Oh Canada!

Canada, its in my blood, as proclaimed by the famous Canadian songstress Joni Mitchell. After being here in Canada for the last 15 years, my outlook for this country has changed. Initially, I came out here with every intention of going home to Malaysia immediately after my tertiary education. Home was still Malaysia and my "kampung" was still Parit, Perak. However, as fate would play out, I was initially seduced to stay on in Canada by an incredible job offer and opportunity to work for Canada's only Space company with promise of sexy projects like the Canadarm. As years flew by, I finally decided to obtain my permanent residency status, initially as a form of convenience so that I do not need to renew my work visa every year.

However, after the many years I have been here, I have started to believe in this country. My political outlook turned from conservatism to a firm believer in social democracy.

Hmmmm...why am I telling you all these? Well, yesterday was another time I saw social democracy in action. Since Wendy has been diagnosed as being gestational diabetic, she has had to attend a diabetic clinic offered for free in the Burnaby Hospital. As healthcare is a public service (in Canada, there are no private healthcare facilities), a doctor, a dietician and a registered nurse was assigned to her in the class, again, for free. She was also provided with all her diabetic supplies from the blood glucose electronic testing kit also for free. What is more impressive, although these healthcare workers are public servants, you can truly feel their pride in their work and their professionalism. You can feel that they care about the wellbeing of their patients. They really do. I do feel that ALL Canadians are in good hands if all healthcare workers provide this same level of care and service. Wendy was even given emergency phone numbers to reach any of the 3 healthcare workers assigned to her. All these are public services!

That is why Canada is the country for me. That is why I believe in Canada and that is why I'm so happy that my little one is going to be born Canadian. I truly cannot think of another country that I would like to be in more than the one I'm in right here, right now.