[AYBABTME]

The title is wrong. You can call yourself a software engineer, as long as you're actually a professional engineer, licensed by a governmental regulator. Most engineering schools in Canada have a "software engineering" program (in addition to "computer science") and this program qualifies as prerequisite to become a licensed engineer.

I graduated through such as program and never bothered to apply for the license thing, because the money to be made as a software engineer isn't in Canada, and no one in the US would care or do anything to help me fulfill the reporting requirements that a P.Eng requires. And for what benefit? There's no benefit.

There's no demand for a Software P.Eng. One day there will be, when society recognizes that some code shouldn't be written by just any random person. That day isn't near, in my opinion.