I have no experience with Canadian undergraduate business education, which is what the author of the article appears to be taking, but I don't doubt that it's less challenging than engineering. Canadian engineering programs have higher entrance standards than this, and are accredited by a national authority for engineering education. And we still had to work fairly hard, especially in the fundamental Computer Engineering courses, even though they are less challenging than courses at MIT.
However, Canadian schools are also not generally the elite institutions that the Ivy League+MIT+Stanford are either. The top Canadian universities are public institutions with larger undergraduate populations that to a reasonable extent serve regional demand and need, rather than attracting the best from across the land (with some exceptions). A more reasonable comparison might be agaisnt some of the top 10 to top 30 public schools in the US, instead of MIT or Cornell or Oxford.
true, but also, these schools are more than adequate to equip a society to function
the top-tier universities of united states cater to the top 1% of the world, have incredible research records, nobels, etc... yet by almost any measure, the US itself as a nation is beginning to fall behind canada on per-capita measures of wealth, education, longevity, and happiness. this isn't that astonishing, the US is also falling behind many scandinavian nations with apparently unknown universities
remember last week's nba final? the "superstars" lost.
And where is Canada in per-capita measures of wealth when compared to Luxemburg?
In my opinion, the United States is the modern Rome, though , of course, way more powerful and advanced than Rome ever was, and will be so for the foreseeable future.
However, Canadian schools are also not generally the elite institutions that the Ivy League+MIT+Stanford are either. The top Canadian universities are public institutions with larger undergraduate populations that to a reasonable extent serve regional demand and need, rather than attracting the best from across the land (with some exceptions). A more reasonable comparison might be agaisnt some of the top 10 to top 30 public schools in the US, instead of MIT or Cornell or Oxford.