Normally, I do not care about Bill Maher’s occasional bouts of sanity. He’s a secular leftist clown. He doesn’t know how the world works. He chooses policies with his feelings, based on how it makes him look to other people. But this time, I really think that he put some effort into his rant against Canada. And I agree with him that American voters will vote smarter if they look closely at Canada.

This article from the Toronto Sun explains what happened:

During a monologue last week on Real Time With Bill Maher, the late-night personality compared Canada to America and carefully demonstrated how high unemployment, unchecked immigration, skyrocketing debt and lack of productivity are seeing the country falling further and further behind its G7 counterparts.

Unemployment and air pollution:

Maher then compared the unemployment rate in America (3.8%) and Canada (6.1%), and revealed that his neighbours to the north has more cities with worse air pollution than in the U.S.

Housing shortage:

“Last year, Canada added 1.3 million people, which is a lot in one year — the equivalent of the U.S. adding 11 million migrants in one year. And now, they’re experiencing a housing crisis even worse than ours and we’re sleeping in tents. The median price of a home here is $346,000. In Canada converted to U.S. dollars, it’s $487,000.”

National debt:

Maher noted that because of mortgage debt, “Canada has the highest debt to GDP ratio of any G7 nation.”

Health care:

“(It) ranks dead last [in health care] among high income countries, and access to primary health care, and the ability to see a doctor in a day or two. And it’s not for lack of spending. Of the 30 countries with universal coverage, Canada spends over 13% of its economy on it, which is a lot of money for free health care. Look, I’m not saying Canada still isn’t a great country, it is, but those aren’t paradise numbers. If Canada was an apartment, the lead feature might be: ‘America adjacent.’”

Immigration:

Jumping to immigration, he cited Sweden opening its borders to “over a million and a half immigrants since 2010” which led to “20%” of its citizens being foreign born, its education system “tanking,” and Europe’s leader in “gangland killings.”

“One result is that the far-right parties are in the government now there for the first time. To which liberals say blaming immigrants for the rising crime rate is racist. Yeah, but is it true? Of course it’s true. It’s not a coincidence the quality of life went down after the Somali gangs started a drug turf war using hand grenades. Calling it racist doesn’t solve the problem.

The Toronto Sun article then helps Maher out with some recent numbers:

Last month, the Canadian Press reported that people in Ontario and British Columbia increasingly missed payments on mortgages and credit cards in the fourth quarter of 2023, citing stats from Equifax Canada.

In Ontario, the mortgage delinquency rate was up 135.2% compared with a year earlier, while B.C.’s rate rose by 62.2%.

What do you think? Do you think that conservatives argue better when they argue from the demonstrated achievements of different countries?

The Toronto Sun noted:

On X, Maher’s comments went viral, drawing nearly 42 million views and nearly 5,000 comments with many calling the TV personality’s assessment spot on.

I think it’s a great approach. Why should America try policies that have been known to fail elsewhere? But we can’t count on the ignorant “don’t judge” public school teachers to tell voters what’s happening in other countries. We shall have to tell them ourselves. So, make sure you share this article.