True North Strong and Lame

The two things my Japanese students would always say about Canada was that there was "much nature" and "free health care". Only I learned yesterday how free the health care I've been taking granted for my entire life really is. My health card from NS expired last September and I immediately applied for an OHIP card as soon as I arrived in the city. I have a document that gives me the exact date this card comes into effect, however I couldn't help but getting sick this week, and I was sick enough yesterday to need to go to the hospital. Well, it turns out that no one would look at me unless I paid $450 to be checked out. I'm a lifelong Canadian citizen and can vote to change the course of political history while living across the Atlantic Ocean in Ireland, but apparently none of that matters unless I have a piece of plastic with a date on it. Thanks a lot Canada. Yet again, you've proven to me that you're just as smug and arrogant as you were when I left the first time. Toronto is incredibly multi cultural and every time I'm in an office and see immigrants, I think about how frustrating it must be for them to get set up in this country and deal with fat civil servants who sit behind a desk, under a flag that supposedly stands for freedom and acceptance, while these government employees lose their patience with language difficulties and pass the individual who came to this country for a better life off to the next person. We Canadians sure know how to be jerks. Needless to say I stumbled home and didn't pay the $450. This photo is of me standing over the James River in Richmond, Virginia. Sure, it costs a lot to get medication in the US of A, however those people know how to take care of their patients. Probably because medicine is run like a business, but at least when I needed to visit a doctor I was well received and knew that my doctor was actually listening to me rather than sighing heavily because he was overworked and looking for a freaking plastic square. I'm not saying that the US is better than Canada or that any other country in the world is far superior. What I'm saying is that as a Canadian, I expected more of my country and to not have been treated like a pariah by the nurses who claimed it was my fault, nay, my "responsibility" as a Canadian to keep my health card up to date. Wow. I probably would have had an up to date card if Canada had employment for someone of my highly educated skill set and it hadn't been necessary for me to flee this vast land of beavers and maple syrup in search of money for food. Yeah, cause it's my fault. I'm sure I sound bitter, but when my head was spinning, I could barely stand and I had the shakes for no apparent reason, I was a little unnerved to say the least.