Politics

 Today was a pool day.  Nothing exciting.  Just two old folks having a good day.

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Generally, we avoid conversations regarding Trump or the 51st state topic.  But, when our U.S. friends start the conversation I do participate - a couple of times so far.

Yesterday it was with a fellow from Illinois.  We talked about winter weather and I pointed out that his area probably had harsher weather than we do in Canada's wine country.

Then he said that the U.S. has better health care (do you suppose he's a Republican?).  I responded that the American wealthy have better health care, but in Canada we all have decent health care.  That's why we live, on average, four years longer than they do.

Surprisingly, both countries spend about the same amount per capita on health care.  But a good portion of their spending stays with the insurance companies and with the bloated U.S. drug and health care system.

That's about where he seemed to lose interest in the conversation. 

If it had continued, I would have pointed out that during Covid that age expectancy number widened to five years because President Trump didn't take it seriously and Americans were more complacent.  The U.S. has about ten times the population of Canada.  If you take the Canadian Covid death count and multiply it by ten you are still short more than a million people of their death toll.

The Republicans are castigating Dr. Fauci, but if they had listened to him those million people didn't have to die.

Second topic:  The U.S. has regular mass school shootings (defined as four or more people - only the big ones make the news).  That alone is enough reason to avoid becoming the 51st state!

Third topic:  President Trump talks about their trade deficit with Canada, but he doesn't mention the billions of dollars that we spend on our visits to his country.

If they don't want the money that Mardi and I spend down here we can certainly go elsewhere.  Mexico, Portugal, the Mediterranean coast, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand all have warm weather during our winters.  Florida is convenient, but we do have other options.  

If that happened, we would still book our timeshare at Orange Lake, but rent it out, probably to Americans, and pocket a decent profit that would come back to Canada and help finance our trip elsewhere.

Take a deep breath.  End of sermon.

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Stay well my friends.