Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Yes, the sounds of Gilles Vigneault ring in my ears, as my Quebecois brethren go the polls in one of the hardest to call elections in years. What effects will this have on Canada’s economy? Really can’t tell, but instability internally to any nation causes interesting ripples in the economy. Sometimes it is opportunity, like how Rene Levesque was voted Man of the Year, by the Toronto board of Trade one year, sometimes it is other things. We shall see, but as with any Quebecois politics, it is going to be hard to explain!

According to Stats Canada, Canadians are less lazy these days, but still not as productive as our American friends. What is more interesting is that our productivity has dropped since 2000, but the number of hours we Canadians work has gone up, way up! So we are working harder, but not smarter? Why aren’t we as good as our U.S. cousins? That’s rhetorical, I think this is a numbers game, and it reflects data, but means little about the “working hearts” of Canadians, I think we are a hard working group of folk (but we might value our free time a little less now, which is troubling). Remember work Smarter, not Harder!