Canada, North America's Better Half, Right? - Daniel Lummerding

As people that live within Canada, we have a sense of pride that comes from our southern neighbours having a reputation for idiocy, and we believe that Canada is infinitely better than the United States. This is a simple doctrine that many people seem to fall for, but it’s simply not true. I’m going to show you why we are just as flawed by covering gun violence and the democratic systems both countries utilise. I believe our ego has gotten so inflated by pride that we get distracted from real issues that people in our communities suffer from, we need to shift the paradigm.

In 2021, the CDC reported 48,830 deaths relating to firearms within the United States, or 14.8 deaths per 100,000 people. Statistics Canada recorded that there were 8,047 victims of violent crime where a firearm was involved, or 27.4 victims per 100,000 people. This number also accounts for people that survived long enough to make it to a hospital, so the results may be a bit skewed. However, the numbers still show that Canada has issues with gun violence as well, with it even happening more than the US per capita.

Americans tend to take a lot of pride in their country being free, saying stuff like “Land of the free.” Canadians are also proud of their freedom, where part of our national anthem is “True north strong and free.” Part of this freedom comes from the democracies that both countries have. Almost everyone in the US would recognize it as a two-party system, a dichotomy between democrat and republican. Canadian democracy has many more parties than the US does, at 18 instead of 2. This implies that Canada has a much truer democracy than the States does, but this logic falls apart when you realise that only five of those eighteen parties have any MP’s. Aside from the standard left and right parties, the three other parties with MP’s are the Bloc Québécois with 32, the New Democratic Party with 25, and the Green Party of Canada with 2. Suddenly Canada seems much more dull.

Canadians have made mistakes, many mistakes. We appear to be better than our southern neighbours, but we aren’t less proud or stupid. We’re just a little quieter.