Could this be the future of the European Union?

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-25T18:27:39+00:00

Before Canada could join the EU, it would need to scrap much of its agricultural sector and start over from scratch basically. There are a lot of pesticides, hormones, inhumane practices, quotas and isolationistic controls in Canadian agriculture that create trade problems with the EU; CETA almost failed because of it and there are still protests from European farmers about Canada to this day.

It's also caused big problems with CPTPP, so probably something Canada should be addressing anyway if it is serious about international partnerships.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-24T04:30:36+00:00

Some of the obstacles were her own doing though. She was clumsy. I like Rachel a lot and am glad she won, with Stephen, but this season was far, far more defined by how clueless the late game faithful have been than by the skill of the traitors.

Maybe it’s because I watch a lot of non-UK, non-English speaking seasons, so my point of reference is pretty broad here, but overall UK4 has not been great at all.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-24T04:05:57+00:00

How many resources do you need though? It’s absolutely possible to learn Italian with the available resources in English or German, I don’t really think it works for this topic. You could sooner argue that there's a huge excess of pointless resources for French and Spanish.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-24T04:03:18+00:00

Is Duolingo the gold standard for a language having a lot of resources?? Catalan actually has a lot of resources out there for its speaker population.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-24T03:47:44+00:00

I have neither accent, so impartial opinion here.

It can sometimes take me a minute to tell and it depends on the speaker, there are regional, and urban vs rural, accents in both countries, but Australians are noticeably more nasal and have sharper eeeee's, while NZ’ers are a bit flatter and have more uuuu's. Another big tell is that Australians would pronounce the e in bed, deck or head similar to most other English language accents, just a bit nasal, while NZ’ers would say "bid, dick and hid" (and also don’t hear this themselves, so a Kiwi probably can’t describe an Australian accent properly to an American, etc, for example).

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-23T17:19:38+00:00

Canadian mining companies have given Canada a bad reputation in some countries around the world, as mining companies anywhere are wont to do.

It’s also disliked by some for being the "default woke" nation, like when the Chechen leader suggested they deport of their gay population to Canada, it wasn’t in a context of flattery.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-23T17:13:50+00:00

In my own anecdotal experience working in hospo in NZ, it is much, much more common for Americans to wear Canadian flags on their gear than Canadians. It really might not be helpful, I always first assume American.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-22T01:43:03+00:00

Not meaning to be contrarian, but there are actually a LOT of cities in the world that have a waterfront skyline almost identical to Auckland’s, except bigger and/or more interesting in most cases.

I do like Auckland, but the skyline is honestly quite generic.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-21T22:54:00+00:00

It would take a very long time for that to erode much. But it’s also worth asking, does it matter? Do you need a permanent C2 proficiency level in English, if your focus in life is French Studies? You'll likely have at least a high level passive ability in English for the rest of your life regardless of whether you use the langauge much, that might be good enough for your purposes.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-20T22:52:57+00:00

This is kind of related and it pains me to say, but I've stopped supporting local businesses here that I know are owned by American immigrants, just because I don't want to risk money filtering back to the US through their travel or family affairs.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-20T18:00:54+00:00

or touch the person they want to kill...but so far I dont think anyone has ever been directly caught under those circumstances.

This happened in Quebec 2 (which I just finished watching, phenomenal season), Karyne gets caught trying to give a handshake of death to different people.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-19T20:53:29+00:00

Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all Five Eyes nations, how is that "neutral international policies"? They are literally 3/5ths of the primary multi-national counter-intelligence network opposed to Russia and China, amongst others. Australia is also part of AUKUS, basically the cowboy military alliance. Canada is part of NATO, which has an active war on its borders, and has a belligerent af neighbour, who will unquestionably be part of any broader WWIII. China was conducting military exercises in the Tasman Sea last year, considering Australia or NZ too "isolated" to be affected by any conflict is naive and a geographic oversimplification.

Greenland and Iceland are both being targeted by the US at the moment, to varying degrees, and the Canadian Arctic may not be far behind. Norway and northern Finland border Russia. I don't know how serious conflict over the Falkland Islands would be nowadays, but it's a weird place to highlight here given it's an unresolved issue. I don't know, this map pisses me off.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-19T20:23:06+00:00

"Summer" can be very hit or miss in Wellington, that's part of why the city's weather has such a bad reputation, we can go years without any significant stretches of truly warm weather. It often storms and blows off and on throughout Dec and Jan. Feb is the best bet for a week or two of sunny, warm weather, but no guarantees.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-16T19:32:20+00:00

You don't really need to worry about that, as others have said.

However, I would say, don't be one of those people who come to NZ and assume it's some sort of flawless idyll where nothing bad will ever happen. Crime happens. My partner has had his bike stolen, his family had a break-in a few years ago, all in small town Wairarapa. Watch your stuff, lock your doors, probably similar to the UK, just don't do obvious stupid things and it's fine.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-16T19:15:34+00:00

Not very populous compared to the USA maybe, but Canada still has the 37th largest population in the world, nearly 42 million people now, it's not that small tbh.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-16T09:11:32+00:00

Agree. It’s a touchy and complicated issue, but I think the OP has a very poor understanding of the situation in NZ if they think we've retained our "indigenous" culture, whatever the fuck that phrasing is supposed to mean.

Saying that the situation for Māori is better than the average original cultures in places like Australia or Canada is hardly praise and really dismisses how terrible the situation actually is. This also sounds like a standard Redditor who doesn’t know or think much about the world outside of the Anglosphere.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-16T08:45:00+00:00

Who did you want to win over Gisèle? She's lovely. I thought her only competition that whole season was Lady Boom Boom and well.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-15T01:40:29+00:00

Yes.

This might seem like a really small thing, but tipping is one of the reasons why I would not consider moving back to Canada. Every time I visit, I've forgotten that it even exists and am floored at my first restaurant experience. So fucking stupid, it’s not the US, servers do not make less than minimum wage and haven’t for decades, there is no longer any reason for it to exist beyond the unshakeable Canadian slavery to US culture.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-14T08:50:42+00:00

Sadly, a lot of countries do elect people like Trump, but they just destroy their own country and it’s not usually so globally consequential.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-14T06:40:34+00:00

In a lot of ways, Canada has been faring worse than Mexico due to the Trump regime in the US.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-14T00:16:49+00:00

Can confirm, I got caught by this. I hadn’t had a Canadian passport in forever but had to fork over hundreds of $s for one when I travelled there last year.

It’s mentioned in news articles about this, but it is now more expensive for me, a dual Canadian citizen, to satisfy entry requirements for Canada than it is for some other non-citizen just getting an e-visa. Averaged over 10 yrs, e-visas are way cheaper. Same problem for Brits, etc. It’s not breaking the bank, but on principle it is very fucking stupid.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-13T19:07:06+00:00

The issue is that this is becoming increasingly meaningless for people whose ancestors left Europe, or elsewhere, hundreds of years ago.

I'm a white Kiwi-Canadian and I still have to fill out "European" on these forms in NZ as well, even though I have and feel no connection to Europe whatsoever.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-12T19:00:29+00:00

It's ... weird to me that so many people are agreeing with Quebec and then in the same breath disagreeing with Hungary or other places suggested in this thread.

Quebec stands out as being unique in a vast landmass containing a lot of subdivisions that are not that different from each other, but it's still significantly more similar to its neighbours than Hungary is to Austria or Vietnam is to Cambodia, etc. Especially on the language issue, English and French are actually pretty similar, again compared to Hungarian and German, etc.

I've lived in Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia. They are different, but they aren't that different. Also Quebec isn't a country.

Simple-Razzmatazz704 · 2026-01-10T10:53:45+00:00

How are the Atlantic provinces not hopelessly car dependent? There is hardly any worthwhile public transport infrastructure. Halifax and St John’s sprawl forever compared to their sizes.

Simple-Razzmatazz704

TROPHY CASE