canada is different from america... how, exactly?

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Zoomerang96

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i've ranted and raved about how i jokingly demanded proper spelling on this message board, at least from my fellow canadian posters. if americans want to use their special version of the language, fine. i really couldn't care less.

but today i'm writing this thread to express my genuine belief that canada really is little more than america junior. if you disagree with me, my fellow canadians, have at it and let me know. i want to provoke something in you that will make me change my mind.

every single canadian i've ever talked to would be upset if they were referred to as an american. they're proud of their canadian status. and so they should be, fair enough.

but what exactly is a canadian?

is it who we are as a nation? what ARE we as a nation?

culturally, if it weren't for hockey, there'd probably be absolutely no difference between canada and the united states. and it's not like hockey's totally unknown in the states either, as many american posters here will attest to.

how many canadians know who are head of state is? according to a survey in 2005 i believe by the strategic council, less than 10 per cent of canadians answered correctly.

but what kind of music do we listen to? what kind of music do we export?

save for maybe one or two asian countries, only america uses month/day/year in dating. canada can't really make up its mind on this, as my drivers license is proof. on the same fucking document, the print date of validation is month/day/year while the stamp that made it official is day/month/year.

but other than government documents, and if it's in english, you can bet everything is month/day/year. not that there's anything wrong with that, but i'm merely bringing this up to serve my original point.

spelling. judging by my facebook friends, i'm sure well over half the time words that are up for canadian/uk spelling are instead spelled in their american form. i've been to a number of weddings in the last number of years, and i don't think one of them spellt "honour" correctly in their programs (both programme and program are used in canadian english). i've already informed my other friends who are about to get married that i'm not attending if they can't write that "the reception to honour the bride and groom will take place at the neighbourhood meeting centre" correctly.

what about television shows? american idol, the nfl, oprah, csi, CNN, etc., etc. does anyone watch canadian programming that's NOT called hockey night in canada (i love hockey night in canada, and i love hockey... don't for a second think i'm having a go at that)?


what else makes us different? erm... not exactly.

what about during the recent american election, and the flood of canadians who travelled to the south to campaign for their favoured candidate?

do you think ireland ever gets confused with england? not. fucking. likely. if cameron wins the next general election, will there be people cheering and waving in dublin? obviously not, and though that's not necessarily a fair comparison my point stands. why? when you get people putting barack obama signs on their front lawns, and they don't even live in the same country, you have a culture that doesn't know itself from its southern neighbour.

at the end of the day, it appears to me that canada and the majority of her citizens appear to be unwitting flag wavers of the united states.

please, by all means argue with me. tell me i'm wrong. i realise this entire thread was emotionally based, and written in 10 minutes which easily betray its simplistic nature and poor structure.

i want to believe differently, so help me if you feel strongly otherwise.
 
Canada's money is prettier than ours.

And there's some sort of queen involved up there, or so I hear.

:)
 
Canada's money is prettier than ours.

And there's some sort of queen involved up there, or so I hear.

:)

by you mentioning our queen, you know more about constitutional make up than 90 per cent of the population.

who said americans didn't know anything about anything outside their own country? ha.
 
i've already informed my other friends who are about to get married that i'm not attending if they can't write that "the reception to honour the bride and groom will take place at the neighbourhood meeting centre" correctly.

:lmao:

I mostly agree with you, Canada does not really have it's own identity seperating it enough from the US... In fact that tends to be our identity these days: Canada; we are not the US...

The thing about American culture is that it is insidious... It's TV and Movies and McDonalds and Starbucks. Canada is right next door, we don't even have an ocean to filter out some of their influence, for the most part our citizens can mutually pass back and forth between our borders and mingle without any real problems.

The fact that we are so similar to begin with doesn't help the matter either.
 
Interesting thread! I've wondered about Canadian culture myself. I mean I know how you people spell and I think I know the names of all the provinces but really, I don't know much. Tell me aboot your country :sexywink: and how the culture differs from that of the US!
 
Butter tarts. Corner Gas. Rick Mercer. 22 Minutes. Tragically Hip. Blue Rodeo.
The United Church (lol)

All quintessentially Canadian. None of these could be American.
 
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Some more substantive points:

Universal health care and the fact that Canadians don't face the risk of bankruptcy if they get sick.
That the U.S. has a pervasive gun culture and Canada doesn't.
That Canada accepts refugees from Iraq and the U.S. doesn't.
That generally Americans are flag wavers and Canadians aren't.

That in Canada the very left-of-centre NDP is a major political party, something that would be unthinkable in a nation where someone as mainstream as Obama is labelled a socialist or a Marxist.


Did I mention butter tarts? :drool:
 
Fries covered in cheese and gravy.

I love fries, I love cheese, and lord knows I love gravy, but ....... no.
 
It's not cheese, it's cheese curds. Even more revolting.

Oh man, I love cheese curds! :heart:

When I moved out to Seattle from Wisconsin, I would talk about cheese curds, and everyone looked at me like I was insane. They just don't understand the glory of cheese curds.
 
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