I was wandering (as I do) and found this link to be quite interesting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/12/40-maps-that-explain-the-world/

I want to point out the obvious, just in case it gets missed, that this is from the WASHINGTON POST

Oh Canadian how come your so nice?

If those maps are any indication...that is hehe. 

It is NOT easy to be happy most days, my income level if dreadful, and ODSP (my disability pension) is such that I am likely the only one that actually likes them (if you go online and discuss them, odds are everyone hates them for multiple reasons).

But my country is ok with homosexuals, and Canadian society is ok with just about anything to a point, and Canadians well we invented peacekeeping and the whole UN peacekeeping idea, as we prefer to stop fights not start them.

My standard of living is very hard to improve on if it can be done at all.

I have no neighbours other than the USA, so it is hard to complain about the region.

I don't know how hard it is going to be to go from my current situation to one where I wake up and the mirror doesn't offend me. But I think I'd rather be doing it in Canada than anywhere else.

It always seems difficult to make more out of my problems as it seems so easy to find comments illustrating how incredibly hard it is in so many other places around the world where just being alive the next day is not assured.

I'm with Leslie on this one.  Much prefer living in Canada over the states, even though things might not be perfect here.  I do feel much more safer in Canada than I ever did while I was living in the US.  I've never had any issues with intolerance in Canada.