What motivated me to start this blogsite?

Not long ago, I was at a National Sales meeting in Boca Raton, Florida. I work for an American Mulitnational, excuse me, they would dub themselves a global company, in their Healthcare division here in Canada. While there we are normally treated as one of the gang which is to say we included in all the activities. The final evening of the sales meeting was our awards banquet. You might first need to understand that Canadians are responsible for 10% of North American sales. You might further need to understand that we do it with a staff of only six people. That leaves 90% of North American sales for the Americans with at least two staff for every state and the entire corporate marketing team and corporate offices in Minnesota. That last night, we sat at our own table (which was an improvement because 3 years ago we did not even have a table- we stood in the middle of the room with the Americans eating their meals while wait staff rushed to find us a table and set it up). We waited as the awards were handed out for every conceivable sales achievement from Rookie of the Year to best surgical rep to top Sales to safe driving which recognized everyone but the Canadians. We waited patiently. And then, they thanked the wait staff, the organizers and each other and called it a night. It did not matter that our top achievers danced circles around and superceded the accomplishment of their top reps by miles. It did not matter that we were responsible for both halves of the business while the Americans dealt with one side or the other. It did not matter that 6 people produced more than twenty or that we did it with fewer products and far less support. 

And then I realized that it was a mandatory 'National' meeting but it was not our Nation.

They did quickly realize that the Canadians were upset. They brought the head of Global Healthcare R&D to speak with me as the longest tenured staff member and I tried to explain what seemed to be so very obvious.  I simply shared that they had to decide if they really wanted to do business in Canada and if they did, certain facts had to be communicated. Our regualtory bodies were not stupid because we did not do it the American way and our laws had different requirements that were not optional or ridiculous because they did not match their own.  Our hospitals were in some ways more aligned with the European model of infection prevention than the American and that standard was higher. That night I reminded her that Canadians feel as strongly about our country as they do about theirs. I shared that in the MBA course I had just completed in International Marketing, ethnocentricity was a business killer. When I was hired, the then VP of Healthcare ridiculed our Healthcare system. It was news to him that we actually like many things about our Healthcare system. I had a very civil conversation and then went back to my room to write a couple of essays but some of my colleagues were still very upset.
When the man in charge of Healthcare North America heard about it, he had a meltdown saying that we had not handled it well and demanded a written APOLOGY!
That experience and the experience of dating an American judge in Buffalo, New York reignited my strong feelings for my country and sparked the smoldering warm feelings into a flame of patriotism. It isn't just the land. It isn't just the people here. It is the ideals and the inclusion of everyone that makes us something very special. Not perfect, we are not so arrogant as to suggest that- but pretty great!