What would you change about Canadians? (professionals, moving, eat)

[maclock]

Originally Posted by Cornerguy1

So you are sickened:




and yet you opine:







.

No comment.

[maclock]

Originally Posted by netwit

For someone whose party apparently won, you sound somewhat bitter?

I don't think that we'd play well together, netwit.

[BruSan]

Originally Posted by ajau

I think the overt Anti-Americanism is slowly going away... Maybe not in Toronto that was settled by loyalists fleeing the US in the late 18th Century but in the rest of Canada it is. Reason of course being our relative economic and social success vs the US. Stronger dollar, lower unemployment rate, etc.

That said, if we are going to dish it out on the Americans we need to learn how to take it from the Americans... We are learning but the "glass houses" analogy should apply.

We would observe that better than most I fear. Witness the reaction after 9/11 when you had various U.S. officials declaring for the world to observe that those terrorists had all entered via Canada's porous boder when in fact they were ALL in the U.S. on granted visas via U.S. point of entries. No apology ever issued over that one. Janet Napolitano the now head of Homeland Security still turns her face north to make talking points about tightening up the border while virtually having ignored her previous governorship responsibities to perform at all regarding this issue while the governor of Arizona. Instead she lines up with the Fed's to challenge the new attempts by her successor in that role to tighten her southern border.

Ya gotta wonder at this stuff and realize it's done because they are our biggest trading partner and have simply come to the conclusion "we can say and do what we want regarding Canada because they rely on us for so much and are a socialist regime to boot".

We are the proverbial midget living with an elephant in the room so our politeness is almost mandatory on an official diplomatic level. On a person to person basis however, a lot of the old stuff from years gone by, bubbles to the surface and rudeness in mistaking the person you're talking to for the entire Washington Foreign Policy office takes over.

The average U.S. citizen, if he bothers to think about Canada at all, may not have a flattering opinion of us but the way to influence that in a positive manner is NOT to subject them to rudeness or a verbal dust-up at the first chance we get. That's not supposed to be who we are.

[darrensmooth]

With the dislike Canadians have for Americans it makes me wonder...just about everything about this country is US based...i bet if you remove all the US influence, remove the US businesses you would have something Canadian, but what would that be?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by BIMBAM

I think the reason English Canadians engage in this activity is:

A) Because we feel culturally threatened by America. Canada is becoming more Americanized and we fear this trend, so in an effort to remain distinct anti-American rhetoric develops that makes it easier for us to reject American things. It's a collective cultural survival mechanism that other English speaking countries don't have to engage in because America is far away from them. We especially latch on to things that we would never have in our mainstream, like Sarah Palin or evangelical christianity, because it affirms our difference. People aren't doing this consciously, but it's the reason the phenomenon came about, took root, and many were socialized to this norm. Note, this tendancy is not so much present in French speaking Canada because French Canada is not threatened by America in the same way, French Canadians are much more secure in their separateness and so are more likely to be appreciative of American culture.

B) We feel we can criticize you because we watch all the criticizing you do of yourself. When you do it's meant for domestic consumption so you can fix problems in your country or stimulate debate about it. The response to, say, a Michael Moore documentary is supposed to be "there's something wrong with my country, but I love it none the less, I will work to heal it because it is my beloved home." Canadians who consume so much American media and are not it's target audience think "Ha, glad I don't live there and have to deal with those problems, I'll just relax here in Canada." We're close enough that we think we understand you and your problems, like an insider, but an outsider at the same time.

Superb post. You really have your finger on the pulse mon ami!

[maclock]

Originally Posted by Cornerguy1

So you are sickened:




and yet you opine:







.

Netwit's reply to your post suggests that he understood your message, but I must say that your reply communicated little to no meaning to yours truly. Would you care to explain what you were getting at here, Cornerguy1?

[Cornerguy1]

Originally Posted by maclock

Netwit's reply to your post suggests that he understood your message, but I must say that your reply communicated little to no meaning to yours truly. Would you care to explain what you were getting at here, Cornerguy1?

Merely that you are engaging in the same the intolerance that you espouse to detest.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by BruSan

The average U.S. citizen, if he bothers to think about Canada at all, may not have a flattering opinion of us but the way to influence that in a positive manner is NOT to subject them to rudeness or a verbal dust-up at the first chance we get. That's not supposed to be who we are.

You are right to say that the average American does not often think of Canada, but I disagree that when they do the image tends to be predominantly negative.

Most Americans have a generally positive image of Canada, and tend to view Canada as ''people just like us''. This may grate some Canadian nationalistic sensibilities on this side of the border, but an American who sees Canadians as highly similar people to him or her is certainly not seeing Canada in a bad light.

On the whole, the image Americans have of Canada is a lot more positive than the other way around.

[maclock]

Originally Posted by Cornerguy1

Merely that you are engaging in the same the intolerance that you espouse to detest.

Originally Posted by Cornerguy1

So you are sickened:

Quote:
to the core when they claim to speak for all Canadians, pretending to define and articulate what they seem convinced are "Canadian values"

and yet you opine:

Quote:
many Canadians are decidedly intolerant of anything or anyone that deviates in away from what they hold dear to their left-wing, liberal hearts.

Nonsense. A significant number of Canadians are (misguided) left-wing liberals and that's why their exaggerated howls of protest when people who are not left-wing liberals are democratically elected to run things drives people like me crazy. Their tut-tutting and their presumption that only they and their ilk are fit to run the country sickens people like me. Even Rex Murphy, a man who once ran for the Liberal Party, has called their side on it more than a few times in recent months. You wouldn't know if people like me were eating babies and killing senior citizens given their shrill shrieking.

If those people don't like it, then maybe they should try winning next time. We watched them demonize Mulroney, a left-leaning PCer. We won't let them get away with doing the same to Harper. They will mercilessly be called on their disrespect of political opponents and on their intolerance of those whose political beliefs diverge from their own.

If you think it's intolerant to describe these people as what they are, then you've got a very strange definition of intolerance. Ever hear of freedom of speech? Are you familiar with public discussion and debate? If you strip away speech of anything that might give rise to offense on any level, then you will be left with a tasteless pablum devoid of expressive content.

[maclock]

Originally Posted by Acajack

You are right to say that the average American does not often think of Canada, but I disagree that when they do the image tends to be predominantly negative.

Most Americans have a generally positive image of Canada, and tend to view Canada as ''people just like us''. This may grate some Canadian nationalistic sensibilities on this side of the border, but an American who sees Canadians as highly similar people to him or her is certainly not seeing Canada in a bad light.

On the whole, the image Americans have of Canada is a lot more positive than the other way around.

Acajack is largely right on this point. Most Americans have only hazy notions of what goes on north of the border. Normally hockey, cold weather and universal coverage are most frequently mentioned when the fact that you're a Canadian is introduced into a conversation.