The Truth about Canada: Some Important,
Some Astonishing, and Some Truly Appalling Things All Canadians Should
Know About Our Country
http://www.amazon.ca/Truth-about-Canada-Important-Astonishing/dp/0771041659/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207913492&sr=8-1
Renowned as a passionate Canadian, bestselling
author Mel Hurtig has combed through world statistics to see how Canada
really measures up — and the results are astonishing, and often shocking.
This book is about how Canada has changed, very much for the worse, in
the last twenty years. As a result of these profound (often hidden) changes,
we are no longer the people we think we are. To take one example, the Canadian
media usually leaves us with the impression that Canadians are really heavily
taxed. Yes, compared to the U.S.A., the usual point of comparison. No,
compared to other countries with our standard of living, other OECD countries,
for example; there we come in 23rd on the high-tax scale.
The shocks in this book build up, chapter by chapter. How do we rank in
the world in voter turnout? Try 109th. Number of physicians per 100,000
population? Try 54th. Our rank in reducing pollution? 126th out of 146
countries.
Some of the statistics are internal, comparing Canada then and now. They
back up two of the book’s most powerful themes: the failure of Canadian
big business to turn record profits into ongoing investment in our country,
and (no coincidence) the sellout of our assets at a rate that no other
country would allow.
This statistics-based book ranges across all areas of our lives — including
health, wages, productivity, culture, the media (“the most concentrated
in the world”), and much else. Mel Hurtig’s message is that we can’t
do anything to fix the direction we’re drifting in unless we recognize
it — and recognize The Truth About Canada.
About the Author
Mel Hurtig is the legendary Edmonton bookseller, publisher, and creator
of The Canadian Encyclopedia who became a political activist, then
an author in 1991 with his huge bestseller The Betrayal of Canada.
He is also the author of Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids, The Vanishing
Country, and Rushing to Armageddon. He is a member of the Order
of Canada, and has received many honorary degrees and honours. He lives
in Vancouver.
Of related interest:
Poverty and Policy in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life
by Dennis Raphael
Foreword by Jack Layton
http://tinyurl.com/2hg2df
Staying Alive: Critical Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Health Care,
edited by Dennis Raphael, Toba Bryant, and Marcia Rioux
Foreword by Gary Teeple
http://tinyurl.com/2zqrox
Social Determinants of Health: Canadian Perspectives, edited by Dennis
Raphael
Foreword by Roy Romanow
http://tinyurl.com/yptzae
See a lecture! The Politics of Population Health
http://msl.stream.yorku.ca/mediasite/viewer/?peid=ac604170-9ccc-4268-a1af-9a9e04b28e1d
Also, presentation on Politics and Health at the Centre for Health Disparities
in Cleveland Ohio
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4129139685624192201&hl=en
Dennis Raphael, PhD
Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
School of Health Policy and Management
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto ON M3J 1P3
416-736-2100, ext. 22134
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/draphael