The Economist on Toronto

So, post-run Saturday mornings have turned into a reading time for me, typically with The Economist on the list. Being in London shortly, with a weekend stay I thought I'd check out the city guide to see if there was anything particularly interesting to hit.

What'd I discover? It turns out the city guides are actually pretty interesting, and comical at times.

So, let's quickly compare London and Toronto, shall we?

London

The strongest relationships are forged after work—be that in a pub or at an informal evening meal. The line between work and private life is not as clearly delineated as in America, and the British tend to socialise with colleagues quite regularly. Drunken behaviour on a Friday evening will be laughed off the following Monday, and in some cases is quite the norm.

and

Midday drinking has declined, but it is still normal to have a glass of wine or a beer, with food or without.

Toronto

Once the working week is over, Torontonians value their free time. Important meetings are not typically scheduled for late on Friday afternoons, and you should not try to set up meetings at weekends.

and

Unless your host indicates otherwise, stick to sparkling mineral water during a business lunch; midday meals here tend to be dry.

and

There is a tendency to keep business and private life firmly apart. Don't, therefore, expect to be questioned about your family or recent holiday, or to be invited for post-work drinks.

YIKES! We are known for being boring people that can't have a drink with lunch, have any real interest in the people we're doing business with, or any desire to socialize with them?!

Now, as a general fan of breakfast meetings, I'm not keen on the Brits' distaste for it, or Oscar Wilde's claim that "only dull people are interesting at breakfast," but I'll take it over what we get pegged as, any day.

The worst slam about Toronto (and one that's hard to disagree with, I think) is "Risk-taking and unconventional thinking do not tend to be the norm. In general, expect your business contacts to be cautious, and to value organisation and detail."

It's hard to treat generalizations as anything more than just that, but while I love Toronto, I have a hard time disagreeing with any of this... and that's a sad thing.

Of course, there's also this gem "Many Canadians nurture both inferiority and superiority complexes about America. Tread carefully."