The Newcomer's Guide to the U.S.A.

Dean Tudor is a journalism professor at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute and founding editor of the CBRA.

Like most Self-Counsel books, this one tends to go overboard in its wealth of detail in its attempt to cover almost every situation. Donde presents some basic data for Canadians who wish to move to the United States, tells a bit about what life is like in the U.S. (as if you have not yet made up your mind on whether to move), and provides sources of information about living in the U.S. (as if you have already made up your mind). This smacks suspiciously of padding for two distinct markets.

Topics include health care and insurance, education, taxation, shopping, newspapers, settlers’ effects, and so forth. There is a charming passage on types of “American society.” Here Donde, who has lived in Tennessee, describes life in certain states, such as in Tennessee. My wife, who has also lived in Tennessee, completely disagrees with Donde’s assessment of Tennessee. Who to believe? There are many irrelevant pages of addresses of district offices. None of these will apply to you once you get to where you want to go in the U.S. The book is both too general and too specific on just about every topic. Is there no happy mean? Apparently not in the United States. As is common in most Self-Counsel books there is no index, but there is an expanded table of contents. Use with caution.