BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: sophocleese
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 09:45 AM

Don't worry too much if you do get hit, Neil, while crossing the road though. We have socialized medicare. That's one big difference between Canada and the United States. Its one difference I like, although I would not argue if the U.S. decided to start it too.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: GUEST,Neil Lowe
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 09:38 AM

Okay, so I'll only cross the street when black walnut is driving. Anybody got a helmet I can borrow?

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: MMario
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 09:34 AM

Black Walnut and Little Neo - I had the pleasure to visit Toronto last summer, and I found the traffic to be EXTEMELY polite and responsive to pedestrians. Much better then I normally see in small town USA, let alone the cities. And driving to and through Toronto found the other drivers likewise to be very courteous compared to what I am used to contending with. and bless whoever decided to sell frozen cappacino's in the BART terminal.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: GUEST,Neil Lowe
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 09:33 AM

(sigh)...Should've known it was too good to be true.

Neil (who's fond of the bipedal mode of transportation)

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: black walnut
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 09:29 AM

no, no, no! Second Cup! ALLways Second Cup in my cup. that's part of being canadian, too. loyalties. some are loyal to Tim, others are loyal to Second Cup. i will go WAY out of my way to get a Second Cup coffee over a Tim Horton's coffee. and then some of us are just loyal to caffeine, no matter how we can get it.

i drive regularly in toronto traffic. it gets worse and scarier every day. stop light and signal change violations top the list. but even the vilest offender will screech to a blessed halt for a pedestrian, or at least feel guilty about it if they don't.

peter t. has a lot of good comments. our culture is one with the land, the land, the land. and one can't take the weather out of the land. we are a handful of people in a huge cold land.

there are many different kinds of us. we have a variety of accents, a variety of skin~colours, a variety of educational systems, a variety of stepdances, a variety of coffees. but we are together at the mercy of the rock, the trees, the plains, the mountains, the lakes, the oceans, the snow, the ice ... the vastness and strength of this huge gorgeous land. a lot of us pocket ourselves down near the border, for a variety of reasons, but mainly to keep warm*.

~black walnut *who would say something quite different if this were a typical hot humid August day, but it's not, and the crocuses are covered in snow this morning, and i may even head back to the woodpile this morning.....

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: sophocleese
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 09:24 AM

Yes, Neil they have.

Okay lets go back to the mid-eighties. Famine in Africa. Musicians all over wish to help raise money for famine relief. After the Brits kick off with Bob Geldorf and "Do They Know its Christmas" The Americans and the Canadians also come up with a record each. The American one is called "We Are the World" and the Canadian one is "Tears are not Enough". I think those titles speak to a cultural difference.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 09:18 AM

Neil from my experience that seems to be true only in Victoria, British Columbia or in small rural towns.
But you do that kind of thing in Toronto and you are playing Russian Roulette with your life.
When you come visit Toronto, I will teach you how to use the Cross Walk. Even then it is wise to wear a helmet.

Little Neo

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: GUEST,Neil Lowe
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 09:02 AM

I've never been to Canada, but from a single piece of second-hand information I received from my uncle who went to grad school in Toronto, I would like to visit someday. He said when a pedestrian steps off the curb to cross the street, traffic comes to a halt.

Step off the curb anywhere in the U.S., you test fate and the odds are against you.

It's been a few years since he told me that. I wonder if things have changed.

Regards, Neil

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Celtic.Relics.com
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:58 AM

Is that Coffee of the Tim Hortons kind..... "Rrrolll Up the rim to Win"

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: MMario
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:56 AM

Not true, North America is an island off Cape Cod. Truth, I was taught it in school.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: black walnut
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:53 AM

perhaps it's awfully canadian of me to want to explode with pride and joy in having this place to talk about canadian culture, but to come up mum when i try to find the words to express it. you'll have wait until i finish another cup of coffee, while looking out the window at a remnant patch of snow....

~black walnut in toronto

("canadians are very odd people", eh?)

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Mbo
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:47 AM

Leahy said "Canada is an island off the coast of Cape Breton."

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Celtic.Relics.com
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:46 AM

The great Canadian songwriter, Stan Rogers, once said "We Canadians have one problem, we're too nice!"

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Celtic.Relics.com
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:45 AM

Cape Bretoner's from Mars? Guess Newfoundlanders are from Pluto?? So Americans are from Earth?? Here in the Eastern Atlantic Provinces, we don't forget much about our past and retain much of the music and culture. Difference from Americans to Canadians? Any traveler will tell you, you can spot an American out in a crowd in downtown Berlin. American's have become labeled loud and aggressive especially in differnect cultural settlings from their own. I over heard an Irish lad once describing an American tourist he just met.. "If it ain't the American way, it ain't good." Canadians for the most part sit back and quietly stay out of the way and tend to say "Sorry" or "Pardon me" alot. But each side has exceptions. Thankfully we are both different, it would be a boring world if we were all the same.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Midchuck
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:35 AM

Americans (I know that's wrong, America is the continent, the country south of Canada is the United States, but what else do you say? United Statesers? Ye gods!) believe that a the word for the little tiny animal that lives under your kitchen counters and your cat is always hunting and failing to catch, and the word for the huge animal with antlers that lives in swamps and eats moss and such, have different vowel sounds; and that the word for the building you live in, if you don't live in a multi-family apartment or on the street, rhymes with the little animal.

Canadians appear to believe in the government as their master, rather than their servant. Americans (except the liberals, who should all move to Canada forthwith, they'd be much happier) believe in government as their servant. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans have lost track of the fact that you can't have a free society without all or most of the people accepting that they have obligations as well as rights. We are all the government, ergo, we are all each others' servants.

There's gotta be a way to make it work. If I figure out what it is, I'll let you know. I've wondered if I shouldn't emigrate to Canada myself. In some ways, they seem to make it work better. But:

1) It's cold enough here in Vermont, and

2) They wouldn't let me bring my .44 magnum, and I'd be nervous without it.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Peter T.
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:32 AM

Canadians are very odd people. It takes a long time to figure out how profound the differences really are. I was brought up in England, the U.S., and Canada, so speak from personal experience. They have a complex history that has made it impossible to settle on a national mythology, and so their relationship to their past is very fragile -- quite unlike the U.S. Their relationship to the natural world is not one of a conquering people -- more like a series of temporary dwellings in a vast terrain that is indifferent to them and that is prepared to kill them if they do anything really stupid. The huge size of the country is always there, even if it is muffled under the city lights, and people forget about it in their consciousness. The dying older Anglo generation was very British; the under 50's are more Americanized, but still retain some of that rule-based culture. This rule-based culture makes it very hard to get people worked up over basic infringements of rights that wouldn't be tolerated in America; but, on the other hand, it has provided a strangely sympathetic space for ethnic immigrants to retain their own culture at home and among their own communities, as long as they conform at the most generic level. The closest people to English Canadians in American culture, not surprisingly, are people in Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc.; and French Canadians are a world unto themselves. Cape Bretonners are from Mars.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: kendall
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 08:28 AM

Just for the record, we are not ALL dummies when it comes to knowledge of Canadian customs. I have many Canadian friends, and, this leads to finding out about such things.I remember one in particular being quite surprised when I asked him about the Meech Lake Accords.

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: GUEST,Sian in Wales
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 06:45 AM

We Candians(even in exile in Wales) say "eh?", eh?, where Americans say "huh?"

We have the Canadian Cultural Mosaic, Americans have the Melting Pot.

We can listen to an American saying "Round and about the house" without breaking into hysterical laughter. Americans have a problem with the reversed scenario.

We make tea with boiling water. Americans ... well, the Boston Tea Party tells us everything we need to know on that one.

Sian, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Metchosin
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 03:38 AM

and according to a U.S. T.V. programme, I watched the night before last, on the Top Ten Ecological Holiday spots in the world, spot number 5 goes to grizzley bear watching in Vancouver. (don't think they were referring to a sports team, do you?)

Subject: RE: BS: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Metchosin
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 03:32 AM

we all wear touques.

Subject: Cultural differences: Canada/U.S.
From: Gary T
Date: 13 Apr 00 - 03:23 AM

In the "Do Americans Know" thread it was mentioned that there are cultural differences between Americans and Canadians, of which most Americans are generally unaware. So now I'm curious--what are they? I would like to think that most Americans are aware of French Canada/Quebec and the U.S.'s atypical firearms policies. What else ya got?