There appears to be a ratio between wealth and patriotism. Or maybe not. I would imagine that the One Percent really doesn't give a shit as long as they can profit at whomever's expense, however, wherever and whenever. Then there are the poor and the very poor, such as me, who have always fallen through the cracks, coming out feeling somehow betrayed and cheated by our own country. I would imagine that those in the lower-middle, middle and upper-middle income brackets would be the most likely to swallow the patriotism Koolaid. By the way, Gentle Reader, I have absolutely no stats to back up any of these claims. This is pure, unadulterated speculation and if you are able to prove me mistaken, then please do. I welcome all input.
I have heard many times, over the years, about what a wonderful country I live in, the best country in the world according to armchair experts who likely have never travelled much farther beyond a shopping mall over the US border. We have a social safety net. That's right, in this land of food banks, legislated poverty and rampant homelessness, no one need go without sufficient food nor a roof over their head.
Here, where I live, in the glorious province of British Colombia, if you find yourself unemployed and have exhausted your life savings, except whatever you need for the mandatory six week wait for your first welfare cheque, you can partake of the government largess for a whopping $610 a month. If you have a disability and can survive the paperwork, the refusals and the appeals you can get it topped up to around $990 a month. You might also qualify for government subsidized housing if you survive the ten year wait list.
Of course you have to learn to budget: get everything second hand and watch out for bedbugs; get your groceries at cheap markets but shop carefully because you will probably have to skip on the expensive stuff, like fruits and vegetables. If they do successfully hound you into finding low wage and soul-destroying work you will find yourself doing notably better should you be already living in subsidized housing. Otherwise you will be subsidizing your rent with the survival portion of your welfare cheque for a bug infested room in an unsafe neighbourhood for up to the ten years you are going to have to wait for government subsidized housing. If you are on the disability pension and you want to go to vocational school or college they will pick up some of the costs for you just as they will give you something towards dental care. If, like me, you are working poor, you get nothing. The low income workers appear to be the most overlooked and most despised citizens of Canada. In my experience, I have only been able to get dental work done because I happen to live in subsidized housing, which also allows me to eat decently if cheaply (vegetarian) and even to vacation somewhere in Latin America for a month every year. Fortunately, despite the abysmally low wage, I also happen to love my job.
I'm one of the lucky ones. But after all the years I have had to endure unsafe or inadequate housing that usually swallowed more than half my paycheque, leaving me too broke and exhausted to go back to college or save any money or even be able to live a little more comfortably from paycheque to paycheque?
Because of the way this country boasts about its generous treatment of its poorest citizens while making it impossible for us to survive with dignity or successfully climb out of the poverty trap, why should I have any love for Canada? It simply does not exist, neither this beautiful fiction called Canada, nor my love for it, and is never going to exist. This doesn't mean that I have no sense of civic responsibility. I vote and I hound and hector our elected representatives about housing, poverty and the environment. I do everything I can to show love and compassion to others, if very imperfectly, not because I'm Canadian and not because they are Canadians (or not) but because it is the decent and human thing to do. Despite this country.
Canada is a beautiful fiction and if I want fiction I'll find it in the library.
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