[north]

Well in this God-forsaken part of Canada plates are almost $400 a year (plus luxury and displacement surcharges for late model cars that can top $1,000) and our drivers license is almost $100 per year. Regular gas is currently about $4.50 a gallon. and I pay 51% income tax on everything over about $50k (40% before that)

And don't let any Bernie types BS you about Canadian government healthcare! I pay about $17k a year for healthcare tax (the healthcare tax doesn't even come close to paying the true cost, most comes from general tax fund and debt of course), on top of that I spend thousands more for prescription insurance and private supplemental insurance (dental etc is not covered in gov't insurance).

The Majority of people can't get a family doctor, I spend another $5k a year for technically illegal but tolerated private clinic access (it is illegal to offer private medical services in Canada but the government lets it happen because it saves them $$). Typical wait times at emergency in our rundown third world hospitals is 8 to 24 hours to see a doctor and non emergency procedures (joint replacement, MRI scans, transplants etc run 6 months to 2 plus years). Anyone who thinks that the government could run something better than the free market is insane.

And you thought California was big government land!!! Quebec has 7M people and has far more government employees than California at 38 or so Million!

sorry for the rant, just back from vacation and the real world was waiting for me!