FWIW, IME the work ethic in Canada is very, very similar to what it is in the US. There's certainly an accent on the notion of "going the extra mile" by sacrificing a weekend here and there for the sake of a project that's in danger of not meeting an arbitrary, crazy deadline.
It seems amazing and a little sad how so many smart people can collectively be so deluded and piss away their health and, ultimately, years of life down the drain in order to make the boss happy/earn that promotion, etc..
There's nothing like being on a conference call with a bunch of smart folks, some of whom are having trouble keeping a short meeting agenda in their heads for 30 minutes due to being profoundly burned out.
Tech, however, and games in particular, do have that kind of overwork culture; but they have it everywhere in the world. Reasons include high potential reward, constant change, unpredictability of results, and relatively young workforce. Nothing to do with unions, Puritanism or the like, really. And that culture is indeed destructive for many people, but we only get to hear from the survivors (among which I count myself)
Not saying there aren't places here where you can software develop yourself to burnout death, but that really becomes a personal choice at that point. 80+ hour weeks are for the crazy ones. Sometimes it's the beautiful passionate crazies, and something amazing happens. I don't want to play down the results[0], but it's a gamble you play with your own health, life and well-being, it's a choice and one's own responsibility. You can't stop them, but you can make sure they may not hurt themselves too much.
[0] Actually, most examples I know of this are from areas completely outside software/computers, superheroes giving themselves for social/societal causes--but I wouldn't exclude "our" line of work per se.
