Au Revoir Canada

I am home...I am pooped!!! It was a wonderful time. I got some knitting done, but mostly I was thrilled with Canada. I loved Quebec City, the people were friendly and pleasant. The History is firmly planted under your feet and surrounds you with it's buildings and cafes. I would go back in a minute!!! Montreal...eh, not so great!!! The shops are all owned by Pakistanis and it reminded me of Mexico, where if you need a different size shirt they cross the street to their brothers and get one. It had lost it's quiantness in that regard. The buildings and parks are beautiful, but too much a big city for me. I had read the Yarn Harlots blog before leaving the US and was a little put off by her remarks sizing up Canada to America and in the comments, just how many Americans are willing to pick up and move because someone says it is a better place. She made a point of Bashing Bush which is not an uncommon thing, everyone here does it and that only opens the door for Foreigners to feel free to do it too!!! We have no regard for our President so why not everyone else, good or bad, we need to respect our Elected officials, after all we elected them, they were not appointed. They have free Health Care, they have had babies and it was Free!!! I really wanted to take a photo of the people in Montreal standing and waiting to get into the Health Care Clinic at 10 at night....there was a line 20 feet long and that was on the outside of the building. But it is free. I live in Milwaukee and it is a rather large city, I walk the streets and feel safe...Montreal was bustling at night as well, and during the day there were bums on every corner with cups out and cigarettes tucked behind each ear. Next to the restaurant we were going to eat at, we found a dead rat laying next to the building in plain sight. No one attempted to remove it and were walking around it... It made me sad to see all of this when three days earlier a picture was painted of Utopia!!! I would rather hope that if all the knitters that responded with I want to move to Canada were to go, there would be a mass exodus to the border. I have a thought that if you are unhappy with where you are you are Free to move, that is the glory of our Country...you can leave. I wonder what is holding them back, I am sure they could get a job? It is Utopia, the jobs are everywhere ask the people, with cups all over. I would just suggest you look a little deeper into what life really is outside of the US. Don't get me wrong Canada is a beautiful Country and it was friendly well Quebec City was, I was not charmed by Montreal. I did find a yarn shop in Quebec and by all rights it should have been open according to the signs and the hours, but it was closed...so I missed it. I did leave nose prints on all the windows. I had a wonderful trip and would go back to Quebec City in a heartbeat, there was not a thing I disliked about it, other than it was hot as hell....which is rare, but of course it had to have a heat wave while I was there. But I do love America and I choose to live here even though we have some crap here, for the most part we are quite well off. I would love to Visit Canada again, I will go directly to Quebec city where they are friendly and wonderful.