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What It’s Like To Live in the Best Place on Earth
Nowhere is perfect. Canada comes pretty close.
They changed the license plates
In Canada, like in the US, every province or state has its own slogan embossed on the license plates of cars. Québec remembers. Saskatchewan poetically calls itself the Land of Living Skies. Manitoba is merely Friendly.
When I arrived in BC, young and dumb, license plates proclaimed the more or less inarguable Beautiful British Columbia. But in 2007, as the Olympics approached, the slogan changed. Now BC was the self-proclaimed Best Place On Earth. So boastful. So arrogant. So unCanadian.
In the vast continent-spanning countries of the New World, identity is a precious commodity. Our countries are huge and new, without the long and complex national stories of more mature nations. In 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed Canada was the world’s first post-national state, whatever that’s supposed to mean.
And just recently, the annual Best Countries report proclaimed Canada as the best country in the world.
Suck it, Japan
The nation that gave us video games, tentacle porn, and Asian fascism only managed to rank second in the report. Germany was third. The United…
