Are Canadians over regulated

[rusk2003]

I just heard on the radio that Canadians getting thier passports in Canada could not frown or smile. I also read on some of their laws. They seem to me to be so regulated I don't see how they can breath.

[tameszu]

1. Uh, not really

The passport thing isn't exactly a hedge on freedom. It's tightening a requirement on what your passport photo has to look like, not a new regulation. Plus, I think the Americans are the source most responsible for getting Canadians to make their border security rules stricter.

Our tax forms are much simpler because we don't give out (or have to guard against) as many loopholes, so they are much quicker to fill out. Your IRS forms are ludicrous.

[Paschall]

2. Check it out

United States Department of State Requirements for Passport Photos
* 2x2 inches in size
* Identical
* Taken within the past 6 months, showing current appearance
* Color or black and white
* Full face, front view with a plain white or off-white background
* Between 1 inch and 1 3/8 inches from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head
* Taken in normal street attire
* Uniforms should not be worn in photographs. If wearing headcovering daily for religious or medical reasons include a statement explaining that.
* Do not wear a hat or headgear that obscures the hair or hairline.
* If you normally wear prescription glasses, a hearing device, wig or similar articles, they should be worn for your picture.
* Dark glasses or nonprescription glasses with tinted lenses are not acceptable unless you need them for medical reasons. A medical certificate may be required.

Still breathing?

[TrogL]

3. Yep

and the streets are clean, the crime rate low and the water drinkable.

[deadeye]

4. Is it true that they can only play music made by Canadians

on their radio stations? I remember hearing this several years ago on a radio talk show and never did find out if it was true and/or to what degree.

[Maple]

6. Good grief no

the regulation you're referring to said that a specific percentage of the music played had to be Canadian...not all of it.

The reason was that we were being swamped by American music to the exclusion of all else, and Canadian musicians never got the chance to be heard.

The rule was instituted...we started hearing Canadian stuff...and lo it was good....the Canadians were then able to go on to bigger things.....which is why people like Bryan Adams, Celine Dion etc have become famous.

In the old days, none of them would have stood a chance because they wouldn't ever have gotten any air-time.

[Paschall]

11. Same rules apply in the EU

Or France, at least. Broadcasters have to adhere to certain quotas--airing songs in French or by French artists--to receive licenses. Too bad we have to resort to these regulations, but in face of the onslaught of American "cultural products" it's a matter of do or die. Similar rules apply to television broadcasting.

ON EDIT: By the way, Maple, thanks for speaking up. I was sure this is what the poster was referring to, but hoped a Canadian would confirm.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi deadeye!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Superfly]

5. Yes

look into their gun registration SNAFU

[Maple]

9. We've had a gun registry

for handguns since the 1920s and it's worked very well.

Our handgun killings, which include suicide, are minor compared to the US

After the Lepine shooting in Montreal Canadians wanted more gun control and a registry for ALL guns was instituted.

The CA party...a right wing Freeper type group in Canada...has done it's best to wreck the registy from day one.

Massive phone-ins shutting down the switchboard, crashing the web site, putting off registering until the last day and then doing it all at once.....even infiltrating the building and flushing paper towel so the toilets backed up....hyping it in the media as a 'billion dollar boondoggle'....when it isn't, and so on.

There were certainly cost overruns, and a computer problem that needed to be fixed...but the auditors said it would cost a billion some years down the road IF the costs weren't reined in....not that it HAD cost a billion.

In CA hands this became the headline instead of the truth.

However, the Canadian public wants and likes it, and the police use it a thousand times a day to trace weapons.

[Spazito]

7. I'll put our gun SNAFU up against Bush's Iraq SNAFU anyday!

Yes, the govt screwed up on the registration issue in terms of expenditures, they could have and should have done it cheaper, no doubt about it. In term of the registration itself, it is no longer an issue. Most have registered. The registration has cost NO lives, unlike Bush's SNAFU, nuff said.

[sangh0]

8. Rove couldn't have asked a better question

.

[LeftistGorilla]

10. I have a..

smirk on my passport...
i got no problems from that...

[Dissenting_Prole]

12. deleted

see below

[Dissenting_Prole]

13. When I read about this

in the paper today I had to put on my tinfoil hat. I imagine that the straight-faced photos are required in order for face-recognition technology to match us up to security camera images, since we don't walk around with a smile on our faces most of the time.

http://images.google.ca/images?q=tbn:iZJvL5RrXn4C:

Well, I remember being able to smile, but that was a couple years ago.

[Spazito]

15. LOL, I will have a smile on my face for..

4 more years as I had just renewed my passport last year so does that make me more likely to be stopped at the border? Hmmmm, must keep same smile on face as passport for 4 years!

[Clete]

16. I couldn't frown or smile on my first passport pictures in the USA,

or my California driver's license. Now they tell you to smile so either way you are regulated. This post implies that Canadians don't have our "freedoms". Nothing could be further from the truth.

[magnolia]

17. I love Canada!

In fact...my husband and I just recently bought a summer cottage in Nova Scotia. But, no place is perfect and I do think they are somewhat over regulated. For example...it is my understanding that there are two cable companys, both government regulated, both expensive...to choose from. Whereas here we have many choices, and can price shop. It also seems that every Candian I know has the same internet server, simpatico. Why is this? I had dozens to choose from and found one that costs $15.00 per month. I know from personal experience, since our house is a fixer-upper, that there are endless building regulations and fees. My husband has put in many gas lines. But in Canada we would have had to pay the gas company about a $150.00 just to check it out...then a licensed person to do the job for another $250.00. We went with electric. Then...there is the 15% sales tax.

[Spazito]

18. We do have a lot of regulation, it is true...

but, to be honest, I don't have a real problem with it, overall. The building regs are for safety but they can be too nitpicky for sure! We do only have two cable companies and we could use more competition to lower the cost. We do have various taxes but they, for the most part, federal taxes anyway, go toward our universal healthcare, etc, so I don't mind.

[jagguy]

19. everyone is over regulated even the canadians eh

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