churches have schools in parts of Canada? Quebec got rid of religion in schools and homeschooling.

@Lukian Ontario certainly still has publicly funded RC schools and most other provinces have private religious schools too

@bookofmoron dang... that's a problem. A Hasidic Jewish community registered as a private school in Montréal was closed down because it was a religious school. They left the city and moved to Eastern Ontario.

At least not paid for with general tax revenues.

Definitely not worth it, best to stay put.

the Canadian right wing would be branded socialists here. Fair because we mostly just believe in the betterment of all even if it costs a little extra. While some things like gay marriage/legalization/abortion are still topics with people on the other side, few Canadians dislike or disagree with universal health and subsidized education.

@Surfpirate The other piece is their immigration system clearly contemplates either people of way higher net worth than me effectively buying their way in, or people with way lower net worth than me coming into fill menial jobs. And if you listen to what the latter are saying, they have a perspective of 2 or 3 generations of groveling to get to a better life. Admirable but at almost 62 years of age it doesn't work pragmatically for me. I am 100% self-supporting and debt free, would easily exist not at the expense of a single Canadian, in fact I'd almost certainly hire at least one and contribute to their tax base for sure, and yet ... I score so low on their point system that unless some consulate official wants to push me through outside the box, I basically amount to "too old and too different" to feel particularly wanted as an immigrant.

Add to that the extra tax complications and the weather and the only thing left to commend itself to me is that it's geographically close and culturally similar, but ultimately if I have to get out of dodge because the jack-booted Thought Police are coming after me, I might as well go anywhere in the world with the clothes on my back ... and until that situation is actually upon me, I might as well hold my powder. At least I could pull the trigger knowing exactly the situation at that time in Canada or anywhere else. And I might well qualify as an actual refugee by then, too.

Kinda amazing (and sad) that these thoughts are even far enough up the scale of likelihood to be contemplated, even provisionally.

@mordant Sounds like you have it all figured out, better for you to stay right where you're at.

Horrifying.

Pendulums do swing.