Canadian Leadership Program
Bert Coslow
“My greatest take-away was a greater understanding of another culture, its government and culture, and its interactions with the United States. We were in lectures for 12 hours a day, starting at 8 a.m. and going on through working lunches and working dinners, and ended about 8 p.m.“
Bert Coslow MBA 09
This was an incredible experience.
My greatest take-away was a greater understanding of another culture, its government and culture, and its interactions with the United States. We were in lectures for 12 hours a day, starting at 8 a.m. and going on through working lunches and working dinners, and ended about 8 p.m.
It went on like that for six days, but the speakers were top notch and I learned a lot. What I learned falls into several themes. One, that Canada and the United States are very interrelated, with economic and commercial ties.
A tremendous amount of trade is going across the border, both ways, especially with the autoparts industry. I also learned a lot about Canadian culture, including a level of comfort with the role of government in their lives. Their social policies are much more European. ‘Communitarian culture” is how they describe themselves, with government policies focusing on the community as a whole, whereas U.S. policies focus on the individual. And my key takeaways?
That Canadians look like us, talk like us, but they are not Americans. I think Americans think of Canadians as Americans that live further north. But their political philosophies, government view of society permeate their lives. Another takeaway: multi-lingualism. You can be listening to a conversation in English and then, just like that, it flips to French, or Spanish. To hear all the languages was impressive. Makes me wish that I had that ability.
