You need to be ingenious to be Canadian

I'm from "down south". In Canadian-speak that means I am from the US. I (proudly) became a Canadian citizen a coupla years ago, so I am both us and them.

There are things I love about Canada, when compared to the US, and vice verse. Mostly it's a wash, with two big exceptions (and no, I am not talking about health care--though I could go on and on about the pros and cons of both systems). Canada wins hands down when it comes to civil rights, marriage, yada yada for people in same sex relationships. Canada loses big time when it comes to access to technology.

In Alberta, any two people can form what is called, in legalise, an interdependent relationship, and have all the rights (and responsibilities) of married people. If you decide to get married, the Government of Canada does not care what you wear between your legs.

It seems so simple.

Now, wouldn't you think that a country that figured out how to just do it, when it comes to civil rights would be able to figure out how to approve/make possible a Canadian version of Google Checkout? And wouldn't you think that they would figure out a way to make texting between people in different countries happen without huge fees attached?

But, noooooooo....not here, not when we have substandard Canadian services to protect.

This is where the ingenious part comes in.

I have to root my phone in order to buy paid apps from the Android Marketplace because it would be a horror for Google Checkout not to be fully bilingual. A French one and an English one simply will not do, even if a vendor can work around our non-standard bank routing numbers. I have to use Twitter to text my US friends unless I want to send Rogers 25 cents for every message I send.

Shopping on line from Canada, sure; let me tell you about the two bras that had $60 worth of delivery charges and import duties added on, or the small boxes of Red Hots that took nine weeks to get here because each box had to be opened and examined by the government. The Made-In-Canada solution to this is to drive for five hours and cross the border once or twice a year, spend a few nights in a US motel, and pick up the things I have had Amazon deliver to me there.

When I applied to immigrate to Canada, I had to prove that my marriage to a Canadian was legit and he had to sign an agreement to be responsible for my well being once I got here. What they should have done is make sure I was obsessed enough to figure out how to use digital technology here.