On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that people on the left should learn from other countries, and that includes looking at the failed left-wing policies in Canada and Sweden.
Maher began by saying, “If we want to save our country, we should follow the advice good liberals have given for decades and learn from other countries, especially those beacons of progressivism like Canada, England, and Scandinavia. And I agree we should, as long as we’re honest about the lessons we’re learning and as long as we’re up to date on the current data, such as: The unemployment rate in the U.S. is 3.8%, and in Canada, it’s 6.1. And of the 15 North American cities with the worst air pollution, 14 are in Canada. I’m not citing these stats because I have it out for Canada. I love Canada and its people, and always have. But I hate zombie lies. That’s when things change, but what people say about them doesn’t. Yes, for decades, places like Vancouver and Amsterdam and Stockholm seemed idyllic because everything was free and all the energy we needed was produced by riding a bike to your job at the windmill. Canada was where all the treasured goals of liberalism worked perfectly. It was like NPR come to life…a giant, idealized blue state with single-payer health care, gun control, and abortion on polite demand. Canada was where every woke, white college kid wearing pajama pants outdoors who’d had it up to here with America’s racist patriarchy dreamt of living someday. I mean, besides Gaza.”
He continued, “There’s only one problem with thinking everything’s better in Canada: It’s not, not anymore, anyway. Last year, Canada added 1.3 million people, which is a lot in one year, the equivalent of the U.S. adding 11 million migrants in one year. And now, they’re experiencing a housing crisis even worse than ours, and we’re sleeping in tents. … And because of mortgage debt, Canada has the highest debt-to-GDP ratio of any G7 nation. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds bad. So, does their vaunted healthcare system, which ranks dead last among high-income countries in access to primary health care and ability to see a doctor in a day or two. And it’s not for lack of spending, of the 30 countries with universal coverage, Canada spends over 13% of its economy on it, which is a lot of money for free health care. … And, again, honestly, Canada, I’m not saying any of this because I enjoy it, I don’t, because I’ve always enjoyed you. But I need to cite you as a cautionary tale to help my country. And the moral of that tale is, yes, you can move too far left, and when you do, you wind up pushing the people in the middle to the right.”
Later, he stated, “Sweden opened its borders to over a-million-and-a-half immigrants since 2010, and now 20% of its citizens are foreign-born and its education system is tanking and it has Europe’s highest rate of gangland killings. And one result is that the far-right parties are in the government now there for the first time. To which liberals say, blaming immigrants for the rising crime rate is racist. Yeah, but is it true? Of course, it’s true. It’s not a coincidence the quality of life went down after the Somali gangs started a drug turf war using hand grenades. Calling it racist doesn’t solve the problem, it hands future elections to someone who will solve the problem, and who, I promise, you’re not going to like.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
