Moving my life abroad forced me to step outside of Canada and realize that everyday realities I took for granted in Canada were actually incredibly unique and quirky.
Banking monopolies
I complained alongside just about every Canadian about our absurd monthly fees and lack of competition under our Big Five banks. Then I moved south and discovered thousands of banks littering America’s regional landscape, making something as simple as transferring money to another state borderline feudal.
Because Canada has our banking services so centrally organized, services like Interac e-Transfer are so streamlined and convenient that we don’t think twice about them. Many Americans are still trying to fill that void through third-party apps like Venmo.
Telecom extortion
You’ll never know wireless sticker shock until you see your first American cellphone bill. I had become so mindlessly programmed by our stunted telecom oligopoly that nearly $80/month for a basic, limited data plan was completely acceptable.
It wasn’t until I easily got unlimited everything for a fraction of that cost in the US that I realized Canadians unfairly pay some of the highest wireless rates in the developed world.
Etiquette rituals
Canadians like to think we’re just naturally a kinder people, but living in the U.S. quickly taught me that our polite Canadian society runs more like a militarized operation. There is no deep apologizing behind Canadians’ barrage of sorries: they’re simply saying it to avoid confrontation and achieve widespread civility.
Life down here is more bluntly transactional than I’m used to, and I’ve realized that keeping a door open for someone walking 15 feet behind you so that they must awkwardly trot is uniquely Canadian.
Supply management
It’s not just that American portions are bigger (they are). It’s everything about how our food is actually produced. Grocery shopping in Canada revolved around supply management and heavy farm tariffs that keep Canadian producers in business while charging us way more for dairy.
But head south and you’re welcomed with an overwhelming variety of processed corporate foods that are absurdly subsidized and sold to you in bulk-size packages that would make a Trader Joe’s basket look small.
Cultural mosaic
Growing up, I took for granted living in a country that valued the cultural mosaic ethos, actively encouraging immigrants to retain their unique cultures, rather than melt into everyone else.
I never realized how unique it was to live somewhere where your local street festival doesn’t have diluted versions of every culture from around the world. People in the US have felt the need to conform and assimilate to one identity far more strongly than up north, so I appreciate Canada’s relaxed approach to hyphenated identities.
Real estate
Housing affordability is a crisis throughout North America, but Canada’s homeownership desperation is uniquely suffocating. Our economy relies so heavily on real estate concentrated in regions like Toronto and Vancouver that homes are treated like the gold standard retirement savings plan with astronomical stakes.
The US has so many economically successful mid-sized cities spread across fifty states that the market lacks concentrated panic.
Internal barriers
We view Canada as one massive, unified nation, but economically speaking, I have observed it act more like several small entrepreneurial businesses trying to outcompete each other. Provincial trade barriers are so outdated that it can actually be more difficult under law for a winery in Ontario to sell bottles to a restaurant in Quebec than it is to sell those bottles straight to the United States.
Living in the US, where intrastate commerce runs frictionless and fully protected, I was floored by how strangely Canada sabotages its own domestic development from within.
Financial invisibility
I foolishly thought that because our countries have a shared economic border, my immaculate, decades-long credit score would follow me south of the border like a trusty shadow. It most certainly did not, and upon arrival, I found myself with zero credit history.
I was seen as though I were a teenager who had never worked a day in my life and was required to start my credit up from scratch with secured credit cards if I wanted to even rent an apartment.
Hidden taxes
I always knew I paid higher taxes at home in order to receive public goods like universal healthcare, but didn’t realize how unnecessarily convoluted the American version was. Filing yearly taxes in Canada is simple, and sales tax is visibly broken down for you at checkout.
In America, you are bombarded by layers upon layers of federal, state, county and city taxes, on top of private healthcare premiums automatically taken out of your paycheck, that leave you with significantly less take-home pay than you’d expect.
Safety blankets
Being raised in a society with a strong social safety net changes your default emotional state in ways you don’t realize until it’s removed. When you have universal healthcare, strict gun control, and tightly regulated banks, you can afford to be risky with your career choices because you don’t live in fear that one hospital bill could cripple your family financially.
Experiencing firsthand how cutthroat and hyper-capitalist the rest of the world can be drove home just how Canada’s safety net isn’t simply policy. It molds you into who you are as a person.
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