One of the dumbest things I've ever done, while vacationing in Canada.
It is forever known in our extended family circles as 'The Tancook Island Incident'.

We decided to take the ferry and tour Tancook Island. The ferry runs every two hours, I check the schedule and the next to the last ferry departure is at 3pm.
Perfect, we'll go over at Three and tour for two hours, returning at Five.

Myself, my wife, our two kids and a nephew ride over and depart the boat.
Tancook had a pop. of about 95 and is about a mile by a half mile in size.
One dirt road circles the island.

I recall we were all wearing bathing suits. As we walked around the island I couldn't help but notice curtains moving as people peeked out at us. I had heard others had toured the island so I couldn't understand why the residents thought we were so strange.

We make the loop and return to the govt dock, there is an old guy fishing and he too is giving us 'the look'. Finally, he comes over and asks what we are doing.
I said, "We're just waiting for the ferry".
He gave me a shocked look and I'll never forget these words, "Ferry? There's no ferry."

I said the schedule states there's a ferry at Five.
He said yes but, the crew is based on the island and doesn't go back until tomorrow.
(now, the reason I posted this here...)
He said if we had a medical emergency, the ferry would have to take us back.
Then it came to light we weren't Canadian citizens, so that wouldn't work.

Anyway, this 'fisherman' pulled up to the dock in a 16' foot outboard boat and agreed to take us to the mainland after he filled up.
Now technically, Tancook is in Mahone Bay but untechnically it is the middle of the friggin' North Atlantic.

The little boat didn't have six life vests.
The swells raised us up enough that we could see land in NO direction
and low enough that there was eight feet of water above us in ALL directions.

Half way, the ferry went by and everyone came to the rail to look down at the little idiots in the boat.

We reached Chester and the ferry dock and that was the scariest part.
I had to get three little kids and my wife up a 25 foot sea slick wooden ladder.

I gave the fisherman a Fifty (US) which back then was like $85.
Probably two weeks wages on the island and he was grateful but, I was more grateful than he.

Now, I don't know what Canadians do for entertainment when I'm not around but,
for the last twelve years my relatives up there make me tell 'The Tancook Island Incident'.
They print flyers, invite their friends and make popcorn.
I've gotten quite good at it, I even slip a few rungs as I'm climbing the ladder, which didn't really happen but, they all gasp in horror so I throw that in.

 

I had a torn rotater cuff. I would have to wait 6 months for an MRI? What do you do in the meantime? I went that day, and by the next day, a plan of recovery began.

 

Bluejay - How old are you, again?

In the near future, it might not be worth it for us to fix your rotator cuff.

If you are older, than say, 69.8 years old, just take the pain killer. That's more patriotic. We will need your tax dollars to fix the rotator cuffs of the 15 year olds (citizens and non-citizens) who have never paid a dime in taxes.

 

The province I live in has PST and GST which comes to 12%, I pay about 21% off my cheque every two weeks. A couple provinces pay just HST which is a combination of the PST & GST. The 21% I pay covers income tax, employment insurance and Canada Pension Plan.

Don't forget the entire population of Canada is roughly equal to the population of LA, about 30 million. There aren't near as many people up here to pay the bills. In Manitoba the wait times for things like MRI's is at about 6 weeks, that has alot to do with the fact there's only a couple hospitals that have the equipment to do the scans. I read about wait times but the couple times I've need an MRI or CT I just went and had it done. The hospital called me and I set it up for my next day off.

The doctors are there, the problem we have (not sure if you have these down south) is walk-in clinics. Nobody bothers to find a family doctor because of it. They just go from one clinic to the next and don't stick with one person to develop a history so they can be properly treated. The walk-in clinics have, in my opinion, created the massive abuse of the system. Someone can go to one clinic and get a prescription, the next day go to another clinic and get another one from a different doctor and on and on. I personally believe there should be user fees put in place for people who abuse the system in this way.

 

Well done TBird, I thought I'd be the only one trying to make our point.

Not much left to say now, I suppose. I don't need to change anyones minds, I just still don't get what's suppose to be so bad.

And sorry, of course we pay. But taxes are a part of life, you pay them, I pay them and it also funds schools, infustructure, etc, etc, etc. Things we all depend on. If they are lowered, thats always nice, when they are raised, the just better provide good reasoning.

 

Im just worried about a 15-20% increase. I already pay for my insurance and I am happy with it, why should I then pay for everyone elses. And why should everyone have to pay for someone who is in this country illegally. That is the biggest issue with the proposed healthcare bill.

 

There are free clinics and such here as well, the problem I have with this is there is a better way to go about doing this. If we would start giving doctors the ability to write off any free work they do we would have a lot more doctors willing to supply their services for free. I just don't like the government telling me I HAVE to do something, they already do that enough. Just like I like giving to charity, but I hate seeing what portion of my taxes go to welfare, I like to help people when I can be the judge of whether or not they need my money. I think if we would set stricter rules on lawsuits, give doctors tax breaks for free work, start encouraging pharmaceutical company's to have more programs that provide their drugs at little or no cost we would be well on our way to having a great system.

 

Thanks dlenkewich. Just trying to make the point without disrespecting or southern friends. There should always be good reason for tax hikes, but government being government if they don't take it with the right hand they find a way to get it with the left.

15-20% would be a pretty huge grab considering the size of the pool the American Govt has to dip into with some 200 million people in the U.S. I'd say a 5-8% increase would be realistic. I agree 100% about paying for those that enter illegally. I don't have a problem with the people that go through proper channels to become Canadian citizens. It's difficult to go to a new country and start over in an unfamiliar land, if they need access to healthcare or have to be on welfare for awhile until they get established, so be it. There should however, be limits imposed that require them to secure some kind of work so they can start to repay what they've been given. Unfortunately, there will always be people that exploit the system.

You're on to something good here birddog, not much to add besides: If only government would listen.

 

We have a comon goal there are just 2 very different ways to do it, I would like to see less government involvment and some people would like to see more.