Crumbling loathsome (and Maclean's magazine unrated) University of Manitoba salutes Peoples Republic of Canada socialist reality. Free Canukistani healthcare duns students $240/term, plus charges if used. Foreign students suffer a hefty surcharge, not, because locals involuntary disgorge money to pay their piper. That's compassion! Everything free would cost less if you paid full price. The one disparity impacts those unwilling to pay anything at all. Pure joy is abundantly shoved down slacker's throats gratis. "Take more, some fool bought it for you." If you lived in a U/Crapitoba dorm you paid for two months of Uncle Al's food.
Students must purchase a "discount meal package" to live in a dorm. The smallest 2004 mandatory plan contained 12 meals/week for 39 weeks, $(Cdn)2889 + 14% sales tax, or $3293. That is $7.04/meal prepaid, with no refunds for unused meals. We're talking 2000 Calorie/meal belly busters - obscenely whopping breakfasts and lunches that would gag a moose. Dinner is bigger! Salad bar, garnish bar, plate-filling entree, two big sides, bread, soft drinks, juices, pastries, and a huge dessert portion so dripping with lard and sugar that if were burned it could heat a dorm room overnight while horrible Winnipeg howled -30 degrees outside. Nobody could eat it all. Dieting girls glumly chewing cuds of lettuce further fatten a whopping operating profit.
Outside students can buy a meal card with surcharge in excess of Official meal cost. You could not eat it all and cannot get a refund. Your wallet would be sucked flat if you walked in off the street and purchased a la carte. Who wants a 2500+ Calorie dinner? Salad bar, entree, and one side plus 14% sales tax is $(Cdn)4.50-$5.00 to top off your tummy. Water is free. That was a maximum of $(US)3.80, plus a handful of free pretzels from the dining room salad topping cart (other side of the cash register) and further free grazing on trays of leftovers from campus catering. It costs less to have it eaten than tossed in the dumpster and hauled.
The "discount meal package" dinner price was 141% of the civilian full price, all in Canukistani funny money. Ha ha ha. It was really 169% because...
Walk-ins are encouraged to walk in some more. Buy five dinners and get the sixth one free! A bulging belly now averages $(US)3.18 including tax. That does not obtain when the food lockers nuzzle expiration dates. That is an all you can eat night. Pay your way in and start cramming it down. If you can keep it under your belt without pausing to leave the dining area it is all yours to keep no questions asked.
The potato salad is to die for. Add refried beans to form an obdurate barrier wall around the salad plate allowing mechanically sound central heapings of Greek salad, coleslaw, seasoned corn nibblets, green peas in sauce, pasta salad... followed by the garnish table with tubs of shredded cheeses, sliced peppers, carrots, and all sorts of goodies including sour cream and chili.
Next comes the entree with the inevitable harangue from the server, "would you like more?" If you can lift that plate you add the side yourself. It could be something mundane like a pound of pomme frites (freedom fries, unless a Quebecker fell into the deep fat fryer). If it stays heaped on the entree plate, it's legal. More likely you will choose leftovers from lunch like a half loaf of garlic bread, a pile of pirogi, or frisbees of pizza. The amortized cost is $(US)3.18 including tax. Thank you Canukistanis for colossally subsidizing 63 dinners for Uncle Al. You gave Uncle Al $(Cdn)180.79 or 43 free dinners for his price compared to your costs.
A 4 oz glass of OJ and two 4 oz glasses of crappy 2% milk at breakfast sum to $(Cdn)2.45 (white milk is not 14% taxed). Those kids are getting reamed, steamed, and dry cleaned (including pre-paid 14% sales tax for untaxed items). It is part of their education. It is a part of their education at which they will do no better than at any of the other parts. C students.
Canada is a great place to retire. A small percentage of the population breaks its backs in anticipation of one day securing a better life. Anybody with an IQ larger than his hat size joins astutely guileful and flat out unproductively torpid locals who enjoy that better life in real time execution for doing nothing more than demanding their rights. "Take more, some fool bought it for you."
(Canadian slackers do not demand their rights as such. They have degreed social advocates doing it for them. Badly. "Take more, some fool bought it for you.")