Canadian Suburban Culture
In Canada, the majority of us have grown up in a suburb - I was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Edmonton, now living in Toronto in the downtown core.
I have been self-employed for the past 10 years and I’ve been working on building up an agency for 2010 and I am starting to come across a general attitude from people I am meeting or wanting to employ. It made me wonder why us Canadians are typically not risk takers, and what is the difference between a Canadian risk taker and everyone else. Typically stepping out from my place I never make a plan, maybe a general idea of what I want to do, but I go with the flow. If the place I’m going to isn’t there, it isn’t really a big deal because I’ll find something else down the street or across it. Living in downtown, there are a lot of people, businesses and restaurants - the convenience of having things around, allows me not to worry about other factors that might be considered before making a trek out from let’s say Brampton. A suburban family would not make a trip anywhere without checking if that location still exists, if it is still open, make some form of commitment to the commute, and factor in that half of the time will be spent on traveling back and forth. I think this attitude subconsciously creates the general fear and distrust of time and experiencing something new, or taking a risk – in turn creating the traditional worker-life model. This is later passed down by parents to their children, a generation of people who believe that life is about getting a basic education to get a high paying job, get married and get a 3000 sq./ft. house in the burbs, and start the cycle again. A general lack of interest in community building because by the time one gets home, he or she is worried about making dinner and going to sleep because they have to do it again tomorrow.Would be interesting to see a comparison graph between people who grew up and live in the suburbs vs. people living in urban centers to see if there are any identifiable characteristics or patterns between non risk takers and risk takers.
What can we do as a society to create future leaders and more entrepreneurs? I think it is to create and encourage interest groups and get children out to clubs and networking events. Even encouraging children and parents to talk to their neighbours would be a start, because to me, it seems like the larger the house, the more isolated the family is and disconnected from anything without a vehicle.
Would love to hear your thoughts or experiences on this or related topics! How / where did you grow up and do you think it has made an impact on who you are and how you live your life today? Do you see others following similar patterns or completely different ones? What are some other ways we can build community trust and increase our interactions with each other?
Filed under //
canada
entrepreneurship
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