Regardless of how rich our nations have become, we can't have everything—either as individuals or as societies—but we still do not know what we cannot have. Is it impossible, for example, to have the best, most technologically advanced health care rapidly available to all citizens without bankrupting the average taxpayer? Is it possible to have both a premier national defense and a world-class health system for the entire population? Will a multicultural society become something more than the sum of its parts—or nothing more than a cacophonous jumble: a 21st-century tower of Babel? Through topics such as optics on health care, crime and justice, and substance abuse, Uneasy Neighbo(u)rs hopes to prompt thought and roil some intellectual waters in order to move beyond the hothouse of "Canada studies," with the intent that some light might also result.