Actually it was scenery that gave me my taste of Canada. It was some Canadians who helped me remember how wonderful Canadians can be.
Their outstanding courtesy and helpfulness reminded me of my time in Nova Scotia which got me to dredge up an old slide of the point on farm on the Bay of Fundy.
When I was finishing up my US taxes yesterday, I was digging around in a drawer, and I came up with a statement of Canadian Pension earnings. It was not a complete statement so I thought I would try to get one just out of curiosity.
First I tried the web with my Social Insurance number, but it would not work. Surprisingly there was a phone number to call for problems in logging into the system.
I called the number and even more surprising, a human being actually answered the phone. Not only did she answer, but she was also extremely helpful and knew immediately what was wrong. My account had gone dormant.
Even more surprising she knew exactly the person that I needed to call. I made the call fully expecting that I would never talk to another human. I was flabbergasted to get yet another human and one who asked a few security questions and told me that I would have my form in a few days.
Maybe Canada is special because it has not reach the size where humanity disappears.
I shudder to think of how different my experience might be when trying to get an answer out of the US government. The last time we tried to call Social Security for my mother, it took three days to get someone on the phone.
There is more to Canada than meets the eye.
I was even surprised today to find out that the weather in Halifax, Nova Scotia has warmed almost to our mountain weather temperatures in Roanoke, Virginia today.
I know that is unusual and there are probably no signs of spring in eastern Canada, but I suspect courtesy on the phone is part of Canada's character. It was obvious in the both the conversations I had today.
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