I’m not going to bad mouth Canada. Beautiful country, great people, many things to like, respect, appreciate. Canada is a very different country from the USA on levels from fundamental philosophy to history to demographics and more. Canada is a relatively safe country- and part of that safety comes at the expense of philosophies and freedoms central to the classic “American Dream.”
Again- not bad mouthing Canada- but there are just different perspectives on how freedom should work. The “American Dream” is about more than having a car and a house and a family and so on- it’s about having choices and freedoms to have the things one wants and do the things one wants- freedoms that often are at conflict with security. A central tenant of the foundations of American freedom and “the American Dream” is a concept of self actualization and realization. A “hands off” system where any given person is as effectively an island as they want to be.
The “American Dream” is not against universal health care, it is not against welfare or social programs. It IS against forcing people who do not want to subsidize or participate in such programs to do so- because the foundation of American freedom is an individualism- the idea that the government should be only as involved in a persons life as they absolutely must or as that person wishes to allow beyond a minimum level.
This individualism is less compatible with modern urban and suburban settings where people live highly interconnected lives in close quarters and shared spaces than it is with more rural living where the actions of one person within that space they call their own is far less likely to affect others- and most of the US population lives in densely populated urban and suburban environments which has certainly shifted large percentages of people away from supporting “a man is an island” since most people don’t live in an environment where they can have autonomy.
So Canada and the USA are just different. To some people Canada is a dream country, to some people the USA is. To some- neither countries are anything too special for them. And others like some things and don’t like others. It’s just... different.
Yup.