By E.W. Kieckhefer
United Press International
From the National
Desk
Published
6/30/2002 10:30 AM
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Some Canadians are wondering whether their country should have joined the rebel colonies in the American Revolution as the United States approaches another Independence Day.
They were urged to join in the uprising against the British crown but declined. And over the years, Canadians have felt a sort of smug satisfaction in that decision, believing they had created a better nation. The differences between the two countries never have been great. Still, Canadians always have accepted a dependence upon their governments for what they regard as a kindlier kind of society.
But that sort of mild socialism has come with costs.
Someone has to pay for universal health care, pensions and welfare systems. And lately those costs are being realized. Federal and provincial budget deficits year after year took care of immediate needs but resulted in debts that required first heavier and heavier taxes and then finally sharp spending cuts. Ottawa pushed more and more of the burdens onto the provinces, which ultimately were responsible for carrying out the promised benefits to the people.
The education system has suffered and teachers have struggled with low pay and increasing duties. Many of the crown corporations -- that is, government-owned companies -- were privatized. But the cuts that have caused the most concern have been those in the health system.
True, Canada still has a prescription plan that is the envy of many U.S. citizens who use it, too, but hospitals have been closed and nurses in several provinces have gone on strike to demand pay increases. Many health professionals have just left. Elective surgery often requires months of waiting and patients increasingly travel across the border and pay high prices to get the care they need.
Despite such drastic measures, the Canadian government seems unable to control the cost of the health care plans. The Canadian Institute for Health Information says the cost of health care last year was $3,298 per person. Only the United States, Germany and Switzerland among the Organization for Cooperation and Economical Development nations spend more as a proportion of gross national product.
A recent poll showed slightly more than half of Canadians think they still are getting quality health care but 60 percent said they expect it to worsen in the next five years.
Three-quarters of the citizens polled said they expect any solution will cost them more and a surprising 56 percent said they are willing to pay more just to maintain current levels of health care. About half of them even favored a two-tier care system, with patients paying part of the costs out-of-pocket.
Those are the concerns of the average citizens.
Business leaders have broader concerns, like the recent attitude of Washington on the question of free trade. A steep tariff on Canadian softwood lumber is shutting down mills in several provinces, causing massive unemployment in those communities. But lumber is just one of many Canadian exports to which Washington has been objecting, claiming the Canadians unfairly subsidize production.
Anthony Wilson-Smith, editor of the weekly news magazine Maclean's, told recently of a conversation with a British Columbia food company executive who recommended rethinking Canada's growing economic ties with the United States. He said the relationship has tilted to the point that it no longer is possible to negotiate because whenever trade rules come out in Canada's favor, Washington changes the rules. The businessman said he is quitting in frustration.
But Canada is trapped in its relationship with the United States.
The lion's share of Canada's exports go to the United States. The free trade agreements were designed to lock in that relationship. Expanding exports in Europe and Asia is a long-term effort.
Canadians seem to get little sympathy from the United States now. A recent Woodrow Wilson Center study showed 30 percent of U.S. respondents think of Canada as a U.S. state and only 18 percent said they regard Canada as America's closest friend and ally.
"These things matter," Wilson-Smith wrote in another of his weekly letters to Maclean's readers, "because the issue of Canada's sovereignty, and how we deal with it, will be the defining issue of the next decade -- far more important than the old hand-wringing about Quebec sovereignty." The notion that Canada as a smaller nation can guard its culture and flourish "goes by the wayside whenever we look at the relationship between ourselves and America."
Clearly, Independence Day has a far different meaning in Canada than it does in the United States.
Copyright © 2002 United Press InternationalTHE END
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