CLASSIC VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks
he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come
winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no
food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
THE END
THE CANADIAN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks
he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come
winter, the ant is warm and well fed. So far, so good, eh?
The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know
why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less
fortunate, like him, are cold and starving.
The CBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper,
with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a
table laden with food. Canadians are stunned that in a country of such
wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have
plenty. The NDP, the CAW and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate
in front of the ant's house. The CBC, interrupting an Inuit cultural
festival special from Nunavut with breaking news, broadcasts them
singing "We Shall Overcome." Sven Robinson rants in an interview with
Pamela Wallin that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of
grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him
pay his "fair share".
In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic Equity
and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of
the summer. The ant's taxes are reassessed, and he is also fined for
failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay
both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is
confiscated by the government.
The ant moves to the US, and starts a successful agribiz company.
The CBC later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the
ant's food, though Spring is still months away, while the government
house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles
around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain it.
Inadequate government funding is blamed, Roy Romanow is appointed to
head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000.
The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Toronto Star blames
it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of
despair arising from social inequity.
The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders,
praised by the government for enriching Canada's multicultural
diversity, who promptly set up a marijuana grow op and terrorize the
community.
THE END
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks
he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come
winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no
food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
THE END
THE CANADIAN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks
he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come
winter, the ant is warm and well fed. So far, so good, eh?
The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know
why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less
fortunate, like him, are cold and starving.
The CBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper,
with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a
table laden with food. Canadians are stunned that in a country of such
wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have
plenty. The NDP, the CAW and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate
in front of the ant's house. The CBC, interrupting an Inuit cultural
festival special from Nunavut with breaking news, broadcasts them
singing "We Shall Overcome." Sven Robinson rants in an interview with
Pamela Wallin that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of
grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him
pay his "fair share".
In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic Equity
and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of
the summer. The ant's taxes are reassessed, and he is also fined for
failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay
both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is
confiscated by the government.
The ant moves to the US, and starts a successful agribiz company.
The CBC later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the
ant's food, though Spring is still months away, while the government
house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles
around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain it.
Inadequate government funding is blamed, Roy Romanow is appointed to
head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000.
The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Toronto Star blames
it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of
despair arising from social inequity.
The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders,
praised by the government for enriching Canada's multicultural
diversity, who promptly set up a marijuana grow op and terrorize the
community.
THE END
I can still remember my Canadian friends telling me that due to the high income and sales taxes, "Regardless of what you do, you actually work for the Government from January until August, and for yourself the rest of the year".. :laughing: 
