languages as Canadian ones. In the huge Vancouver, BC area Caucasians are a minority.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

Define homogeneous.

Skin colour? Cultural diversity? (as seen below based on: To arrive at his estimates, he combined data on ethnicity and race with a measure based on the similarity of languages spoken by major ethnic or racial groups.)

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Our big cities are definitely multicultural but smaller places generally much less so. In our little village its almost exclusively white, but we do have all the stereotypes - the Korean family owns the convenience store, the Chinese restaurant and then the east Indian family runs the gas station. There is one black woman in town but she's married to a white guy so their two kids are mixed race. I'd say just about everything else is white.

Is it fair to say they are nicely and better assimilated there than in the USA? I think that Canada (for whatever reason) is desirable place to immigrate to.

My wife is from Ottawa and has many friends and family that still live there. Many of them have told me that they personally pay over 50% in taxes. That doesn't jive with this video.

If it wasn't for the winters I think my wife would want to move back there.

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Yes

I haven't watched the video so not sure of the context but if you're paying 50% in taxes then you're either doing something wrong or you're making so much money that all your earnings are falling in the top tax bracket (and even then, you're likely doing something wrong).

I'm at about the 90% percentile of earnings and (in Alberta) my tax hit was under 30% this year.

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Less is more.

The Canadians can't spell to save their lives, consistently adding extra "u's" where they're not needed. And the biff the pronunciation of simple words, like mixing up the pronunciation of the words 'buoy' and 'boy'. And they can't make up their minds as to which unit of measurement they prefer, is it feet/ inches or meters.

On the bright side, they know how to add gravy and cheese curds to french fries.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

I was surprised also. I'm not an accountant but am aware its a graduated system where the more you make the higher % you pay. I'm self employed with so many write-offs that my taxable income is a smaller % than if I made the same as a salary. I'd say I pay about 30% but I also have a really good accountant. At the same time, our sales tax is 15%. I know a few states don't even have a sales tax.

You live in Ontario.

Your (and my) sales tax is 13%.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

For total visible taxes (income and property taxes, with an HST guesstimate) I’d guess our household is paying around 35%. We have 2 kids in daycare and contribute to RRSPs, so those are big writeoffs for us.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Whose state motto is Thank God for Mississippi

Stereotypes are wrong. I live in a village of 800, nestled in rural Ontario (~150 km east of Toronto)
Yes, we do have one variety store and its Korean run... but that is coincidence.
And yes, we have a single gas station that just happens to be East Indian run. Again, just blind luck.
But we have no Chinese restaurant! (actually we have no restaurant at all... I would love me some spare ribs with noodles....)
We have one black family. They are African immigrants who own a farm. We see them occasional at the local Farmer's Co-Op (great local Ice Cream there). Its amazing how integrated they are - they drive an old beat up farm truck (like most of the locals), dress like local farmers (rubber boots, overalls, cammo hunting jacket, baseball hat with farm or hunting equipment logo) and even talk like the other farmers, except with a thick African accent.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

I'm with you. In Alberta, make great money (when employed!), and have never paid more than 35% income tax. Excluding property tax and gst.

Canada does not pursue assimilation of immigrants. Canada has a policy of multiculturalism. It encourages people to retain their cultures and append them onto the national fabric. The ironic thing is that by the 2nd generation many of these brown, black, yellow & blue kids are out there playing hockey and eating at Tim Hortons just like the blond 10th generation Canadians.

I might even suggest the reason for this assimilation has to do with how they are treated. If you don't treat them like potential criminals, don't build gated communities to keep them out, and don't develop social norms of systemic racism - they seem more ready to take on our values and norms.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

They are lying 100%. Or completely clueless. either way....

Or they're counting things that aren't taxes as taxes, eg, non-tax payroll deductions. CPP, EI, Workers Comp, Health Insurance deductions, Union dues, etc....

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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Really depends on what they counted as taxes and whether they had dependents. My husband and I were in Ontario for a few years, no dependents, and I'd say we were in the 40-45% range easily. We're now in the NWT with higher incomes but a lower tax burden (although the north is still unaffordable.)