Charmion said about Canada: "we have problems and social divisions every bit as distressing as you have south of the 49th parallel."

We have problems all right and they are not trivial, but I beg to strongly differ that they are as distressing as those of the US. In a way I take her point to be that Canada is not a caricature of a "kindler gentler country", it is a real country with plenty of warts. And we get tired of being used as a talking point for arguments between Americans, whether we are being praised or vilified, because in either case there is an unrealistic oversimplification of the issues.

For example, we aren't going around invading small countries with which we disagree, we don't have the tragic concept of firearm ownership as a human right, and we have not gone anywhere near as far down the road of privatizing and corporatizing every form of human endeavour that someone thinks they can make a buck from. And we don't have the centuries-old baggage of a slavery-based economy.

One thing we do have is a chance to have civilized discussions between people of differing political viewpoints, which is why I am pleased to have Charmion and Edmund as friends, since whatever our differences we have much more in common.

Bill