Ask Catnip I am from Nova Scotia Canada please ask me anything

[Catnip]

I am from Nova Scotia Canada please ask me questions I will do my best to answer them.

[Zelhar]

Hello there.

How long have you been following JTF?

What are the gun laws in Canada (or the provinces within)?

Is your social healthcare over-rated?

[Catnip]

Thanks for the questions!  "How long have you been following JTF?"

I have been following JTF since I discovered Youtube, approximately 2008. I was searching for good right wing / pro-Israel videos; David Horowitz, Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes, and then one day I came across JTF, I love Chaim's sense of humour.

"What are the gun laws in Canada (or the provinces within)?"

They are Labyrinthian, I actually had to look this one up: according to the RCMP's website, there are restricted firearms, and there are prohibited firearms:  http://goo.gl/tCj3bv     There is the criminal code of Canada http://goo.gl/DYtJFk and there is the Firearms Act http://goo.gl/g3fU6E  So, yeah!  Lots of Canadians have hunting rifles, but assault rifles are not very common although I believe they are restricted which means you can get special license to own them as long as they are not automatic; handguns are not very common but you can get license, and of course automatic weapons are totally prohibited.  Certain ammo is illegal, magazines over 10 rounds are illegal, certain types of scopes and folding stocks are illegal. 

There used to be a "long gun registry" but the Conservative Party scrapped it years ago.    There are no "gun stores" in Nova Scotia, only places sell guns are Canadian Tire and Walmart etc, they only sell hunting rifles, not handguns or AR type firearms. 

"Is your social healthcare over-rated?"

I've never lived outside Canada so I don't have anything else to compare it to; but in general the system has become quietly more mixed (public/ private) in the last decade or so, since we had to allow some private health care companies to move in and take the strain off the over-stretched public system (MSI).  MSI doesn't cover dental, you need private insurance for dental. 

There are long wait times for certain surgeries with MSI.  The long wait times are the most notorious dis-advantage with Canada public health care, which is why years ago there was a big debate over allowing (legalizing) some private health care in Canada, like MRI clinics.  The left wing parties fought against it because it would mean "rich" people could "jump" the queues ("No 2 tier health care!")  My buddy who works at the hospitals tells me there is a small private hospital somewhere  nearby.  MRI clinics are all over the place.

The gov't run hospitals are very modern and state of the art but it is run by the gov't which means big govermnent unions and bureaucracy.  All the nurses are part of big public service unions.  They recently tried to strike in NS, which was very unpopular.  The govt passed "back to work" legislation immediately and the nurses who didn't show up for work got fined, LOL.

Doctors are paid more in the US private health care system so Canada has difficult time retaining doctors and specialists, adding to wait times.  Rural areas in NS have VERY hard time retaining doctors as they can get paid more in US or other parts of Canada. 

[Catnip]

Another thing about the public health care system in Canada is that it tends to be centrally located; for example in the Maritimes, all the big regional hospitals are in Halifax, so if you live in a rural area or New Brunswick or PEI, you need to drive to Halifax for appointments, surgeries, treatments etc.  This can put strain on families who need to pay for gas and maybe even hotel stays.

[Catnip]

So to sum up: 
Advantages of Canada health care:
--In theory, Canadians don't generally lose their house or car or declare bankruptcy or go into severe financial hardship
over a broken arm or catastrophic illness like cancer.  However MSI doesn't cover all drugs 100%, like when my friend got cancer she still
had to pay for a portion of the drugs, and while it was still pretty expensive, her parents didn't have to mortgage their house or anything.
However, MSI doesn't cover the cost of travel to hospital for your chemo and dialysis etc, which can be significant if you live in a rural area.
-Hospitals are generally well-equipped, high-tech.
-Hospitals here receive tons of charity money too, it's not all gov't funding.  Capital Health (MSI) gets tonnes of charity money from the rich philanthropists, telethons, etc.

The disadvantages are, like I said, VERY loooong wait times for certain surgery and diagnosis; difficulty retaining doctors and specialists
owing to the fact they can make more $$ in the USA or other parts of Canada; rural areas especially lack access
to family doctors---in NS it is fast approaching crisis levels, combined with an aging rural population; it can be difficult to get a family doctor in Canada, owing to wait times.
Many people use emergency rooms as their family doctor, which adds to the wait times.  Regional hospitals are centrally located in big cities, meaning
people who live outside the population centers have long drives to get treatments (and in Canada where things are VERY far apart, this can be a logistical and expensive nightmare for families, MSI
doesn't cover your gas, travel, hotels, etc).
-Govt health care = gov't bureaucracy, and unions.

[Zelhar]

Thanks for the extensive answers, Catnip! One more point regarding Canada healthcare system, does it cover assisted living and geriatric care?

[Catnip]

Assisted living or elder care, is it covered?  No, I don't believe so, I could be wrong on this but I think they're "Privatized." 

Nursing homes are big business here in Nova Scotia, as our economy stinks so bad all the young people are driven away, leaving behind an ageing (rural) population.  Some small rural NS towns, the biggest (and only) employers are the nursing homes.  Shannex is the big home care/nursing home company, it's owned by the Bragg family, they also own Eastlink (phone company) and Clearwater (seafood empire).

There are some "Manor Houses" which are like subsidized apartment buildings for seniors in Halifax (the capital and only city in NS). 

Oh and there is an "adult day care" which is like a day care for seniors, run by Capital Health, but it's only in Halifax and it's very small. 

By the way, thanks to the "social/environmental justice" activists and their fart catchers in the Liberal Party holding back economic progress in Nova Scotia, the young people are fleeing NS in droves because there are A. NO JOBS and B. the highest taxes in Canada.  In NS we have 3 Provincial political parties: The Liberal Party, the Progressive Conservative Party (No I'm not making that up, that's their real name, "Progressive" Conservatives, get it? Haha), and the NDP which is Socialist.  They are all controlled by the left wing special interest social justice groups.  So yeah there ya have it.

[Zelhar]

Do the socialists get their support from the rural population as well or just the Halifax metro area?

[Catnip]

In Nova Scotia, Halifax is the bastion of NDP support and has been for the past 20+ years; we have a lot of government workers, civil servants (silly servants) and students in Halifax and they typically vote NDP (think public service unions, teachers unions, nurses unions).  Megan Leslie is NDP deputy federal leader, she is Member of Parliamant for Halifax.  Rural areas in NS more likely to vote along Conservative lines, for example Peter McKay, federal Cabinet minister (defense) is MP for Pictou County Nova Scotia (conservative party of Canada, ie Prime Minister Harper's party).  There is no Conservative provincial party in NS anymore, there is only the Progressive Conservatives.  They are not affiliated with the federal Conservative party, they split off. 

Rural Quebec punished the Bloc (left wing separatist party of Quebec) by voting NDP in last federal election.  NDP is now second largest federal party in Canada because of this.  Some NDP candidates in Quebec were just place-holders and didn't even expect to win at all, one was just a 19 year old kid who the NDP had kind of randomly put on the ballot so they'd have a name there LOL.  They were so shocked to win... Likely they will all be thrown out of office in the next federal election when Quebec votes for the Trudeau Liberals.  NDP not expected to be much a factor in next federal election.  It's Liberals (Trudeau) vs Conservatives (Harper)

The population centers in Ontario and Quebec and BC,  (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) vote Liberal and NDP...think Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Justin Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau, Olivia Chow, Jack Layton... Layton was the NDP federal leader who died and was given a state funeral.  His widow Olivia Chow was MP for Toronto but left federal NDP to run for mayor of T-dot.  She is currently polling far behind the incumbent mayor, crack-addict and alcoholic right-wing conservative Rob Ford.  Ford dropped out the other day because his drinking has given him cancer.  Chow will still lose to candidate John Tory... 

Alberta votes Conservative, rural and urban.  Conservative Party is really the old Reform Party that came out of the old Western Independence movement, when Alberta premier Peter Lougheed fought against the socialist Pierre Trudeau in the 1970's.  In the 60's Canada elected a socialist govt, the Liberal Party.  Prime Minister Trudeau thought socialism was the future and cozied up to Cuba, Russia, China.  We had the big hockey summit series with Russia in '72.  Trudeau wanted to nationalize energy, and so Alberta threatened to separate and the Reform Party was born.   After the Mulroney tories were destroyed after the 1980s, the Reform Party took over the Conservative Party.  That's why nova Scotia has a "progressive conservative party," they were hold-outs who didn't want to join the Conservative-Reform Alliance Party (CRAP).

[Catnip]

Zellhar You asked if socialist Health Care in Canada is overrated?

It is a basket-case.

All health care workers are in government public service unions, and they are now threatening to go on strike again.

Jason MacLean, NSGEU vice-president, arrested at protest

http://tinyurl.com/ko6gebv

[Zelhar]

Healthcare is a tough issue. I think it must be regulated and subsidized to some extent.

[Catnip]

I agree Zellhar, a mixed system works best