Eric Nay, who moved to Toronto from California, says that even Americans with good insurance feel the pinch. “When I taught for the state of California, I had the best health coverage on the planet,” he reports. “But when my son was born — and it was totally by the book, no complications — my insurance only covered the first $10,000 of the hospital costs. The remaining $8,000 came out of my pocket. And that’s with full coverage.”
Meanwhile in Canada, not only are we wealthier, but we don’t even have to work as hard to make that wealth. In 2004, the average Canadian worker put in 35 hours of work per week, while our American counterparts put in 38. Only 30 per cent of Canadians work 45 hours a week or more, compared to 38 per cent of Americans. We also get — and take — much more vacation time. Employed adults in Canada get about 17 vacation days a year, and we take 16 of those days, leaving just one on the table. In the U.S., they get 14 days of vacation, but they only take 11, making them the world leader in yet another category: the working drudge.
Because we have more time off, Canadians tend to have a lot more fun. We spend more time with friends than Americans do, and we’re much more likely to have a sit-down dinner with the family at home each night. We also tend to drink alcohol more often, with 27 per cent of us having a drink at least a few times a week, compared to 19 per cent of Americans. Nay says that our richer social lives were one of the biggest differences he noticed when he moved to Toronto. “It was only in Canada that I found myself going to the pub with friends and colleagues,” he says. “I spend more time in pubs here than I have in any other place that I’ve lived. It’s partly the culture, and partly because the quality of beer is fantastic.”
Christian Lander is another Canadian living among Americans. He grew up in Toronto, but the 29-year-old moved to Los Angeles 2½ years ago where he runs the popular Stuff White People Like website, and he’s publishing a book under the same name on July 1. He also finds that Americans like to do things big, but that doesn’t always mean better. “The expectations here are just different,” he says. “There’s more ambition. More ambition to acquire more in terms of money and career. Whereas Canadians seem to be more European in that we care more about enjoying life.” He’s lived all over the country and says that it’s very difficult to sum up the differences between Americans and Canadians because Americans are so diverse.
The gaps between rich and poor, or black and white within the confines of the U.S. are much deeper and wider than the gap between the two countries. And within that mix, he says there’s a subset of Americans who are just like Canadians. “Left-wing urban Americans,” he says. “Canada is just a country of left-wing urban Americans.” Still, he says that the relentless zeal, the private schools, the long work hours, not to mention the fact that everyone in L.A. seems to carry a gun, well, it all gets him down sometimes. His wife, who’s American, is pushing to move back to Toronto, he says. “And yeah, we probably will.”
