Have talked to Canadians on ferries and BBs, and in campgrounds including 3 who had cancer. All have been very happy with the medical system. I asked one if she had to wait for treatment. She said no that there were rules about how fast things had to be done.
One result I have seen of a socalist form of government is that the fisherman can not sell their fish to anyone but the big company in their town because their catch has to be recorded , so they get their quota, so they can get their unemployment checks in the winter. So, local people can only get frozen fish like the rest of us unless they know a fisherman who is willing to sell them some on the side. The BB owner told me she had to buy 70 lbs of cod to get any from the plant and then she salts and freezes it. Have been fascinated with the way fishing was the whole economy. Every village was on the water on the coast. We thinks of fishermen being poor, but they were wealthy in the early days of european settlements. Fish were salted and sent all over the world. The cod industry was considered decimated ( probably thanks to Russian factory ships that skimmed up everything) and strict controls were put in in 1992. There is all most no regular fishing any more. Thanks goodness they could turn to lobster ( once considered food for convicts) and the new industry of snow crabs.
Do not like being where I can not understand the language.
The highway signs are complicated here. In tead of the side of a school bus, as our signs have, theirs has the front of a school bus with a child on either side. The view point, instead of having a pair of binoculars, has a man looking though binoculars and a child under his arm pointing. His straight body and his arm and the straight child under his arm always look like an letter to me-probably a H. In NS and NB the signs are in in French and English. There are so many words on the signs that you can not get them all read, sometimes, before you pass the signs. I think in the US we have, maybe, 4 or 5 pictures on our road way sign. They seem to be unlimited here. We think the @ sign must mean some one on the exit has WiFi, a house with a flower we figure must mean a garden shop, the hand holding a pot must be craft stores, we saw a new one yesterday- a bed and an egg - we figure meant a BB. Lots of moose signs, but some have the moose standing by a crumpled car.We think it is nice in rural areas from Vermont on up that the gov. tries to help local businesses by putting the name of the businesses on blue signs on roads so you know a business is down them.
Never saw junk and old cars sitting beside houses in Canada. They seemed to be neater. Lots of artificial siding on houses which made them look neat even in small fishing villages of 5 or so homes. Was fascinated by the way you were never far from a small village when you were on the coast even though you felt like you were in the middle of no where. Never had been exposed to how important fishing was to the north east.
Saw lots of smoking.
Favorite park- Gros Morne Besides the walks, and scenery, I loved all the little villages to visit. Loved all the living history parks. Loved the whale watching experience at Digby Neck.
Read lots of books- Longfellow"s poetry including Evangeline, Ann of Green Gables.
Got some books from a park gift shop- Memoirs of a Light Keepers Son about a boy who spent 5 years living with his parents on an island off of Nova Scotia in the 1950s with no electricity or a way to keep anything cold and no supplies could come from Nov to April due to the frozen sea. Also, got The Island Doctor about a man straight out of his internship who becomes the only doctor in Digby Neck 1950s with the hospital 50 miles away including a ferry ride. Both great books. Also got a book of short stories about the area.
Read Reading Lolita in Tehran which I would recommend. Just finished Electric Barracuda about a crazy man who kills bad people and hids out in little towns all over Florida- trash but fun reading.
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