As a follow-up to this posting about the Costco Controversy in Bellingham, Washington, Roy Green will be starting off his radio show this weekend discussing the issue.
Guests will include three women from Bellingham, including the Canadian wife of SDA commenter, Brian. The discussion will focus in on the issue at hand, but will also likely touch upon Canada’s immigration policy, asking an important question: How long after an immigrant moves to Canada should they be expected to adopt our generally accepted standards of politeness, personal space, and courtesy?
Another important question, which was raised by several SDA commenters, is this: Why are so many Canadians flooding down to the U.S. to buy milk and gas? Here are some recent prices that reveal the answer:
NW Wash Costco Gas: $1.02/litre ($3.86/gallon) – – SW BC Costco Gas: $1.33/litre –> 30% more expensive
NW Wash Costco Milk: $2.50/gallon – – SW BC Costco Milk: $4.45/gallon –> 78% more expensive
There is more at issue than just the volume of Canadians heading to the city. The notion of striving to act like a good ambassador while in another country seems to have been discarded in favour of rushing for good deals (think Black Friday). Here’s but one example.
You can listen live beginning at 11:05am PT (2:05pm ET) here. You can also participate in the discussion by calling 1-877-399-9898 or you can e-mail Roy Green ahead of time with your thoughts & questions.
Update: Those who missed the discussion can listen to it here.
Cam, the use of the phrase “American style ______” is a common tactic used by weak-minded Leftists to shut down a conversation. It’s darn effective though, especially when used with politicians. 🙁
How do you think Canada is paying for all that “free” health care and other swell stuff?
Or rather, how to you think Canadians are paying?
BC loves their unions and elects ecoterrorist governments. They deserve to pay more for everything. |I hope the US blocks their entry to the fruits of competition.
Last summer I went on vacation in the US stayed in Boston, Vermont and Maine. This spring I went on a long weekend trip to Manhattan. In the past I have travelled to Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Michigan. Where ever I travel I always try to engage the people I meet as much as I can because I really enjoy it. I don’t recall ever being treated rudely or indifferently. It might not be like this for everyone but in my experience Americans are the most friendly, polite and welcoming people you would ever want to meet.
To the American readers out there, Thank you. You have been the best neighbour any country could ever have. This year we are celebrating 200 years of peaceful coexistence, (well, 198 years anyway…) which is probably a longer period of peace than two neighbouring countries have ever had.
I have spent some time visiting the US and find that quality of service, politeness, etc. is way better in the US. The border guards are .ricks spelled with a capital P but it seems like simply bluster.
Been to 40 of the 57 states, and cn’t complain about “rude” americans, and with all the travelling I used to do, that’s something
and as to garbage bags with gas in them, yes there are bags strong enough and liquid tight enough, I know, because I set up the first production line that produced them:-))))
Yeah Scar,absolutely.
I’ve traveled a lot through the States,and I mean train,planes,motorcycles,and automobiles,but a lot at the end of my thumb,which I suppose is automobile.
Americans rock.
I’d rather have ‘in your face I don’t like you’,than polite ‘I don’t like you but I’m too polite to cause a scene’ any day of the week.
“My guess, Mr. Garbage Bag Guy is an NDP voter. The Stupid is strong with them.”
He also looks oriental and if you’ve ever seem how they drive in Richmond I can’t say as it surprises me.
Dairy regulation in Canada is absolutely atrocious.
I also have travelled extensively in the US and I can say for sure that service in almost any American establishment whether its a restaraunt,Walmart or a gas bar is almost always friendlier than what you would experience in Canada.
Both countries seem to have plenty of snotty middle eastern and Asian convenience store clerks,but on the whole we seem to have more of them in Canada.Maybe their attitude and demeanor is why the had to leave their own country in the first place.I know that I m damn sick of them on either side of the border.
Because of the Milk Board system, selling out of province milk,
let alone imported foreign milk, without approval is illegal. They
should fine Vancouver variety stores doing the Costco run.
The main winners under this stupid system are separatist supporting
dairy farmers in Quebec. Time to give them the well deserved shaft.
I wonder who go into Costco and tear open the bags of rice, rip open
appliance cartons, and other stuff “for a look”?
Naw, couldn’t be.
.
minuteman @ 7:55, I have to agree. We have never had a bad experience when we visited the US.
The days of cheap milk may soon be coming to an end with California applying for emergency price relief due to feed costs at record highs…feed costs pushed up due to ethanol ploicy and drought in major feed producing areas of the midwest:
http://www.agweb.com/article/20_california_legislators_ask_states_ag_secretary_to_consider_dairy_petition_/
What everyone is dancing around is the fact the folks doing the shopping for the most part are Not born in Canada. A few alluded to it but being called a racist was too dreadful to contemplate. These people don’t share our values because they for most of their lives never lived here.
Ive been down to the States lots of times. Never had nothing but a good time with polite people.
To generate this much controversy the People doing this shopping, must be acting like swine.
As for the Anti=Americans they usually are anti-Western as well. They hate our culture. Which when all is said & done is not that different.
The Elephant in the room is Immigration.
No one wants to say outright that these “new” Canadians are not Canadians at all.
Et & Sgt Lejaune; Milk Marketing Boards
Both of you had very accurate points and stats about the dairy industry.
How many BCer’s realize that less than half of the white milk consumed is produced in BC? How many know that almost no commercial cheese or milk by-products are produced here.
Another thread was recently discussing the subsidy Quebec enjoys within confederation and suggesting it amounted to +/- $14 billion dollars. The Quebec dominated dairy industry is another under the radar subsidy which is never entered into that equation. You can go down a long list. Ontario is another province that also enjoys a non-competitive advantage in many industries.
It is truly ironic that easterners actually had many praire grain producers convinced that the CWB was a absolute necessity for their survival. What was never discussed in the MSM was the sweetheart transportation deals metted out to good Libel party supporters. Or that processing of western grain was done in Ontario and not in Saskatchewan.
Hopefully Stephen and Angela will change much of that.
@ Posted by: Revnant Dream at August 19, 2012 10:02 AM
“No one wants to say outright that these “new” Canadians are not Canadians at all.”
The face and meaning of being Canadian has changed. It will never revert back to what it was 50 years ago. Caucasians in the lower mainland of BC are already a minority and that becomes obvious to anyone walking the streets of Vancouver. They are Canadians, but share few of the values that were taken for granted not all that long ago. The old saying “anything in moderation” did not apply to our immigration policies and that is becoming obvious when “Canadians” shop across the border. For better or worse this is the present and the future and will eventually creep its way across the country. The joy of multiculturism as opposed to the melting pot model we should have used.
One point that was not made on the show yesterday was about how Canadian immigrants do not need at all to learn about Canadian culture. I don’t know much about your immigration system, so pardon my ignorance, but it seems to be that today’s immigrants do not need to engage with Canadian culture at all.
When my wife and her family immigrated to Canada from South Africa in 1971 (she was 9), her dad told the family to keep your eyes and ears open, and your mouth shut. LEARN what it means to be Canadian. OBSERVE the way Canadians go about their lives and interact with each other. And PRACTICE what you see. They lived in a neighborhood where they were the only South Africans, and they went to same schools and churches and grocery stores that all of the other people in their neighborhood went to.
Now, someone can come to Canada from India or from some other Asian country, and they can live in a neighborhood where most people there are also from their country, where they can turn on their cable TV and see channels from their native country and still watch their native news, entertainment shows, talk shows, music videos, etc. They can read their native newspaper, go to grocery stores that sell their food, eat at restaurants that server their food, and interact only with their fellow ex-pats,
Nothing wrong with any of those things, and we can benefit by trying their food and restaurants, but for some people, it is as if they have never left their own country. They have no need to engage with th rest of the Canadian culture, so they have no clue as to what it means to be Canadian. They may not even consider themselves to be Canadian. They may not know or care about who their leaders are, how Canada did in the Olympics, what the Canadian holidays mean (like Canadian Thanksgiving or Canada Day).
So then they venture outside of their neighborhoods, they have no clue that their behavior is considered rude or unacceptable.
That doesn’t make them bad people, they may have no intention to be rude, but they just don’t know because they are living just like they did at home, because it is just like home as far as they are concerned.
This probably happens in the U.S. Southwest with Mexican immigrants.
I could be wrong about all this, and I stand to be corrected, but it seems to me that this is part of the culture clash that was discussed yesterday.
What a lot of people do not realize is that a major proportion the dairy industry in Canada is controlled by the Saputo family. Years ago I and many other police members investigated them, When they came into Calgary the message was “Nice little pizza parlor you have here. Buy our cheese, dough and other ingredients, or something really bad might happen, and you wouldn’t want that, would you?”
A friend of my wife and I, who operated a pizza parlor in Calgary, was the last hold out of independent pizza operators. He swore he’d never give in. His new Cadillac was stolen one night and fire-bombed, as a “preliminary message”. He switched to Saputo.
Joseph Bonnano, the infamous New York mafia family boss, reportedy used to be a 25% to 33% shareholder in the Saputo companies, or at least was offered that share. The Saputo business practices were subject of enquiry by the Quebec Cliche Commission investigating organized crime.
But even mobsters, with enough money, gain respectability. If I’m not mistaken, Lino Saputo was apparently recently inducted into the Order of Canada.