Thoughts on Canada

When I left Korea, I told myself that my vacation was over and I was headed back to reality. But then I landed in Calgary- a city just as surreal as Seoul, but in a totally different way. Canada is messed up. My painful ten hour flight came to an end in Vancouver at 11am on Thursday. Singapore Air is the way to fly- I had all the leg room I could possibly want, my own TV with over a hundred movies and channels, video games and all the rest. A flight made even more enjoyable by the memories of my painful Air Canada experience en route to Korea. Knowing full well that I had little time to clear Immigration and Customs, and catch my West Jet flight, I wasted no time in getting to the Immigration desk. It was useless to rush. I was met by the sight of five hundred irritated Canadians awaiting their readmission to their own country. I pondered the irony of having experienced no waits in entering and exiting Thailand or Laos, or even Korea - despite the fact that my latest entry into the country was for only twenty-four hours. I waited (less than patiently) in line to be re-admitted to Canada. I kept careful watch on the time and became more and more irritable as it became increasingly unlikely that I would board my flight bound for Calgary. I finally reached the desk with thirty minutes to go before my flight. The man chatted casually and seemed annoyed that I was so rushed. He marked a 1 on my customs card, which I soon found out meant that I was to be searched at customs. He underlined weapons on the declaration and wished me a good day. I dragged my bags off the over-flowing luggage carousel - it had gotten stuck and was no longer moving because there were too many bags on it. I ran through the gate into the customs area and was stopped by the dreaded customs man... every traveller's nightmare. He directed me to the search area and I pondered the so-called random search. Ten Asian people were lined up in front of me. Behind me, two other English teachers coming from Korea. Hmm... random... if you say so. I finally reached the front and glanced at my watch. Ten minutes. The woman politely asked if I had picked up any weapons in Laos that I had forgotten to declare. I said no. Instead of tearing open my bags, as seemed to be happening to all the Asian people around me, she settled for scanning my bags through the X-ray machine and sent me on my way... after further questions about who paid my flight to Korea, how much cash I was carrying, what purchases I made, what I had shipped home... I got to the West Jet desk hoping that they would give me the chance to run to the gate. They didn't. They charged me 50$ for a seat on the next flight- apparently it wasn't West Jet's problem that Immigration Canada had only staffed two people... it was mine.

Calgary is surreal. Carrie picked me up at the airport and I felt as though I hadn't seen the sky in a year. Really, I hadn't. I can't explain the feeling of being back here. Calgary has changed. Both money and aggresion have reached Calgary, and I know it's not just me. I may be more sensitive to it having come from Asia, but other Calgarians have noticed it too. Two years ago, the homeless people of downtown Calgary were just that- homeless. Now the people downtown at night don't seem so much homeless as cracked out. Last year in Calgary, downtown creeped me out a little- this time my instinct was to run. I witnessed a bar fight for the first time in a year- and watched as the two 'men' were escorted out of the bar by the police. With the mass migration to Calgary has come diversity. And it is long overdue. I was thrown by all the different ethnicities that I saw around me. Calgary has long been a predominantly white city, and it is nice to see that changing. Ethnic restaurants are opening up all over the city and different languages are starting to be heard. It's so good to see. If you're willing to put some time in and look for culture, you'll find it. Calgary has long been home to safe art- but experimental arts are also on the rise. Years ago, Albertan artist kd Lang was denounced for being a vegetarian. Today, a successful vegan cafe calls 17th Ave home. Calgary is changing- for better and for worse. But as I touched on earlier this year, I've been gone too long to call it home. I don't recognise the city anymore. As I flipped through Fast Forward (free newspaper), I turned to my friend and asked him what Broken City meant. He laughed. You know it's not home anymore when you ask about the city's biggest club. Mordecai Richler once said that Calgary would be a nice city once they got it unpacked. I hope that in 'unpacking' Calgary, they don't lose what makes it a great city. There aren't too many big cities left like Calgary. My friend Drew who recently moved there from Montreal tells me that he considers himself a polite Montrealer, and a rude Calgarian. He's absolutely right. I'm thrown every time I go back by the bus drivers that say 'hello' as you get on the bus, and the people that make small talk at a bus stop. Calgary is a friendly city- and I hope as it grows by a hundred people a day, that it manages to hold onto that.

The adjustment to paying sales tax and tipping has been a hard one. I have the distinct impression that people in Canada are out to steal from me. And they are... or at least the government and big corporations are. I've touched a little bit on the obscenely low prices that I enjoyed in Korea- perhaps I should expand on this, because I'm determined to start a revolution in Canada. I want answers. When I bought my cell phone in Korea, I asked the woman how much it cost. 140$ she told me. I asked about all the added charges and she simply repeated , 140$. But how much for a phone number, I asked. She asked what good a phone was without a number. No charge, 140$ she repeated. I asked about the activation fee. She asked what good an inactive phone was. 140$, she repeated once again. That includes a month of service, she added. Over my time in Seoul, my cell phone cost me 10$ a month. I had free text messaging, free voicemail, free call display and free call waiting. I didn't pay for incoming calls, or for calls made from a calling card. My phone worked on the subway, and I was never out of the service area, not even in the mountains.


But it doesn't stop at cell phone service. My bank, KB Star, was open daily from nine to six- at every location. I got free calendars, umbrellas, cell phone holders if I had to wait in line. There was no service charge to use the machine during bank hours, and only a 60 cent charge to use it after hours. The use of another bank's machine set you back 60 cents, not three dollars. When I moved apartments, my cable and phone line were transferred that same day- with the service men showing up at the apartment less than half an hour after they were called... on Boxing Day. Tipping is an insult in Korea, as it is taken as an implication that you are calling them poor. But if there are people that deserve to be tipped, it's Korean service people. They trip over themselves to help you put on your jacket and shoes. They wait on you literally hand and foot. Arriving back in Canada, I'm irritated that I'm expected to subsidize the salary of the person serving me. I worked in the service industry for far too long not to tip, but I can't help but find it obnoxious. To be honest, service people in Alberta can bite me. I tipped, but wish I hadn't. While any server will get up in arms about how they're taxes on their tips, Albertan servers have no right to complain. Throw 50$ down as declared tips on your income tax and everyone's happy. In Quebec, however, the server is taxed on their sales. The equivalent of eight percent of your sales are deducted from your pay cheque, meaning that if you make less than that, you actually lose money going in to work. On top of that, your underpaid co-workers also expect to be tipped out- meaning that now you have to make at least 11% just to break even. Disgusting. Canada is viewed as one of the world's wealthiest countries- we are G-8 after all. So why is our country so corrupt? And why aren't we demanding changes? In Quebec, you can expect to lose nearly 50% of your income to taxes (30% to income tax plus 15% to sales tax). And for what? Thailand had flatter roads than Montreal. Seoul had a better cell phone network. Mexico has free education. Both Korea and Thailand enjoy super-cheap health care. And for those who proudly say that we have free universal health care, you've been fooled. Albertans have to pay 40$ a month for their basic health care. The rate is the same in Korea, except you can actually get your wisdom teeth pulled for 3$ there. I plan on meeting with my MP to get some answers. I'll let you know.

I'm glad to be back in Canada. I'm releaved to finally hear a plethora of languages around me. I feel at home in a city where I can have maply syrup for breakfast, Korean food for lunch and Greek for dinner, without even trying. I can see the stars at night. I feel a little lonely walking down the street- just last week, I had twenty million friends parading about with me. But I also feel releaved that I don't have to push my way through crowds in downtown Montreal. As much as Calgary changes every time I visit, Montreal stays exactly the same. It makes no apologies. There's no place like it anywhere else in the world, and for better or for worse, it's home for now.