Why Do So Many More Canadians Move To America Than Americans Move To Canada? (Mennonites, education)
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I prefer to think a country with an economy a fraction of the size of it's counterpart on the same continent may attract a corresponding fraction of immigration?
Canada's economy is one quarter of the size of that of the US? Isn't more in the vicinity of a tenth?
I think sometimes that people in your part of Canada must be very different than they are here..
Keep in mind that having lived in Ontario for 20-25 years, and having many of my relatives still there, it's often Ontario that's my reference marker for such things. As opposed to Quebec.
For better or for worse, "Canadian patriotism" and Canada/Canadians' global presence and image are fairly low-level concerns in Quebec.
AJ, I think that must be just your personal experience, maybe you see that with the class of people that you hang out with or perhaps it's a prevalent feeling amongst certain types of snobbish intellectuals in your particular area. Or whatever. But I don't believe that's a prevalent feeling for Canadians in general and I don't see signs of it. I know the people in my social circle and general locale don't even think about stuff like that and couldn't care less. They're far too busy just getting on with their own daily lives and staying in tune with local community affairs to be concerned about Canada getting popularity credit and pats on the back from the international community or our neighbours to the south. They don't care about how many immigrants choose to come to Canada instead of USA or other countries and they don't care about the reasons why immigrants choose to come to Canada. They don't need to care. I don't know if you can understand that, that Canadians already know they don't need to care about that kind of thing, and so they simply don't think about it.
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Not to be judgemental but I am not really interested in the opinions of indifferent, apathetic, self-absorbed people because, you know, they tend to not have opinions.
Keep in mind that having lived in Ontario for 20-25 years, and having many of my relatives still there, it's often Ontario that's my reference marker for such things. As opposed to Quebec.
For better or for worse, "Canadian patriotism" and Canada/Canadians' global presence and image are fairly low-level concerns in Quebec.
I think that there used to be a feeling in the arts that Canadians who moved to the United States had sold out to the man/almighty dollar. I think that was also the perception of the Gretzky trade. I'm not sure it exists in that particular way in the arts any more.
I think sometimes that people in your part of Canada must be very different than they are here. If anything, I think a lot of younger people think Canada's overseas profile is bgger than it is. Having no children, in some things I'm out of the loop as to what the younger generation is thinking or being taught in school but that is the impression I get.
Assuming you're talking about Canadian young people, I think you're right that they often think Canada's the cat's meow. But this had already started in my youth, which was in the late 80s to mid 90s. (Spent mostly in Ontario, and a bit in the Maritimes, BTW.)
The vast majority of kids I knew thought Canada was absolutely fantastic, and that we had built a better America with almost all of the good stuff in the U.S. with almost none of the bad. These happened to be particular rough years in the U.S., with serious abandonment and violence in almost all of their major cities. Even NYC wasn't really that impressive the first time I went: there was grandeur for sure but most of it appeared to be from another era and the city felt run-down and sketchy.
When you get to travel abroad a bit, as I often mention you get the "yay Canada you guys are great! but I'm admittedly slim on the details" thing from the vast majority of people you encounter. This I take it is what you mean by people thinking Canada's profile is bigger than some people think.
I've honestly never had a bad experience abroad resulting from my nationality or the passport I carry. But with young people usually the conversation would quickly go from "you're Canadian so we know you're gonna be cool, so feel free to tag along!" followed by "so... have you ever seen Michael Jordan play live?" or "have you ever attended a taping of the David Letterman Show?"
I think that there used to be a feeling in the arts that Canadians who moved to the United States had sold out to the man/almighty dollar. I think that was also the perception of the Gretzky trade. I'm not sure it exists in that particular way in the arts any more.
Assuming you're talking about Canadian young people, I think you're right that they often think Canada's the cat's meow. But this had already started in my youth, which was in the late 80s to mid 90s. (Spent mostly in Ontario, and a bit in the Maritimes, BTW.)
The vast majority of kids I knew thought Canada was absolutely fantastic, and that we had built a better America with almost all of the good stuff in the U.S. with almost none of the bad. These happened to be particular rough years in the U.S., with serious abandonment and violence in almost all of their major cities. Even NYC wasn't really that impressive the first time I went: there was grandeur for sure but most of it appeared to be from another era and the city felt run-down and sketchy.
When you get to travel abroad a bit, as I often mention you get the "yay Canada you guys are great! but I'm admittedly slim on the details" thing from the vast majority of people you encounter. This I take it is what you mean by people thinking Canada's profile is bigger than some people think.
I've honestly never had a bad experience abroad resulting from my nationality or the passport I carry. But with young people usually the conversation would quickly go from "you're Canadian so we know you're gonna be cool, so feel free to tag along!" followed by "so... have you ever seen Michael Jordan play live?" or "have you ever attended a taping of the David Letterman Show?"
Stuff like that.
Yes, that's about when Canada started changing from my perspective. I don't remember this sort of self-conscious self-awareness before then. We just were Canadians. We were happy enough to be Canadians. I don't recall it ever being talked about.
Anecdote about Canada's 150th: a neighbour's kid must be very lonely at the age of 18 because he has taken to dropping by a lot lately. He is the grandchild of immigrants and his grandparents' English is barely understandable. He was telling me how he had spent Canada Day in Winnipeg. And he said it was all terrible, everything was about the "Indians" and nothing was about "how great we had made it." And more in that vein. Making it sound like the greatest country in the world. And I said (gently) that I wasn't that much into nationalism and that my people had come as refugees because Canada was the only country that would take them.
He stared at me for a minute and then said, "Well, my people came for more land, money and power."
I wasn't sure whether I felt like laughing or not. There were too many ways to spin that. Would one rather have grateful refugees or immgrants who come for money and power?
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