While travelling through Taipei on my New Years trip, I had a couple of really enlightening experiences that made me further realize and appreciate how truly lucky I am to be Canadian.
I was with a friend from my hostel, and we had just finished visiting Taipei's National Palace Museum. As we were walking out, we got intercepted by a group of four Indonesian students who wanted to interview us about our experience in the museum for a school project. After the interview, we got talking with them, and they told us all about themselves. They were all studying in Taipei in order to learn Mandarin and increase their job prospects. They all loved travel, but they cited several reasons as to why they couldn't, reasons ranging from holding a weak passport, having strict "Asian" parents and a lack of sufficient funding/income.
All of this really got me thinking, as Canadians, we really have it easy as Canadians, and so I decided to make a list of things we Canadians take for granted, and probably shouldn't.
#1: A Strong Passport
The Canadian passport is strong. In fact, the Canadian passport is among the strongest in the world. According to the Global Passport Index, the Canadian passport ranks among the strongest in the world, granting its citizens access to 158 countries visa-free, which means that Canadians can enter these countries without needing a visa to enter, or by obtaining a visa on arrival, as you can see on this map.
For comparison, Germans hold the strongest passport in the world, with access to 161 countries. Other countries with strong passports include The United States, many countries in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. On the flip side, Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani passport holders can't even enter 30 countries without needing a visa. My new Indonesian friends don't have it so easy either, as their passport only grants them access to 68 countries, and that list does not include Canada.
#2: Dual-Citizenship
Seeing as over 20% of Canada's population was foreign born in 2017, and many many more Canadians are second and third generation, holding close ties to their countries of origin, it's no doubt that many Canadians hold dual citizenship. Having dual citizenship grants the holder the right to live in the other country, and, depending on the country, some potential travel advantages as well.
I myself am actually a dual Canada/UK citizen (even though my family is Italian, long story...), and as such, I can reap the benefits of holding a UK passport, which affords me some advantages that my Canadian passport does not offer. Some of these advantages include: freedom to live and work anywhere within the European Union (for now...), and entry into some countries for which Canadians need a visa, such as, Vietnam, Australia, Argentina and Brazil, among others.
#3: Strong Finances
Though Americans LOVE to laugh about how funny our colourful money is, and even though Canadians LOVE to complain about how weak our dollar is compared to several other major currencies (like the USD, the Euro and the British Pound), we have to admit that we really aren't in that bad of a situation.
According to Numbeo, in terms of overall purchasing power, Canada ranked 9th in the world in 2017, and when you actually think about, compared to the world average, we are well above the poverty line. I experienced this firsthand when I visited Vietnam back in October of 2017 and managed to live for six days with nothing more than $100 CAD. This was worth approximately 1.8 million Vietnamese Dong, and with this money I was able to eat and drink quite comfortably, pay the entrance fees to museums and other attractions, and even pay my transport to and from the airports in Hanoi and Hoi An. When considering that many Vietnamese people have trouble paying for their own food, we Canadians really can't complain about our "weak dollar."
To add to all of this, Canadians benefit in one aspect over our American neighbours: cheap university tuition. Granted, Canadian tuition prices vary across the country, and Canadians opting to study in a province other than their home province do have to pay a little more, yet we Canadians pay tens of thousands of dollars less than our neighbours to the south. Young Canadians like myself, therefore, can worry a little less about having to pay off student loans after graduating university, and are a little more at liberty to invest their money on things such as travel, if they so desire. Of course, compared to free tuition in many European countries, we still don't have it all that easy, but all things considered, tuition fees in Canada, and especially in Quebec, aren't that bad.
#4: English
Whether you like it or not, the knowledge of English is the only real gateway to the world. For travel, English isn't only recommended, it is essential. English will be the lingua franca in nearly every single social encounter among travellers in foreign countries and is the common language spoken between travellers and locals. English is the language of hotels/hostels, tourism offices, metros (other than the Montreal Metro, of course...), airplanes, buses, etc... Not to mention English is the language of business and international trade. Travelling with little to no knowledge of English is practically travel suicide.
Countries across the globe are nearly begging to learn English, and some richer countries, like Korea, Japan and Spain, to name a few, are able to invest lots of money to bring in native teachers to teach English. The majority of Canadians speak English as a native language, and therefore do not need to worry about learning a English later on in their lives. I do believe that native English speakers across the globe should try and learn a new language in their lifetime in order to extend the courtesy to the billions of people learning our language, but in reality, it's not a necessity.
#5: A Positive Reputation
If I had a loonie for every time I've heard other travellers or even locals complain about how much they hate French or Americanspeople, well, I'd be quite wealthy right now.
I am obviously quite against prejudices, stereotypes and generalizations. Judging a person based on their nationality is the height of ignorance, and hearing people talk about those "stuck-up French people" or the "arrogant Americans" really does not do anybody any good. People tend to have a not-so-good reason to hate on many different cultures, from "smelly Indians," to "annoying Asians" to even "dishonest Italians," I've heard it all, and it's quite racist and extremely inappropriate. I have met some amazing people from all of the aforementioned countries, and can personally confirm that all of these prejudices are false.
Additionally, some countries are so unknown that many people don't really know much about them. While in Taiwan, I befriended a girl from Romania, and when she would tell some locals where she was from, she was often met with a blank stare. One of my best friends is from Slovenia and he sometimes had trouble, even in Europe, to find people who knew about his country.
This said, I don't think I've ever heard anyone criticize or hold any negative prejudices about Canada, and everyone knows who we are. Canadians thus benefit from a positive reputation abroad (thanks, Justin Trudeau) and sometimes better treatment because of our nationality.
#6: Liberal Views
The last thing I want to do is start a political debate, but I do want to state that I believe Canadians benefit from the ability to express themselves and be their own person more than people from some countries.
As I was talking with my new Indonesian friends in Taipei, I was inviting them to come and potentially visit me in Korea and/or Canada one day. They all said they would love to, but... "Asian families." They were telling me that they had a duty to their families back in Indonesia and wouldn't really be able to commit to spending an extended period of time travelling due to family reasons.
While I believe Canadian and Western cultures promote self-development, building your own life and discovering your own happiness, in many cultures, the norm is to conform and to go along with the norm, which means settling down close to home and and not really straying too far away. I don't inherently understand why my Indonesian friends felt this duty to their families, but they said it was something that couldn't be explained, but something they just had to do.
We're quite lucky, in the West, to feel supported by the people around us to do what we want to do, even if that does include extended travel.
To Conclude...
On the world stage, Canada is a very important country. We've played the role of peacekeeper on many occasions in the past, and still today we are seen as kind of maintaining the balance and keeping a steady head, especially amid the political turmoil down south.
This said, I don't look at Canada, or any country for that matter, as superior or inferior to any other country. I am quite proud to be Canadian, but more proud to have been granted the opportunity to be raised with good values and with a strong support system. We are all human beings, and should all have equal rights in this world. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and it's important for us Canadians, and Westerners in general, to recognize, acknowledge and appreciate that we've been dealt a good hand simply due to where we're from. Let's not take this for granted. This is the least we can do in order to further promote peace and unity in the world.
-Daniele
