Quote Originally Posted by happy ears
I do understand the responsibilities that doing your own work brings.
In the United States, a highly litigious society, when a licensed electrician wires a house, manufactures a power cord, or does ANY kind of electrical work, the state acknowledges that he has been trained as an apprentice, passed an exam, and is highly skilled in his field and so awards him the right to be a journeyman. He must take a course every three years when the electrical code changes to be certain he is aware of the current laws. He has been trained to be alert for electrical hazards he encounters in the course of doing his work and avoid creating new ones. If he notices that there is a hazard such as an electrical outlet that is hot to the touch, he will alert the owner and recommend that he or another electrician make repairs to correct the problem regardless of how it was caused. The sole purpose of the National Electrical Code in The United States is to assure electrical safety.

When I or anyone else enters a home, a place of business, or any public accomodation, I have a right to expect that all electrical installations and appliances are in good repair and are safe for normal use. That doesn't mean putting a table radio or a lamp on the ledge of a bathtub filled with water so that it might fall in and electrocute someone. It does mean that if I come in contact with a wire, insert or remove a wall plug, touch the cabinet of an audio amplifier, I will not get shocked or electrocuted because someone jury rigged a power cord with coax or defeated the safety ground of a metal chasis by installing ferrite beads on the ground wire in the mistaken belief that it would improve the sound of his stereo system. It means that if I fall asleep on your sofa, I will not be killed in a fire because an electrical outlet was overloaded and someone put a penny in a fuse box to avoid the nusiance of a fuse blowing or used the wrong wire which was overloaded to install a new outlet.

I don't know what codes exist in Canada but they might be similar to those in most of the US (some places like New York City have their own even stricter electrical codes than the National Electrical Code.) In other countries, they are invariably much laxer in my experience. In the US, were someone who cannot demonstrate their legal qualifications to take it upon himself to do their own work as you put it, they assume all of the financial responsibility for the consequences if their work is inadequate and results in damage to property, injury, or death. Now you know.