Hyder, Alaska, has a Canadian area code and a 14-hour car and ferry trip — or a one-hour flight — to the nearest American town.
This Alaskan community with a population of about 87 was once a mining boomtown for gold, silver and other resources, but its website now describes it as the “Friendliest Ghost Town in Alaska.” It relies mostly on a local tourism industry.
 But Hyder lies next door to British Columbia and Condé Nast Traveler has another way to describe its residents: secret Canadians. Hyder lies closer to the town of Stewart, B.C. than to the nearest American community, Ketchikan, Ak. It uses electricity from B.C., a Canadian area code and, according to writer Ken Jennings, the Mounties occasionally pop in to say hello. Most of the stores in Hyder also accept Canadian currency.
For Jennings, these details are enough to officially declare Hyder residents polite maple syrup guzzlers, or perhaps an example of how America would look if Canadians had taken over the U.S. during the war of 1812. Then again, he also describes the Canadian public school system as “dubious indoctrination.”
Educational assessments aside, North America’s wacky borders are well-documented, and Hyder is far from being the only strange border town on the continent. From Point Roberts, USA, at the tip of B.C., to Stanstead, QC and Derby Line, Vt., where a walk to the library can become an international adventure, border towns dot the map, connecting the countries on either side.
Informational videographer C.P.G. Grey recently gave a thorough explanations of thezigzagging lines the divide Canada and the US in a video that went viral this summer.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-buzz/alaska-town-hyder-mostly-canadian-173020232.html
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Well-being outcomesThere was a lot of buzz, on Wednesday, about Statistics Canada’s latest Household Survey, which highlights the nation’s incomes, savings and types of households.
The reports are very informative, but that’s only part of the story in terms of a ‘scorecard’ on the well-being of Canadians.
In addition to economic indices, there are also social indices.
This week, the Broadbent Institute has released report on just that — by compiling statistics on life expectancy, student achievement, infant mortality, homicides, incarceration, teenage pregnancy, trust in others, social mobility, mental health and obesity, they’ve created provincial rankings of what they call social well-being.
Social well-being ranking% *
British Columbia183
Ontario286
Prince Edward Island387
Quebec488
Nova Scotia593
Newfoundland and Labrador697
New Brunswick798
Alberta8104
Saskatchewan9130
Manitoba10135
* Lower % = better performance
“Overall, the provinces share relatively similar well-being outcomes, with the exception of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which perform poorly compared to the other provinces,” notes the report.
“These provinces’ poor performances are likely largely due to the fact that they have much higher than average Aboriginal populations; while Aboriginal people account for 4 per cent of the total Canadian population, they represent 15 per cent of Manitoba and Saskatchewan’s populations.
“The incarceration rate for Aboriginal persons is about ten times higher than the rate for non-Aboriginals, the homicide rate is seven times higher, and the teen pregnancy rate is up to six times higher. The infant mortality rate among Aboriginal groups ranges from about 1.7 to 4 times the rate for non-Aboriginals.”
The other interesting thing about the study is that the cumulative scores are very similar despite the fact that there is a wide variance in income and income inequality between the provinces.
Andrew Jackson, a Senior Policy Adviser with the Broadbent Institute, attributes that to Canada’s federal equalization program.
“Even though income per person differs a lot between the provinces, social spending per person is a lot narrower across the provinces,” he told Yahoo! Canada News,
Jackson says that’s not the case in the United States citing a 2010 study that suggested that social well-being varies by state depending on the level of income inequality.
While most provinces have a similar overall score, there are some stark differences in some of the categories.
For example, average math and literacy scores are almost 10 per cent higher in Quebec than they are in PEI; homicide rates are six times higher in Manitoba than in PEI; and incarceration rates are nearly four times higher in Manitoba than they are in Nova Scotia.
Another interesting statistic is the issue about trust: 68 per cent of Prince Edward Islanders believe “people can be trusted” compared to only 35 per cent in the province of Quebec.
The full study, written by Jennifer Mason can be seen here.
Selected indices:
Life expectancy
Homicide rates
Teenage births
Trust
Infant mortality rates
(Photos and graphs courtesy of the Broadbent Institute)
 
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I just saw the funniest ad in the world today.
It said: “scare people with your tool!”
Two things, first of all i think people would be grossed out before they got scared.
And second, that would be enough to get ya thrown in jail if you just flashed it about.