Canadian Perspective on US Politics and Values
Nola Simon spent 17 and a half years at a global financial services company, 16 of them in the American division with clients concentrated in Minnesota — which gives her an unusual vantage point on what's unfolding in the US. Her account runs against the common timeline: the pulling-back didn't start with tariffs, it started for her a decade ago, when the Obamacare rollback brought the medical-bankruptcy hardship calls back and she decided to reduce the American exposure in her career and life. The hard conclusion: change has to come from Americans themselves, because the hero narrative woven into American storytelling doesn't leave room for outside voices to land.
- →Map the real timeline before accepting the headline one — the US-Canada relationship has been fraying for a decade, and calling the old closeness nostalgia is accurate, not cynical.
- →Name the rules quiet professionalism imposed: sixteen years of client calls meant never discussing gun control, religion, healthcare, or employment law — a corporate filter, not the honest version.
- →Audit your exposure the way you'd audit any risk: reducing reliance on American clients and culture was a deliberate ten-year decision, not a reaction.
- →Run change from the inside — the hero narrative in American storytelling means only American voices carry the standing to move individual Americans.
- →Test your reading of a country against the people you actually know: sixteen years of daily calls left real affection for American clients, and that makes owning collective impact the point rather than blame.
Why does a Canadian futurist have an inside view of American values?0:22
Because she spent 17 and a half years at a global financial services company with 16 of them in the American division, including eight years serving clients based mostly in Minnesota — the state at the centre of recent events. Daily, multiple-times-a-day conversations with Americans for 16 years builds a granular sense of the country's values that most outside commentators don't have.
When did the US-Canada relationship actually start to fray?5:43
Long before tariffs. Nola identified ten years ago that she wanted to reduce American exposure in her career and life, and has been quietly making that shift ever since — which is why Canadians' apparent ease at pulling away surprises Americans. Mark Carney's framing is right: the closeness people mourn is nostalgia, and the disintegration has been running far longer than most people think.
What did working with American clients actually require?2:58
A personal rulebook: no conversations about gun control, religion, the medical system, or employment law — a couple of exchanges about year-long Canadian maternity leave are enough to show how differently the two value systems run. With recorded calls and a customer-is-always-right mandate, clients got a corporate-filtered version of her for 16 years. As she puts it: you never got the honest, upfront version of me.
Why was 2016 the turning point?4:24
When the Obamacare rollback began, the hardship-withdrawal calls for medical bankruptcy — which had subsided — started again, and she didn't want to subject herself to them anymore. A history minor and a father who grew up in Nazi Germany, born in 1932, had equipped her to read where things were heading: her parents raised her on how politics weaves into daily life, and what choices people make when society presents options that aren't in their best interest.
Why does change in America have to come from Americans?10:45
Because the storytelling woven into daily American life casts Americans as the heroes — the flag arrives, the good guys win — and voices from outside that narrative don't carry standing. The majority of Americans didn't vote for what's happening and remain the courteous, funny, caring people she talked to daily for 16 years. But change only happens when a country owns its collective impact, so the protests and economic boycotts matter precisely because Americans are running them.
“Change only really happens when you own your collective impact.”
Nola Simon, in this episodeFull transcript (click to collapse)
Thank you for joining me. I'm Nola Simon. I'm the host of the Hope and Possibilities podcast, and today I actually wanted to talk a little bit about what's happening and. The US and the world in general. But I wanted to share my unique perspective because some of you may not realize that I worked for a global organization in financial services for 17 and a half years.
16 of those years were actually based in the American division, and my clients happened to be for eight years. Mostly in Minnesota. So everything that's been happening in the US recently has been focused on the state of Minnesota.
And that's fascinating to me because a lot of what's been happening has been happening primarily where my clients were based. I've actually been to Minnesota. More than any other area of the US because of that experience. Except for Florida. I've been to Florida a lot as a Canadian, that's Disney World.
That's, I think for Canadians. But Minnesota, I've been through the entire state. I once did a whole week car trip through Minnesota and so everything that's been happening.
It is shocking, but quite honestly, not entirely shocking. I started leaving John Hancock when I was 2016. My father-in-law had died in 2015. We settled his estate finally in 2016, and then my mother was diagnosed with dementia and died in 2017. Took me another year and a half to actually. Leave car accident didn't help in 2018.
It took a lot of time to really find that transition because it was like I had packed up and moved to the US for 16 years. I. Realized that the way that I told the story about my skills and abilities and how I talked about the work really didn't resonate in Canada. And even though I was always paid in Canada by Canadian company the work itself didn't resonate.
And what I'd learned over the years too was. I have the ability to work with people who don't share values and beliefs. I had a personal role with my American clients. I didn't talk about gun control. I didn't talk about religion. I didn't talk about the medical system, and I didn't talk about, employment law for the most part. You only have to have a couple of conversations about a year long maternity leave to realize that the value system is just so significantly different and the laws that are in place to support that are so fundamentally different from Canada that it's not in anybody's best interest really to highlight.
Especially when there's a mentality that the customer is always right and you really don't want to annoy them. So I did that for 16 years. And what happened in 2016? Funny you ask. Obamacare got disabled and so when Obama was in the White House and there were significant changes to the medical system in particular hardship withdrawals for medical bankruptcy really went down and those calls were always hard to really take.
In 2016, when that stopped, those calls started again. And I didn't want to subject myself to that anymore. Like I could see what was happening and fundamentally what was going to happen because I studied history at university. My major was math, but I minored in history and. My father actually grew up in Nazi Germany.
He was born in 1932, so when the war happened, he was seven years old. My mother was from Glasgow, so my parents, since the time I was a child, as a child, really educated me on the. Different aspects of politics and how that's woven into daily life and the choices individual people make when the world is hard, when society is presenting choices that aren't fundamentally in your best interest, nor are they things that you value, but how do you survive that?
So it's been really fascinating to me. And so I identified 10 years ago that I wanted to reduce the amount of American exposure on my day-to-day life. And that was not where I wanted to really have my career centered and from a Canadian perspective, I've really been removing American influence from my personal life and my career for 10 years.
This is not just something that has started because of tariffs or, anything like that. And I think Americans are really stunned that Canadians are finding it that easy to really divorce themselves from. American culture and pop culture and the way that we shop, the choices that we make to buy elsewhere and how that, that really is impacting the American economy.
You're seeing, the travel industry is being decimated because people are just choosing not to travel. And we're seeing states actually running advertising campaigns to get Canadian travelers back despite the fact that, it doesn't feel safe to actually cross the border.
Because if a, and
Even just the threat really to look at your phone and your social media. I've been commenting on my reasons for leaving. In American division for 10 years. I can't walk that back. At some point somebody's gonna look at things that I've said over 10 years that weren't controversial when I wrote them and think that they might be controversial now.
So how do I proceed? My client base is not American. I'm definitely, global in nature. I will look at, what's happening in Australia and the UK and Denmark and Europe in general. And, I definitely look at the US because I've got a great deal of familiarity with it.
But quite honestly, my bread and butter would be, the idea would be to have a solid Canadian base. It really doesn't harm me or impact me to really talk about the fact that Americans
really need to own what's going on in their comp country. And I know the majority of Americans didn't vote for this. I know the majority of Americans didn't expect.
Government agents to be shooting citizens in the streets. I've talked, I talked to Americans for 16 years daily, multiple times a day. They're good people. The majority of them, they. Care. They're courteous, they're polite, they're interesting. They're funny. I miss quite a lot of them. Even 10 years later I think about the people who made my days a daily delight because they were fun.
So when I talk about Americans, it's with great deal of appreciation because. I like a lot of the clients that I dealt with. But I also know that it change only really happens when you own your collective impact. And so you may not have voted for what's happening, but you do have the ability to make a difference and.
Advocate for change, and this is where this fight for democracy that's happening actually on the streets of Minneapolis and the protests and the, on, on Friday, there's supposed to be no work, no school, no shopping and economic boycott really to impact the companies that are not standing up for.
What's right and what's uncomfortable.
That's nice to see because quite honestly, that's what Americans have to do. And it has to be Americans. That's why 10 years ago when I made the decision that I,
I wanted to work with. People and companies whose values match mine. And the way to do that was to focus more on can Canada and Canadian companies rather than American companies. I made that decision 10 years ago and people are just noticing this now and confronting it because it can't come from anybody who's external.
Because Americans themselves don't
value the insight
and I'm gonna pause there and just say, I'm not trying to be insulting with that. I'm not trying to be confronting with that. It's just a reality of the American. Personality, which is, home with the brave land of the free Americans are the best. You see it in movies where the American rag comes in and the heroes are always Americans, cans.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen Recreation of World War II where. The Americans are the heroes, even though the whole rest of the world was president and contributed in multiple different ways as well too. The storytelling that is woven into day-to-day American life is that Americans are the good guys.
And so when things are happening that are not in the best interest of sustaining that narrative. The change, the advocates, the people who have to really fight for this, have to be Americans because you are the only voices that really make a difference to each individual, American.
And that matters. So I am doing this in a podcast rather than actually writing it on LinkedIn because I feel the need to share it, but I also know that I get fewer listeners.
And so this is controversial. I realize that I have a perspective that not a lot of Canadians are willing to speak up and say my relationship with my American clients worked because I was not honestly allowed to voice my. Distinct Canadian opinion, right? I was throttled, my calls were recorded. People knew what I was saying, and honestly, I probably conveyed a lot more than I ever should have to the majority of the clients that I had.
But realistically, you didn't. You never got the honest, upfront version of me. That a corporate filter. So I really hope that Americans figure it out because it's shocking to see the relationship between Canada and the US disintegrate the way it has. But Mark Carney is right. It's nostalgia.
It's the way it used to be, and quite honestly, it's been disintegrating for far longer than what most people think. Again, I started seeing this and making moves to change my interactions 10 years ago. And what does that mean for the future? I don't know. I think it really depends on the.