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From a Malaysian, currently living in Australia: I usually don't really think about Canada all too much since pretty little of what it does affects me. I have been over there, and kind of have to agree with @OliveTapenade in that I think of it a bit like a less belligerent and less polarised US with more legacy allegiance to Britain, with the (sort of hilarious) quirk that the nation's self-conception is largely defined around not being the US despite sharing a very large number of cultural characteristics with their more powerful neighbour. Perhaps the differences may seem large if all you know is the North American cultural sphere, but to the rest of the world the distinction is not that clear. Canada is really just not all that distinctive internationally nor is it that prominent when it comes to foreign affairs.
When it comes to being "internationally-respected", I honestly would not say I respect Canada that much. This may be harsh but for me to respect countries an important factor is not geopolitical leaning, but general competence, and that includes internal concerns; its ability to build infrastructure, deliver on QoL things like safety and convenience, and just generally make canny and efficient decisions. When I think about the sheer tragedy that is Toronto's public transport where they insist on building Transit City-like Potemkin light rail all over the city, then spend 10+ years and billions of dollars to build a single line that's barely faster than the bus lane it replaced, THEN promise to try and fix the failure through methods like signal priority as if that's anything more than duct-taping over a serious structural issue, "respect" is not what comes to mind. When I think about Vancouver's little experiment in decriminalisation which quickly made them the fentanyl capital of North America to the point that the DTES looks downright post-apocalyptic, "respect" is definitely not what comes to mind. I can respect China in spite of it being a very disruptive geopolitical actor because it possesses a level of competence and state capacity that is currently allowing it to eat everybody else’s lunch. I can't, however, respect when a country seems incapable of fixing simple issues. On a base level, respect at least requires that you be a serious actor capable of getting your affairs in order at home (and abroad), preferably with a telos that amounts to more than simply coasting off your current comfortable position and assuming you have endless latitude to absorb inefficiency and policy failure at home.
To be fair this is my opinion on a lot of Europe as well, so Canada certainly isn't the only one being subject to this withering assessment.
TL;DR: haiyaa failure
problem_redditor
4d ago
Work.
Pay taxes.
Die (this may result in further taxes being paid).
Tax accountant here. Also true in this industry. The ones that are least likely to be able to pay our fee are also the ones that are least likely to be able to pay for a proper bookkeeper to get their accounts in order, and also can't pay their tax debts. Their information all comes in late because they're disorganised and time-poor and they tend to have far less leeway with the tax office to ask for an extension. You end up spending a significant amount of time fixing their errors, and negotiating with the tax office on their behalf trying to make sure that they don't bring the Legal Hammer down.
Working with these clients is like fighting a losing battle. Soul-destroying experience, business failure just compounds and compounds and compounds to the point that keeping anything afloat becomes a herculean task.
Somebody has to, and no-one else will.
I do that, and I used to engage in this kind of wrongthinking way more in a very rigorous source-driven manner, but I've been saying the same things so many times and pointing to the same ever-growing corpus of information (that everyone conveniently ignores) so much that I ended up feeling like writing on gender wars discourse was a waste of my time and an act of egregious self-mutilation worse than actual self-harm. Sense of gratification completely went to shit after the 6th straight year of doing it.
Keep fighting the good fight though, indeed somebody has to do it.
Aussie and Kiwi slang for British people, yes. I have heard it's a shortening of "pomegranate" but not sure if that's just folk etymology.
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