When people outside of Canada think of our country, they often carry a number of misperceptions. You have probably heard by now about rumours swirling around down south about our accents (because we use an extra U in many of our words) and about our weather (people have a hard time believing 40 degree weather is common in certain parts of the country).
Those are pretty harmless, but there are some ideas out there about Canada that are downright degrading. For example, many Americans think that we have a sort of primitive economy, possibly based on the barter system or hunting and gathering. They think that people need anger management in Toronto because of an inability to gather enough firewood for the winter. And of course, we know that this is not true.
While much of Canada is rural by nature, our centres of population tend to be quite well developed and metropolitan. In fact, our businesses tend to be better managed, top to bottom, than our counterparts to the south. That is part of the reason why the recession was not felt as acutely here as it was in the United States; a Canadian resume service is not nearly as busy as one based in Washington DC.
And of course our dollar is now higher, which Americans tend to blame on their own sinking dollar instead of our high performance economy, yet another national myth. Parity with the green back, and even exceeding its value, has long been an inevitability which both the US government and the Canadian one view as a mixed blessing. It will cost a tourist more to take a Toronto taxi cab, a hotel room, or to eat, and that is bad news for some sectors.
However, you can't base an economy on an undervalued dollar, so there are many people living here who are happy to see it go up. Surprisingly, it is a good combination of both our urban and rural natures which has helped this to come about over the last few years. One of the major contributors is the Toronto Stock Exchange, which has never been subject to class action in Canada.
The TSX is actually the eighth largest stock exchange in the world, and of course the largest in the country. Considering that the first three positions are taken up by Tokyo, London, and New York, that is actually quite the achievement. The TSX has been much more stable over the past two decades than the New York exchange, another sign of well handled funds north of the border.
And guess what? The TSX is also the largest stock exchange in the world when it comes to natural resource companies, particularly oil and gas. And of course, those commodities are also at the heart of the nations' new-found wealth. The TSX is also the place to support Canadian companies, such as a major catering services in Toronto.
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