Canada, a free country. Freedom from what?

While driving home from work the other day a comment on the radio started me thinking about the level of personal freedom we as Canadians feel we enjoy.
As my mind pondered the subject I very soon realized something that I like many others have overlooked. All too often we hear about how much freedom we are "privileged" to have yet for some reason seem oblivious to how much of it we lose each day, every year, and with each passing decade.

Think about it, there are very few if any aspects of an individuals life that to some degree are not dictated by one level of government or another. Municipal, Provincial, and Federal governments all have departments and branches that cover virtually every action that an individual makes during his waking moments. There are thousands, no I should say tens of thousands of rules, regulations, and laws that different levels of government have in place to ensure that you follow a predetermined path.

Let's start with the most obvious...........

- The government through taxes determines how much of the money you earn that you are actually entitled to keep.
- Health care is determined for you by both Federal and Provincial branches.
- Your education, what you learn and how is determined to a very large degree by Provincial Departments of Education.
- As a parent there are departments at every level of government to ensure you raise your children in the prescribed manner.
- When, who, and how an individual may purchase tobacco or alcohol is regulated.
- The food we ingest is heavily regulated, whether though marketing boards to control supply and demand, or often to the point of what we are actually allowed to eat.
- Your ability to operate a motor vehicle is determined and tightly controlled by government.
- The government dictates if you are allowed to own a firearm, what type, and when you may use it. In the case of a hunter the government even dictates the species, gender, and weight of the animal you may shoot along with when and where. Even catching the ocassional fish is under the watchful eye of government.
- What you are allowed to watch and listen to on television and radio is determined for you by the government through CRTC Licensing.
- To an extent even your right to die is determined by legislation, just try attempting an assisted suicide.

I could go on for days, possibly weeks (literally). The above examples are some of the most "in your face", but it doesn't take much effort or thought to pinpoints hundreds more in a short time.

Yes, I fully understand that in many of the above examples that regulations and legislation are in place for the actual or perceived benefit of society as a whole. However the slow creep of government intervention in our lives continues to grow with each passing day. Each generation starts out under more rules and regulations than their parents and will experience even more created throughout their own lifetime. The worse part is that each generation views the massive bureaucracy they live under as the norm for the simple reason it is all they know.

It really makes me ask the question at what point in time our government went from "serving the people" to "supervising the people"