Can one buy employment insurance privately and not just from the government?

One should never need to “buy insurance” for unemployment. One can pay whatever one assumes “the premiums” should be into a savings account – and then draw down on that account during times of unemployment. (And the rapidity at which that account will soon become overdrawn by someone who isn’t thoroughly motivated to find a new job because he’s living on his own savings will just as easily show how rapidly a company offering this kind of “insurance” would go bankrupt, and with it, the entire “industry”.)

If you find a way to make such a scheme work, then the world will beat a path to your door… and every loser and bum and shirker will walk that path to your door, and beat it down to buy your product… and live off of your generosity forever.

I know nothing about the relevant law in Canada. I do know that U.S. residents can’t purchase unemployment insurance coverage for themselves. UC premiums are paid by employers for the benefit of their common-law employees. Self-employed people (sole proprietors, partners, and LLC members) can’t cover themselves.

Unemployment insurance is paid for by the employer. You can buy supplemental insurance from AFLAC but I don’t know the exact terms.

Yeah, there are unemployment insurance policies that can be had from private companies, at least in the USA. Even credit card companies have some “plans” where you bet against yourself by paying them some money to have a deal where if you lose your job unintentionally, they’ll waive your minimum fee for a while.

You can probably get insurance on just about anything. If you are willing to pay sufficiently high premiums, there will be someone willing to sell you insurance.