During my career I spent a lot of time in Canada teaching service schools, customer service and sales calls. I developed an appreciation and fondness for that country. One could consider it USA lite as it has 10% of the US population, however it is slightly larger than the US in acreage. Its demographics are similar to the US, although percentages may vary.
English is the predominant language except in Quebec, where the official language is French. Fortunately for me, most of the population have some working knowledge of English. This allowed me to teach service schools in my native language of English. They did appreciate it if I tried to use some French. I never learned to really converse in French, but being exposed to it I was able to comprehend some of the conversations. For morning coffee, I learned to how to say “cafe noir un biscuit et une serviet”.
In the US the uniform of the day for Engineers was coat and tie. Teaching service schools in Canada the class was only comfortable if you wore a golf shirt and slacks. No one ever explained it to me, I just learned it the hard way. Throughout the rest of Canada, it was hard to tell any difference between students there and students in the US.
Getting in and out of Canada sometimes was a little crazy. The border people at times seemed concerned if I was coming to work in Canada and be paid locally. There were always these funny questions about who I was going to see and what I was going to do. These usually cropped up if I was going in on an investigation of a fire or a frozen house or oil spill. Eventually we would part friends, and I would go on my way. One time they did almost completely disassemble my rental car looking for drugs.
All in all, I only have fond memories and many friends in Canada. I will vist there many time again.
