The Distance Tax
Canada’s oldest policy is geography, and almost nobody votes on it.
Every hospital, grocery truck and broadband cable must cross a distance most countries never have to imagine.
The miles add up quietly, folded into:
- rent
- freight
- flights
- the price of bread
We call it the cost of living. Perhaps it is really the cost of place: a tax paid for choosing to live where the map runs out.
This is not an argument for despair or retreat. People have always paid it, and kept the porch light on anyway.
The only real question is whether we pay it together.
(100 words)
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