Living a longer, better life - From the Cluttered Desk with Keith Roulston

In his recent column in the Globe and Mail, columnist Lawrence Martin took me by surprise when he mentioned that the average life expectancy for a Canadian was 82.2 years, while the life expectancy for the average American was only 78.4 years.

 

Martin speculated that Americans like Pete Hoekstra, U.S. ambassador to Canada, and Howard Lutnick, U.S. commerce secretary, would be surprised to learn such information. They are so used to hearing that everything is superior in the U.S. and don’t understand why Canadians wouldn’t be thrilled to be the 51st state of the U.S., as President Donald Trump has proposed.

 

In his column, Martin suggests some of the differences that help Canadians live longer than Americans. Right off the top is our healthcare system. Though Americans see it as a socialist system, we are offered care as needed through our government. I recently had a special shot to help me survive prostate cancer. It cost $1,700, but I paid only $4.10. How many Americans might not have been able to afford the cost even though, in total, the U.S, has a greater per-capita income than in Canada?

 

Another difference that Martin mentions is the relative peace on our streets compared to the U.S. gun culture. In 2025, a record 32 per cent of Americans reported personally owning a gun. Meanwhile the Canadian government attempted to buy back guns from hunters, etc. (with diminishing returns).

 

Martin also points to U.S. junk food culture as Americans get more and more overweight from eating calories from food that is not contributing to a healthy diet.

 

Canada used to feel close to the U.S. as Canadians owned winter homes in the U.S. south or crossed the border to shop in cities like Niagara Falls or Detroit. But since Trump’s call for Canadians to join the U.S., during his MAGA (Make America Great Again) push, many Canadians have cut their ties with the U.S., going to Mexico or the Caribbean Islands to seek warm weather in the winter. 

 

We still have our problems. The RCMP and O.P.P. still intercept smuggled guns from the U.S. and who knows how many guns they miss? 

 

As for weight, we still have a problem. Thirty per cent of Canadians are obese, but among Americans, 40 per cent are obese.
Gradually Canadians are becoming more patriotic. When I was young, we were still more closely attached to Britain. I remember a celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation when I was just a lad. Later, I remember a big fuss when she arrived in Canada to open the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959.

 

But during this time, because of the dominance of American movies, television and radio, we became more American. I remember when U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 being glued to the television for days.

 

Canadians did not take part in the Vietnam War. I remember visiting Jill’s sister and her husband near Windsor and them taking us to a U.S. night club during the Vietnam war. At one point the Americans in the audience began singing patriotic songs and our relatives were disgusted - Jill and I realized we were in the U.S. and weren’t bothered.

 

The increasingly right-wing patriotism of a large portion of the U.S. population has driven more Americans to seek to immigrate. I remember when opposition to the war in Vietnam brought conscientious objectors to Canada, many of whom became model citizens.

 

Meanwhile, Canadians have become more supportive of our own government and Prime Minister Mark Carney. While it may be short-term, support for the Prime Minister has gone up and up. We no longer feel we’re “second best” to Americans.

 

Therefore Lawrence Martin’s information that we live nearly four years longer than our American neighbours is enlightening. Our way of life is giving us something that allows us to enjoy life five per cent longer than Americans. (Martin, through his work for the Globe and Mail, has been living in the U.S. for seven years now.) 

 

There is nothing that makes me think life would be better if I had been born south of the Great Lakes. We live in a peaceful country where people of all colours live together with little tension. We have no one suggesting that the vote should be taken away from women, as some U.S. religious leaders suggest.

 

It’s always dangerous to get too satisfied with our lifestyle, but, in my old age, I have never lived in a more varied, prosperous time. Meanwhile, in its 250th year, the U.S. has never been so divided.

 

I can’t think of anything that makes life in Canada better - even living to be 82.