weston: I was thinking the way it worked was that private or regional clinics bought the machines, and billed the payer for each patient who received service, recovering costs on these fees.

Yep, that's right. Health care in Canada is operated on a fee for service basis. Fees are set by provincial medical associations and health care professionals bill on their scales.

To expand out a bit on funding: the federal government transfers money to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 3:52 PM on June 14, 2007

New Zealand just got rid of its 5 cent coins (after abolishing the penny years ago) and it just isn't a big deal. Prices are still displayed as $X.98 (or whatever) and rounding occurs at the end. As in Australia, rounding is not used for electonic transactions. If your total is $15.64 and you're paying with a credit card, you'll pay exactly $15.64. For cash transactioins, most retailers use a rounding system that's in the consumer's favour, rounding down to the nearest ten for totals ending in 0,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 10:58 PM on November 19, 2006

brilliant link and brilliant photos! thanks for this!
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 4:20 PM on August 24, 2005

[ajr and others: Blair Hornstine is at St Andrew's in Scotland]
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 6:06 PM on May 17, 2005

Beautiful beautiful post. Thank you for this.
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 4:23 PM on May 9, 2005

jb - if i recall correctly, saq outlets (société des alcools du québec or special government alcohol shops) are the only places one can purchase spirits. wine and beer, though, can be bought at both local shops and at saq outlets. saq outlets are really top notch - you can get (or order) almost anything you'd like.
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 2:30 PM on November 7, 2004

amazing link! thankyouthankyouthankyou!
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 12:01 PM on July 26, 2004

this is fantastic! (even though it made me slightly queasy.) it's my experience that kids sites/books are often the best way to learn the basics of any given topic quickly (and it's also a lot of fun to spend some time in the children's section of your local library)..
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 2:04 AM on February 5, 2004

way back to donating blood: in canada, people who may have been exposed to CJD or vCJD are permanently deferred from donating blood.

according to the canadian blood services guidelines, anyone who has spent three or more months in england or france, or five or more years in western europe since 1980 is not eligible to donate blood in canada.
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 12:11 AM on December 24, 2003

Blue Stone: [w]hy was the perpetrator convicted of sexual assault and not rape? Nowhere in the article does it state that she was raped.

Just a quick FYI. In Canada, the term 'rape' is no longer in legal use. Instead (and more inclusively), any unwanted contact of a sexual nature is refered to as sexual assault (see here and here); however, as the first link illustrates, there are different 'levels' of sexual... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 2:39 PM on September 12, 2003

Just a quick aside (that, incidentally, has nothing to do with eating babies or meat or Ann Coulter or liberals): Michael Moore's Stupid White Men (which is, well, the opposite of Slander) has been on the NYT best seller list for 25 weeks.
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 2:07 PM on August 22, 2002

auzten: the way I see, it joeclark was pointing out that if Bingham was a straight man with a girlfriend, McCain probably would have asked the public to support her in this time of grief (or something like that). However, since he was a gay man, his partner (and his partner's grief) is staying invisible....

However, I completely agree that, in such situations, one's sexuality doesn't make one more/less of a hero...
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 10:32 AM on September 27, 2001

Mr. Dressup (along with the Friendly Giant) was such an integral part of my childhood. I vividly remember the couch I'd sit on when I watched the show...

I missed him on his campus tours, too...
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 10:27 AM on September 18, 2001

Strathcona County, downwind of refinery row in Edmonton, enjoys (if you will) some of the highest cancer rates in the nation as well as one of the highest respiratory illness rates in Canada (sorry no source - the archive of the Sherwood Park News is nonexistent).

I don't really care about the 'disastrous competitive and economic disadvantage' - oil refineries (and companies) make people very sick.
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 6:50 PM on July 24, 2001

re: Dubya accepting the endorsement of Jean 'Poutine'

I believe (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) it is a major foreign policy gaffe for the leader of another country to formally endorse (indirect endorsements seem to happen all the time, but that's another issue) a political candidate preceeding an election...

so...had the Canadian Prime Minister endorsed Dubya, it would have been rather diplomatically incorrect. However, Dubya, in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 11:48 AM on May 29, 2001

lizardboy: Good news for "female homosexuals," though... they can still donate.

not if they have tattoos!!!!
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 10:33 AM on May 21, 2001

I attended a solidarity demonstration in my city and a fair number of children were in attendance. Granted, we weren't being tear gassed, and the police presence was minimal, but these kids are going to grow up knowing that there is an alternative. Point being - taking kids to a demonstration should be more for their education and upbringing than to make a political statement (I agree wholeheartedly with CRS - children shouldn't be used for political gain).
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 9:33 PM on April 23, 2001

raysmj: "The author notes that the Mormon religion attracted plenty because its so very American."

an almost completely unrelated aside: I grew up in the south of the Canadian province of Alberta - with a rather high per capita percentage of LDS people - and instead of commenting on women marrying at a young age, I'd rather note many mormons (especially those in rural areas) speak with a distinctly American accent.

the american... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 11:23 PM on April 17, 2001

In 1992, Nike paid Michael Jordan more money ($20 000 000) for endorsing their athletic shoes and apparel than it's entire 30 000-strong Indonesian workforce for making them.

Tiger Woods just signed a $100 000 000 endorsement deal.

Mia Hamm makes $2842/day; Indonesian factory workers make $1.25/day.

I think this disparity is especially upsetting.

(source - the olympic wage project)
posted to MetaFilter by lumiere at 1:15 PM on February 5, 2001