I went to England for the first time at 12 years old and was astonished that people said I had an accent and teased me about it. To my mind, accents were something English, Scottish, Irish, and American people had, and a few other people like my relatives in Cape Breton. What's worse, they thought I was an American! I was nearly in tears with indignation.Canadians, to me, spoke only the purest English as spake by the angels themselves.:)
I remember at about the same time of my life some old holy roller exclaiming, no doubt in reference to some supposed plot by the French Canadians, that if "English was good enough for Jesus and the Apostles to speak and write, it's good enough for me!"