Canadian Counterparts Research Articles

How they manage IT

Small and medium-sized companies in the U.S. make better use of IT than their Canadian counterparts.

Apple Industry Performance, Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation

This study examines the changing structure of the apple industry in Canada and the United States over the last two decades. We attempt to describe whether changing policy environments (e.g., Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement) and strengthened intellectual property (IP) rights have affected innovativeness and the competitive position of the North American apple industry. Our analysis shows that Canadian apple production has been on a decline, with apple imports expanding to satisfy production shortfalls and changing consumer preferences for cultivar diversity and year-round supply. By contrast, U.S. apple production expanded in the 1990s because of strengthened exports stemming from export promotion programs and slight increases in foreign demand in selected Asian markets. Our results show that U.S. inventors are protecting their IP by the use of patents to a larger extent than their Canadian counterparts.

Obesity Rates Among Rural Ontario Schoolchildren

The majority of existing studies of obesity risk among Canadian children come from urban populations. The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of obesity in a sample of rural Ontario children.Measures of height and weight were obtained for 504 children attending seven public elementary schools in Grey and Bruce Counties, a predominantly rural area of Southern Ontario. Body mass index (BMI, or weight/height2) scores were calculated and compared with reference data from the Centers for Disease Control.Rates of overweight and obesity were high in this sample, with 17.7% of children classified as overweight and 10.9% classified as obese. There was a significantly high prevalence of overweight for both boys (17.8%) and girls (17.5%) (Chi-square = 75.70, p < 0.001). However there was a significant gender difference in obesity prevalence: 15.0% of boys were obese, compared with 6.8% of girls (Mann-Whitney U = 29133.0, p > 0.05).Findings indicate that among rural children--particularly boys--risk of overweight and obesity are at least as high as in their urban Canadian counterparts. There appear to be fewer girls than boys at the extreme high end of the distribution of BMI, which may indicate differences in the growth environment of rural boys and girls.

Comparing Health And Health Care Use In Canada And The United States

Results from the Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health (2002-2003) reveal that health status is relatively similar in the two countries, but income-related health disparities exist. Americans in the poorest income quintile are more likely to have poor health than their Canadian counterparts; there were no differences between the rich. In general, Canadians were more like insured Americans regarding access to services, and Canadians experienced fewer unmet needs overall. Despite higher U.S. levels of spending on health care, residents in the two countries have similar health status and access to care, although there are higher levels of inequality in the United States.

What role do cancer patients want to play in treatment decision making: A pooled-analysis

8521 Background: The extent of patient involvement in the decision making process for cancer treatment can impact satisfaction with care. A pooled-analysis of clinical studies from the US and Canada incorporating the Control Preferences Scale (CPS) was conducted to produce normalized data regarding patient preferences and examine differences in role preference related to country, tumor type, gender and other demographics. Methods: Patient data culled from six trials indicated the treatment decision making role preferred and the role actually experienced clinically. Fisher’s Exact Tests were performed to compare role distribution concordance and association with clinical and demographic variables. Results: Data available for 3,491 patients indicated that 25% preferred an active role, 46% a collaborative role, and 29% a passive role in their medical treatment decision making. In terms of actual experience, 30% of patients reported taking on an active role, 34% collaborative, and 36% passive. Overall, 61% of patients reported playing the role they prefer. Differences between genders in the preferred role were slight, but males achieved their preferred role more often than females (66% vs. 60%, p=0.011). More women actually took a passive role than men (40% vs. 24%, p&lt;0.0001) as did more patients in the US than Canada (84% vs. 54%, p&lt;0.001). Canadian patients preferred more passive than active roles (33% vs 22.4%) and US patients preferred more active to passive roles (31.9% vs 14.2%) (p&lt;0.001). Older patients preferred a more passive role and took on that role. Differences in role preference across tumor types were negligible. Conclusions: Roughly one half of the cancer patients studied indicated that they preferred to have a collaborative relationship with physicians, the remaining patients split equally between an active and passive role. The US cohort seemed to want to be more assertive than their Canadian counterparts and women ended up playing a more passive role than they preferred. Given these gender and cross-county differences these findings highlight the need for individualized patient communication styles to be incorporated into treatment plans No significant financial relationships to disclose.

The Tide in Favour of Equality: Same-Sex Marriage in Canada and England and Wales

The tide in favour of legal equality for gay and lesbian individuals and couples continues to roll forward on both sides of the Atlantic. In Canada, the federal Parliament recently passed legislation (the Civil Marriage Act) (CMA) that extends the legal capacity to marry for civil purposes to same-sex couples throughout the country. This change in the law was driven not by the executive and legislative branches of government but by the courts, interpreting and applying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter). On the other side of the Atlantic, in England and Wales, the Westminster Parliament in 2004 passed legislation (the Civil Partnership Act) (CPA) that will enable same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationships, and to access most of the legal rights and responsibilities offered to married couples. However, unlike the Canadian legislation, civil marriages between same-sex couples will still not be legally recognized. This article considers whether the English courts will also facilitate the legal recognition of same-sex civil marriage, like their Canadian counterparts. The author concludes that, in light of recent case law, there is an increasingly strong argument that the opposite-sex marriage requirement in England and Wales violates Article 14 (the equality provision) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which is incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act, 1998. However, the author also concludes that there are a number of reasons to be cautious that a positive result would flow, at this point, from a domestic court challenge to the opposite-sex marriage requirement.

Canadian immigration, mexican emigration, and a North American regional interpretation

Comparing Mexico’s US emigrants and Canadian immigrants from diverse global sources reinforces explanations of why (a) North America’s economic fulcrum is shifting south, (b) Mexico-based interests may be gaining greater salience in Washington than Canadian counterparts, (c) migration’s inverse relationship with regional integration threatens integration at the regional level over the longhaul, and (d) sustaining a graying population imposes a greater Canadian burden than elsewhere south. The study shows how, by adding globalization and regional dynamics to traditional push-pull immigration factors, typical bilateral analyses not only shed more light, but also broaden policy perspectives and clarify possible future directions.

The Ties of Place

This study explores the ways in which spatial configurations have shaped the use of contractors in the export coalfields of Queensland (Australia) and western Canada since the late 1960s. It is argued that the divergent employer strategies pursued after 1996—whereby Queensland producers dramatically increased their use of contractors while their Canadian counterparts did not—reflects their different spatial placement within the global coal trade. In Canada, the main problem was locational disadvantage due to distance from deep-water. In consequence, employers responded to falling prices by concentrating production in the area of greatest locational advantage. For Queensland producers, the issue was high mine-site labour costs. In this context, using contractors was part of a strategy to transform labour relations through the Workplace Relations Act.

Profit Sharing and Auto Workers' Earning: The United States vs Canada

In response to the 1981-82 recession and demands for concessions the auto workers in the United States (UAW) accepted contracts that shifted away from the three decades-old annual improvement factor and included profit sharing plans. In Canada the Canadian branch of the UAW negotiated wage increases that differed from those in the U.S. and did not include profit sharing. Over the period 1982 to 1989, in terms of direct monetary earnings alone, American auto workers received less than their Canadian counterparts. This paper examines the sources of the differences in earnings for each of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.

From Industrial Relations to the Employment Relationship: The Development of Research in Britain

This paper uses certification data from the province of Nova Scotia to provide further evidence that convergence of industrial relations Systems between the U.S. and Canada is far from unavoidable. Contrary to arguments advanced by Troy, private sector organizing in Canada, even when operating under a U.S.-style legal environment, remains remarkably robust, posting a win rate of 68 percent over a ten-year period with no evidence of longitudinal decline. Furthermore, there is compelling evidence that international unions are unable to match the organizing performance of their Canadian counterparts.

The Voluntary Disclosure of Pro Forma Earnings: A U.S.-Canada Comparison

This study compares managers' voluntary disclosure of pro forma earnings—an alternative measure to generally accepted accounting principals (GAAP) earnings—in the U.S. and Canada. The results indicate some distinct differences between the two countries in that U.S. managers (1) disclose pro forma earnings more frequently, (2) place greater emphasis on the pro forma earnings number relative to the GAAP earnings figure, and (3) make greater (income-increasing) adjustments from GAAP in calculating pro forma earnings than do their Canadian counterparts. While we find distinct differences in the use of pro forma between the U.S. and Canada, we do not find evidence that it is used for different purposes. Our evidence suggests that in both countries pro forma earnings is used by some corporations to affect users' perceptions of firm performance. Overall, given the differences in managers' use of pro forma, a form of voluntary disclosure, our results suggest caution in moving to a uniform (cross-border) system of financial regulation.

The role of acculturation in the emerging adulthood of aboriginal college students

Compared to traditional, non-Western cultures, emerging adulthood (18–25 years of age) may look considerably different in cultures that place emphasis on the group (i.e., collectivistic) over the individual (i.e., individualistic). However, within minority cultures, individual members vary on the extent to which they identify with their heritage culture. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the role that culture, particularly acculturation to Canadian aboriginal heritage culture, may play in emerging adulthood. Specifically, aboriginal emerging adults who scored above or below the mean of their peers on acculturation to their heritage (aboriginal) culture were compared to their majority European Canadian counterparts in several aspects of emerging adulthood including (a) perceived adult status, (b) perceived criteria for adulthood, (c) achieved criteria for adulthood, (d) personal beliefs about the future, and (e) risk behaviours. Results revealed the significance of examining acculturation in understanding the role of culture in the process of emerging adulthood, particularly among ethnic minority youth. In particular, findings revealed that young aboriginal adults’ level of identification with aboriginal traditions such as the significance of interdependence and maintenance of harmony, the role of children and family, and historical sociocultural events appeared to play a role in many aspects of emerging adulthood.

“Like Rain Drops Rolling Down New Paint”: Chinese Immigrants and the Problem of National Identity in the Work of Emily Carr

On September 7, 1907, in Vancouver, the Chinese violently attacked by a sprawling mass of primarily white, working-class Canadians whose anger had been fuelled by the belief that that had interfered with and undermined its economic prospects--they were correct, only insofar as Chinese immigrants were willing to work for considerably less than their Canadian counterparts, in enormously hostile circumstances, and were thus being exploited as a source of cheap labor by British Columbia employers. (1) The mob had gathered from a parade that had taken place earlier in the day, which The Asiatic Exclusion League had organized. The League, one of a series of associations established to create a stronghold against the immigration and settlement of Asians in Canada, specifically accused the Chinese of causing an economic slump by working for less than standard wages (Gray, 352). (2) Sentiments articulated at the parade were equally belligerent: one speaker, Reverend H.W. Fraser, for example, argued how it was pure Anglo-Saxon that had made the Empire and it would never be made with a mixture of Asiatic blood (Morton, 206). In part a response to such inflammatory speeches, approximately 15,000 people surged through Chinatown, smashing windows and beating up Chinese residents (Gray, 352). The mob continued through to the Japanese district, but, when it over, Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier issued a statement in which he apologized only to Japan, the country with which the Canadian government had secured a trade agreement two years earlier. There no such agreement with China, and hence no such apology forthcoming. (3) The incident a register of the prevalent racism and antipathy toward the Chinese community, an attitude that had taken root in Canada as early as 1884 when an act passed to regulate the Chinese population of British Columbia: it believed that they could not be governed by [Canadian] laws [because they are so] dissimilar in habits and occupation from our people ... [G]enerally the laws governing the whites are found to be inapplicable to Chinese, and such Chinese are inclined to habits subversive of the comfort and well-being of the community (quoted in Craig, 16). The Chinese were disliked because of their apparent resistance to cultural assimilation, even as they were politically disenfranchised and socially precluded from becoming members of English-Canadian society. (4) In 1906, the year before this episode, English-Canadian artist and writer Emily Carr had moved to Vancouver where she rented a studio in which she painted and lived for the next couple of years, and where she taught at the Vancouver Studio Club and the School of Art. She is now primarily recognized as a successful Canadian artist, having produced an impressive number of sketches and paintings, although she is also esteemed as a prolific Canadian author, having written seven major books--Klee Wyck (1941); The Book of Small (1942); The House of All Sorts (1944); Growing Pains: An Autobiography (1946); Pause: A Sketch Book (1953); The Heart of a Peacock (1953); and Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr (1966). (5) At one time, she also known to be an inveterate letter writer who sought those who would correspond with her regularly. Yet there is no direct reference to the 1907 incident involving the Chinese in either her letters or her literary endeavors, although she does allude to the presence of the Chinese in Victoria and Vancouver, almost exclusively in Growing Pains (her autobiography), The Book of Small, and Hundreds and Thousands (her journals). Her fiction, her autobiography, and her journals--which she unusually wrote in the immediacy of the present, commencing with her initial meeting with the Group of Seven in 1927, although she edited them in later years--these are generally preoccupied with her struggle to overcome various obstacles in order to create nationally representative art and indicate that she perceived Canadian geography, especially the West Coast, as a spiritual entity that provided an imaginative matrix for the shaping of indigenous artistic expression and language. …

US FDA finds US generics less costly than Canadian counterparts

US FDA finds US generics less costly than Canadian counterparts

Service Quality Perceptions and Customer Satisfaction: Evaluating the Role of Culture

The authors examine the influence of culture on the measurement of service quality and satisfaction in dentists’ office settings. Respondents from the United States, Canada, and Japan participated in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment in which the authors manipulated both expectations (high/low) and service performance (high/low) in a series of scenarios. With partial metric invariance, latent mean comparisons revealed that regardless of expectations, Japanese respondents reported lower quality perceptions and satisfaction ratings when performance was high and higher satisfaction ratings when performance was low than did their U.S. and Canadian counterparts. Thus, there is some evidence that Japanese consumers are more conservative in their evaluations of superior service but are less critical (or more forgiving) of inferior service. The authors also discuss managerial implications and future research directions.

US FDA finds US generics less costly than Canadian counterparts

US FDA finds US generics less costly than Canadian counterparts

Defining the “Undefended”: Canadians, Americans, and the Multiple Meanings of Border during Prohibition

Canada is a border nation. With over 75 percent of its population living within a hundred miles of boundary, border is a reality of virtually every Canadian's daily life. (1) Not only does it define citizenship, it contributes to how Canadians think, what they believe, and how they work. It should come as no surprise then that border is tied very closely to Canada's national identity, defining of which Seymour Martin Lipset calls the quintessential Canadian issue. (2) Even Canadian nationalists, quick to out that being Canadian means much more than simply being (and it does), concur that border plays an important role in shaping their identity. One of English-Canadian writers with greatest national and international reputation in 1920s was humorist Stephen Leacock who, not coincidentally, found much of his material in border and Canada's relationship with United States. He once observed, an odd chance forty-ninth parallel, an astronomical line, turned out to mean something. (3) But what? This question is not unimportant, even beyond ways in which it informs Canadian national identity, for it also helps to explain relationship between Canadians and Americans more generally. To that relationship border is central. Never was this more true than during America's noble experiment. Between 1920 and 1933, no issue in Canadian-American relations proved more contentious or more intractable than liquor problem. When Eighteenth Amendment took effect in January 1920, no longer could Americans make, sell, transport, or import any intoxicating beverage that contained more than 0.5 percent alcohol. They could, however, legally drink it, and thus it was left to Amendment's enforcement mechanism, Volstead Act, to insure that they didn't have access to it. Predictably, from Pacific to Atlantic, American dollars promptly headed north, and (usually) pure, unadulterated Canadian whisky, south. Canadian distillers, brewers, export houses, rumrunners, and bootleggers were more than happy to assuage parched throats of their American brethren. However, what was a boon to Canadian economy was bane to American diplomats and enforcement officials who sought help from their Canadian counterparts in stemming this illegal torrent of booze. Part of focus of this essay is to explore this problem and reasons for its intractability. Few decades were as important in shaping character of Canadian-American relationship than 1920s, for at least two reasons closely related toprohibition. First, beginning in 1920s, Canadian external affairs underwent a significant transformation. During William Lyon Mackenzie King administration, newly created Department of External Affairs made a concerted effort to define a Canadian foreign policy independent of British Foreign and Colonial offices. To do so meant Dominion had to face United States alone, without compromising its sovereignty. As a consequence diplomatic relationship between Canada and United States entered a new, formative stage. The second reason is increasing degree to which Canadians and Americans began to interact with each other in this period. The undefended border had always been a porous one. Yet during 1920s there was an extraordinary increase in pace and scope of what Marcus Lee Hansen referred to as mingling of Canadian and American peoples. (4) Its chief cause was automobile and ease with which travelers were able to cross border. By end of decade, four million American cars and twenty million Americans crossed border each year. The effect, according to one historian, was a turning point in cultural history of Canada, as Americans--in pursuit of liquor, scenery, and other things Canadian--brought with them other (sometimes less desirable) aspects of American culture. …

Parasite species richness in New Zealand fishes: a grossly underestimated component of biodiversity?

ABSTRACTEstimates of total parasite species richness, for given host groups in given geographical areas, are always much higher than the numbers of known parasite species on which they are based. The discrepancy is a reflection of our limited current knowledge of parasite diversity. This is illustrated by a comparison of the parasite faunas of New Zealand fish species with those of Canadian fish; the latter have been well studied by fish parasitologists, and provide a standard for comparisons. More parasite species are known per host species for Canadian fish than for New Zealand fish, for both marine and freshwater fishes. This difference remains after correcting for differences in study effort, i.e. in the number of published studies per fish species. There are also more parasite species per fish species in Canada than in New Zealand when parasite species richness is expressed as number of species per unit of host body length. For freshwater fish, the difference can be explained by the restricted phylogenetic origins and geographical isolation of New Zealand fish species. For marine fish, however, there is no a priori reason to expect a difference in parasite species richness between fish in New Zealand and Canadian waters, and the observed difference probably results from a lack of appropriate parasitological surveys in New Zealand. If the true species richness of the parasite faunas of New Zealand marine fish species approaches that of their Canadian counterparts, then most of the diversity and ecosystem function of fish parasites in New Zealand remains unknown.

Compliance in Chinese and Canadian toddlers: A cross-cultural study

Observational data concerning children’s compliance were collected from samples of 2-year-olds in PR China and Canada. Information on child-rearing attitudes was obtained from mothers. It was found that Chinese toddlers had higher scores on voluntary committed compliance than their Canadian counterparts. In contrast, Canadian toddlers had higher scores on externally imposed or situational compliance and overt protest than Chinese toddlers. Girls displayed more committed compliance than boys in both samples. Maternal warmth and induction were positively associated with committed compliance in Chinese toddlers, and maternal induction was positively associated with situational compliance in Canadian toddlers. Maternal punishment orientation was negatively associated with committed compliance and positively associated with situational control in Chinese toddlers, but not in Canadian toddlers. The results might indicate specific cultural “meanings” of different forms of child compliance.

A cross‐cultural assessment of attitudes regarding perceived breaches of ethical conduct by both parties in the business‐consumer dyad

AbstractRecent initiatives in business curricula have included emphases on global business and ethics. Using 28 scenarios which reflect potential concerns regarding the conduct of either business or a consumer, this research combines these issues by comparing the ethical predisposition of business students in Australia with their Canadian counterparts. A sample of 264 students indicated that students in both countries generally hold high expectations for the behaviour of business and consumers. Both groups exhibited quite similar views in relation to the 28 consumer and business‐related scenarios. When comparing Canadian students to Australian students, four significant differences were documented in the 14 scenarios which address the behaviour of business entities. The assessment of attitudes regarding questionable consumer actions provided even more homogeneity as only one statistically significant difference was identified. The study concludes by documenting a series of attitudinal differences on the part of groups defined not by nationality, but rather on the basis of gender or age. These demographic differences were more pronounced than were the differences across the two countries. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.