[hagbard_c]

Anecdote: in 2001 I paddled the Yukon from Whitehorse (Canada) to Emmonak and Alakanuk (Alaska). When crossing into Alaska at Eagle I had a chat with the local Sheriff who, upon hearing I just came from Canada told me in no uncertain terms and with a comic book drawl that 'Canada is a communist country'. I thought 'yeah, sure buddy' and went upon my merry way in the certainty that Canada might be more of a cross between European social democracy and American liberalism but not a 'communist country', never that.

For some years I had planned to move to Canada and was gearing up to sell my house in the Netherlands when I met a Swedish woman at a party in the UK which sort of changed my plans - I moved to the north of Europe instead of the north of the Americas.

Now, 22 years later I see that Sheriff's words in a different light. No, Canada is still not a 'communist country' but it has proven to be a country which is easily taken over by (what I consider to be) the 'looney left'. The People's Republic of Trudeaunia is not the Canada I envisioned when I planned to move there and I am - for more than only this reason - glad things worked out the way they did for me so I did not end up living there. Sweden might have its own set of problems but when compared to Canada we're a beacon of sanity. This became even more clear during the SARS2 unpleasantness when the contrast between oppressive Canada and free Sweden became even more obvious.

What went wrong in Canada? Why has it gone from being a 'more civilised version of the USA' to the caricature of a 'liberal utopia' (in the American sense of the term 'liberal') it has become and what will it take to put the country back on track towards sanity?