Let’s face it: plenty of Canadians envy the people who can move to the US. It sometimes feels like the opportunities are endless when you’re a US citizen.
But!!! I’m here to tell you today that, at least for us Canadians, the grass is always greener, and living in the US might not be as glamorous as we think. Reddit user u/Vagabond_Tea recently asked, “For those that lived in the US for an extended period of time, what do you prefer about living in Canada?” and as it turns out, Canada just might have the US beat:
1. “Guns! I never have to be worried about being shot, or my kids school being shot up. I don’t even see guns except on police. It’s nice running errands and not seeing people packing at the local Walmart.”
“I had a few American buddies up in Canada for an event and they always had to face the door. Like, they fought other people to sit facing the door. I’m like, “Why are you so adamant to sit facing the door?” “In case someone with a gun comes in, I’m ready to protect myself.”
We’re in Kitchener dude, The only one coming in here are other patrons.”
2. “I’m an American who has lived in Canada for the last 11 years. I love the sense of community — the fact that in our town, people leave Craigslist purchases on their doorstep for others to pick up.”
“That generally speaking, the honour system works here. It never would have worked in the town I was living in back home.”
“I’m a Canadian who’s been living in the States for almost 8 years. The sense of community, and in turn, Canadians placing the community’s greater good over personal selfishness is the answer. This is basically what I tell everyone who asks me.”
4. “I missed the assumed safety in Canada — in the US, it was assumed you should be on the defense (like going for a simple noon run carrying pepper spray).”
“I can’t speak for every Canadian city, but I can spend all night in downtown Calgary without once feeling unsafe or threatened.”
5. “Having lived down in the US during the Trump years, I don’t miss the daily, standing level of political tension.”
“Political polarization isn’t as bad as it is in the US.”
6. “Healthcare in Canada is so much simpler. In the US, I would get unreasonably angry that I had to pay to see a doctor, do all the paperwork just to do anything, despite already paying for insurance. Plus, I take home more money than I did in the USA, for those ‘but the taxes’ folks. Do the math! Taxes are cheaper than paying for healthcare.”
“Not worrying about being without healthcare if I lost my job.”
“My kidneys failed in high school; imagine how that could have destroyed my life in a private system! I would literally be dependent on either hard-to-get sketchy medicare, or forced to keep jobs I didn’t want because they had good insurance.”
7. “The metric system.”
“Miles/hour was fine, but for the life of me I could not grasp Fahrenheit. Then there were weird things like ‘fluid ounces’? Isn’t an ounce a unit of weight? Shouldn’t liquids be measured in another unit like pints or such?”
8. “People in Canada are more healthy and more active.”
9. “In the US, I was shocked and shocked again how some of my colleagues felt perfectly comfortable expressing racist and sexist views in social contexts where it just wouldn’t be voiced in Canada.”
“I’m gay and have literally never had anyone care here in Canada in real life.”
“It’s not that people aren’t racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. in Canada, but they don’t feel as comfortable talking about their bigotry out loud at a diner with their gun at the table.”
10. “I mean, we all miss our food. Even stupid things like Coffee Crisp and properly flavoured chips.”
11. “Public transit in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto is better than every single city in the USA except for NYC.”
“Hell, I would even put Calgary up there as well, and Calgary is pretty mediocre by Canadian standards for transit.”
12. “In the US, absolutely everything is a money grab. It never stops. There is always someone trying to sell you something.”
“The first time I went to LA, I had to pick up my bags and walk around outside the airport to make my connection. I had all these people outside accosting me, trying to sell me maps of the airport that they made themselves. It was so bizarre. And after the second one, I was like, ‘Come on guys, leave me alone…’ but no, they did not leave me alone.”
13. “No mandatory tolls.”
“Dallas is like a landmine, holy fuck. If you set google to ‘do not use tolls’ in the Dallas area, you’re in for a wild ride.”
14. “The wildlife and nature scene in Canada is unbeatable.”
“So much more access to nature in Canada.”
15. “As a middle-schooler living in NYC, I really struggled with the stark difference between haves and nots. You’d be taking the bus through the most beautiful streets in the Upper East Side, look down at your phone for 30 seconds, and when you look up you were in a completely different world.”
“My young mind couldn’t comprehend how some of the most fortunate people in the world lived LITERALLY down the road from people experiencing such hardship and not give a single fuck about them.”
16. “Interac E-Transfer via email, instead of ‘So…do you have Venmo? Zelle? Cash App?'”
17. And finally, “I haven’t moved to the US, but if I did, I’d say take your fucking shoes off in my house!”
So there you have it! I think it’s safe to say living in Canada trumps the US in a lot of ways. If there’s anything we missed, let us know in the comments below. And Americans, feel free to sound off about the ways the US beats us — we’re friendly Canadians, so you know we’ll listen to you with open ears.
