Our webmeister Colin, a native of splendid Victoria, BC, alerts us to the latest fashionable travel craze sweeping the lower 48: "flu cruises" in which Americans take advantage of not only scenery, but an actual functioning health care system.

VICTORIA – The shortage of flu vaccinations in the United States is creating a mini-travel boom for Victoria as an American ferry company is now booking flu cruises.

Clipper Navigation of Seattle is offering return fares from Seattle for $105 US, which includes a flu shot at the Clipper terminal in Victoria.

General manager Darrell Bryan says business has tripled since it started running its flu cruises last weekend.

"This has astounded us. We’ve got people coming in from as far away as Iowa [and] Arizona, and we’re of course getting most of western Washington, northern Oregon."

If you’re keeping score, over 1,000 American booked to the Seattle-to-Vancouver flu cruise in its first week of service.

Of course, we all know that the Canadian health care system is vastly inferior to our own, and anyone who would suggest adopting something similar here is anti-American…