Similarities & Differences between Canada & United States

Crossed Flag Pins USA-Canada

It has been a while that I want to write a post about the similarities and differences between Canada and the United States. Before arriving here, I used to think that Canada and USA were pretty similar, mainly because of the British heritage and the proximity between the two countries. 

At least for me, when I figured out that celebrities like James Cameron, Bryan Adams, Avril Lavigne, Ryan Reynolds, Jim Carrey are Canadians, I always thought: Oh my God! Really? I thought s/he was American.

I listed some differences that I noticed since I am here. One: the government policy for immigration is considerable different. It is much easier to immigrate to Canada than to the US. It is possible to see, even in a small city like Nanaimo, an expressive number of immigrants who live here legally, paying their taxes and working hard to boost the economy of the country.

Another big difference is Canada´s connection to the British monarchy. USA did not keep the Queen and the connection to the monarchy and Commonwealth.

Besides, it is impossible to write about Canada and USA and do not mention the health care. The majority of the Canadians are proud of their health care system. Even Justin Bieber (yes... Justin Bieber, I cannot believe that I am quoting him) already expressed his thought about it. In an interview to Rolling Stone magazine, Bieber weighed in on the US health care system. He mentioned: “You guys are evil. Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills.”

Everybody knows that both nations predominantly speak English, but if you ask a Canadian to say words like ABOUT or HOUSE , it is easy to notice a different accent. It is funny for us... We have some professors that are sooooooooo Canadians when they say those words. And: pay attention! Here, we do not write harbor, Nanaimo is the harbour city! There is not bad behavior... The right way is bad behaviuor...

One difference more: if you are speaking with someone that you do not know if it is a American or a Canadian, just start to count how many times this person says the words: sorry and thanks! If he or she says those words too much, certainly, they are legitimate Canadians.

To finish this post, of course I need to mention that Canadians play hockey better than Americans do. I am so sorry for my American friends, but since Canada beat United States to seal ice hockey gold in Vancouver Winter Games, I can write that! I have a Canadian friend that told me once: “there are two things that Canadians do better than the rest of the world: play hockey and complain about the weather”.

I am sure that Americans (even the US population who lives along the border) do not complain about the weather like Canadians. Oh my God! They talk about the weather during all seasons! Now it is summer time, so they are happy! In the summer, every time you are in the elevator, your neighbour will look at you and say: “Nice day, eh?” By the way, this "eh" is really Canadian. In USA, probably you are going to hear: “Nice day, huh?!” Anyway, if the day is nice they are happy and do not complain!

Hope you have enjoyed the reading! See you!

Some (Weird) Thoughts

"I'm with the skater boy...I said see you later boy...I'll be backstage after the show"

Hey everybody, first of all, we would like to say sorry for last week, when we did not post anything… One assignment due last week made us use more time than we were predicting!

But let’s come back to the topic of the week: I am more than sure than an MBA program makes us smarter. Actually, veeeeery smarter. Seriously, this is an unbelievable program. Hard workload, but it is definitely worthwhile. However, the MBAs eventually drive their students crazy. I have been going through some weird thoughts since the beginning of the program. 

For example, today, while I was commuting to my job I was thinking about what I could do during my break. However, my thoughts suddenly went to soccer. After some minutes, my thought went away from soccer to another thing that I love: music. Upon those two moments, some thoughts about the Canadian workplace came along and joined the other previous thoughts. Weird, eh… And then I started thinking that those sudden changes in my mind were not accidental. I mean, they could have happened because my mind was trying to tell me that I can join soccer, music, and job somehow. Yes!! This is the moment to be innovative and have some innovative ideas and stand out in the workplace in the near future! 

Upon that, first thing that my came up to my head: wow, I can be innovative when presenting the results of a project. Instead of boring PPT presentations, why not taking the computer with the presentation and hit it down to the ground and break it completely and yell "woohoo"! Well, that is what some rock stars do after performing a good song. And that works for them: the public in general yells together with the rockstars and when the concert is over, everybody says that that was a success! So, why not to smash the computer?

Hmmm, OK, OK, I have to acknowledge that maybe that would not be suitable in a meeting room. However, my thoughts did not give up and keep moving on. And that is why I have another insight: well, maybe music and workplace does not match well, but soccer does! So, I thought about a way to deliver an animated presentation and my crazy mind brought up another idea: in Brazil, soccer players use to celebrate scored goals by showing some message in a t-shirt that they are using underneath the team jersey. They deliver messages such as “God loves you” and “100% Sao Paulo” (this second message tries to say that the player loves Sao Paulo too much). So, I thought that it could be a good idea to do something like that to animate a boring presentation about the company’s financials. During the presentation I could pull up my t-shirt and show messages like “Shareholders: company XYZ loves you!”, “100% net income”, or “0% losses”... Who knows, that could work! 

OK, only one more thought that I would like to share with you to know what you think about: in Brazil, players use to play some samba songs when they are commuting to the stadium. What if, the CEO, the CFO, and the COO of the company, during their flight to the investor annual meeting, sing some Bryan Adams, Avril Lavigne, Neil Young, or Simple Plan songs to be more relaxed at the meeting? I can imagine the CEO and the CFO doing a duet singing Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boy”…      

Well, I would love to hear other ideas about this! In the future, when I apply those ideas in the workplace and give you the credits for those!! 

Thanks for reading all those crazy ideas! I told you that MBA drives us nuts… Anyways, we see you next week!