How would you compare Canada to the US?

How does Canada compare to living in the US?

• I'm 17yrs old and just thinking about my future and what I may want to do when I'm ready to go to college or after college. I have a couple of Canadian friends and they've gotten me really interested in Canada. I know they're getting a bit annoyed of me asking them "what's Canada like?" "what are the university like?" "What's the biggest differences?". Maybe someone here can help with these questions. If you have detailed answers they would be very appreciated!! Questions: What is Canada weather like year round? Is wild life more appreciated in Canada? What are the Universities like in Canada? Are Canadian degrees honored equally as American degrees in America? What are noticeable differences in Canada that an American would obviously notice? Are the laws there uniquely different? Thank you sooo much if you can answer these!!!!!

• Answer:

  Canada has four distinct seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Typically, it's hot & humid summers and cold & snowy winters. (How hot? The hottest day of summer 2011 here in southwestern Ontario was 115 F.) Spring and Fall are most often rainier/windier seasons. Year round, the weather in southern Canada (where the majority of the Canadian population lives) is the same as it is in US border states: -Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and Maine. In northern Canada, the weather mirrors Alaska's. Canada's the 2nd largest country on Earth. We take up half the North American continent, the US and Mexico to share the other half. But we've got one of the world's 10 lowest population densities. 34+ million people in a country 9+ million kilometres in size means most of Canada is pristine, untouched and unspoiled wilderness. So yes, we do appreciate wildlife more because there's more of it than there are people. Canadian universities are among the best in the world. And cheaper than American ones because they're funded differently. For example, the University of Waterloo (my alma mater) is the only one in the world that Microsoft recruits from year after year. (the majority of computer science grads recruited by Msoft are Canucks.) Google also takes advantage of UofW in its own recruiting. Canadians degrees are considered equally valid, both in the US and worldwide. Differences? Everything's metric, for one thing. And Canada's a kingdom, not a republic. So you'll see a lot of references to it. King this, Queen that, Royal this-that-and-everything. Plus Canadian attitudes are different: We're the nation that pioneered Multiculturalism. We've never had the racial tensions and backlash against immigration the US has. We don't censor swearing and nudity as much on television. And gay marriage has been legal so long that it's considered normal. Also, we have different holidays. Victoria Day, Boxing Day, Family Day, Remembrance Day, and Canadian Thanksgiving is in October and celebrated for different reasons than America's version. Some laws are uniquely different. Drunk driving's a major crime here. In the US, it's just a minor offence like parking tickets. We're rated the world's most tolerant nation, but we don't tolerate racism or bigotry so our laws on hate speech/hate crimes are far more comprehensive than America's. Plus healthcare's a right, not a privilege. Hope that helps and cheers to your future success.