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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Differences: North and South

As part of my search, I am refamiliarizing myself with the differences between the US and Canada.  Most non-Canadians assume that the countries are extremely similar, but having lived and worked in both countries, I would say there are definite differences.  No judgements on what is better, they are just different.


  1. Canadians expect to pay taxes to the Government so it can work and help them - Americans do not like Government in general and hate paying taxes
  2. Canadians follow the rules and expect problems if they do not follow the rules - Americans expect customer service even if they broke the rules
  3. Canadians expect inconveniences - Americans expect ultimate convenience in all things (it should be in the Constitution).  Most anything you want in the US is available as a drive-through - liquor stores, pharmacies, funeral homes, banks, ..
  4. Canadians are more collective since they will freeze to death if they don't stick together - Americans are more individualist, although they might change if we continue to get this cold weather.
  5. And on and on
My experience involve 2. and 3.  I am trying to find out how to take the courses to become a CFP in the US or Canada.  In the US, there are about 50 institutions offering courses live online, in classes, self-paced online, and there is competition to get your money.  In Canada, there seem to be three choices for online learning, the toll free number to get information does not work from the US, and they have not answered the email I sent to the most promising of the three options.  Although the pricing in Canada is reasonable, there is no competition as far as I can tell.

Check out future postings to see how I get on with understanding the CFP education process North and South.

2 comments:

  1. Not all Americans follow number 1. In fact that is one of our bigger divides, here. That, and religion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True, these are generalities and not true of everyone.

      Delete

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