"If you die in Canada, do you die in real life?" - one of my favourite quotes

A decade ago I moved to Montréal to live there for a few years, and I really enjoyed my sojourn, but I met my wife there and she began to peel back layer after layer of the rotting fabric of society there for me: once you've seen the underbelly, you can't unsee it. Canada shares many of the societal issues that its ridiculous neighbour to the south does, but is even less comfortable having conversations about them, and one of the reasons we left was because we wanted our son to be raised with a sense of community, and the confidence to express his concerns and discuss life's little imperfections. Canadians are generally very good at being polite, but generally not so good at being authentic.

I don't know if we'll ever go back to live there, we're grateful that we have the option but worried about what would await us. There's so much good there, though, and most people seem to be aware that drastic change is sorely needed, so we can only hope that everyone magically gets it together before it's too late.