Canada unsafe for travel?

[Zim]

Really? I know gun crime in the U.S. is heavily concentrated in cities but I'd always gotten the (possibly erroneous) impression that Even Canada's inner cities are safer than ours.

We have a Main Street like that in the semi rural town I live in. If the History Channel comes to film it they better leave the camera unfocused, so as to hide that the quaint little shops are falling apart. And then there are all the homeless people, and the fact the economy is based largely on meth production and social program payments from the surprisingly large number of people with "bad backs". If only it really were idyllic.

The statistical differences between the US and Canada serve mostly (IMHO) to demonstrate the limited utility of comparing nations on those grounds. Studies that control for the essential demographic differences between the coutries (Specifically Canada's population is still largely located in rural areas, while the US's is increasingly urban) tend to even out the differential quite a lot, as you might expect. It's interesting the bits of info you pick up frequenting pro/con gun boards.

Anyway, it's pretty funny that these days if you want to find the 'Main Street USA' the History Channel seems to pine for you'll have much more luck in Canada.

[Lemur]

You guys are all missing the obvious. What if the zombie apocalypse starts in Canada? And what if the Ozzies know something we don't?

Our peaceful northern neighbor won't seem so idyllic when it's overrun by flesh-eating undead, let me tell you.

[Zim]

Well, if video games have taught me anything, it's that shotguns and/or headshots are the best way to deal with hockey playing zombies, so I'll be prepared.

You guys are all missing the obvious. What if the zombie apocalypse starts in Canada? And what if the Ozzies know something we don't?

Our peaceful northern neighbor won't seem so idyllic when it's overrun by flesh-eating undead, let me tell you.

[Ramses II CP]

Really? I know gun crime in the U.S. is heavily concentrated in cities but I'd always gotten the (possibly erroneous) impression that Even Canada's inner cities are safer than ours.

We have a Main Street like that in the semi rural town I live in. If the History Channel comes to film it they better leave the camera unfocused, so as to hide that the quaint little shops are falling apart. And then there are all the homeless people, and the fact the economy is based largely on meth production and social program payments from the surprisingly large number of people with "bad backs". If only it really were idyllic.

Actually that's part of what I was trying to convey; Canadian cities, in general, are safer and much less densely populated than US cities. Most of the violent crime in Canadia is rural crime, the kind of Jim Bob and Billy Joe havin' a disagreement down at the Watering Hole deal.

I grew up in the deep South, not even in the one traffic light town that was nearby, named, as funny as it may sound, Homer. Main Street holds no charm for me. My family still mostly lives there, a counsin raises pigs, my father cows, an uncle mostly weeds (Yay farm subsidies!), all within a few miles of each other. I can't ding it too much, but I wouldn't go back either.

Anyway, the point was, Canada's small ball governments are well funded enough, and their population homogenous enough, to allow for some of that old fashioned Main Street madness. More power to 'em, but this too shall pass.