View From North of the Border

Murray Dobbin has an interesting perspective on the "harmonization" and "integration" of Canada with the US, Americanize Me? No Thanks. He thinks that it's ill advised, and his first example is quite illustrative:

Now we find out that despite recommendations from the Canadian Pediatric Society and the Canadian Cancer Society that Health Canada dramatically increase the recommended daily does of Vitamin D, the federal agency refuses to do so. Why? Because it is committed to "harmonizing" Canadian nutrition standards with those in the United States.

The interesting thing about Vitamin D is that there are two sources for this, diet, and sunlight, as the human body manufactures it when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet.^*

Given the specifics of Canada, further north, less sunlight, the idea that they would need more dietary D is abundantly clear.

More generally, he finds America as a government completely dysfunctional^†, America as a society paranoid morass generally bereft of morality^†, and America as an economy as an "emerging economic basket case on pace to self destruct."^†

It's a good read, particularly for Canadians who need to deal with Stephen Harper style boneheads.

^*It's why we have white people in the world. The layer in the skin that manufactures vitamin is beneath the pigment layer, so paler people make more Vitamin D for a given amount of sunlight, so in light starved regions, it favors the pale.
^†I Agree