Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > Canada
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 07-26-2016, 09:35 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,756 posts, read 37,644,012 times
Reputation: 11522

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by North 42 View Post
Lol, all I said was that the Americans that were interviewed on those shows were stupid, not that all Americans are stupid or not well travelled, that was Miss Thing making her usual assumptions about what other people have supposedly said, so I'm not really sure why any of this is directed at me, Christ, my husband is American and I have nothing against Americans.
Reading back now I realize you were called out personally for not having travelled much outside SW ON but beyond that, do you really think that Canadians' travel experiences and general knowledge about Canada is anywhere equivalent to that of Americans vis a vis the US?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 07-26-2016, 09:44 AM
 
Location: Windsor Ontario/Colchester Ontario
1,784 posts, read 2,194,036 times
Reputation: 2284
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Reading back now I realize you were called out personally for not having travelled much outside SW ON but beyond that, do you really think that Canadians' travel experiences and general knowledge about Canada is anywhere equivalent to that of Americans vis a vis the US?
Yes, I feel that both countries are pretty close to equal in that regard, but that Canadians seem to travel outside their country a bit more than Americans, hence the higher proportion of Canadians with passports, but this may be because Americans have far more choices within their own country to visit, where as Canadians are definately limited when it comes to travelling within Canada.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2016, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,756 posts, read 37,644,012 times
Reputation: 11522
Quote:
Originally Posted by North 42 View Post
Yes, I feel that both countries are pretty close to equal in that regard, but that Canadians seem to travel outside their country a bit more than Americans, hence the higher proportion of Canadians with passports, but this may be because Americans have far more choices within their own country to visit, where as Canadians are definately limited when it comes to travelling within Canada.
I don't see how that can be possible in light of facts that anyone is aware of.

There aren't really that many American "cultural" goodies that Canadians (especially Anglo-Canadians) will forgo.

So what this means is that in addition to consuming American stuff in proportions similar to Americans, Canadians are devoting all this *extra* time to Canadian stuff in order to be just as knowledgeable about Canada?

Hard to believe.

Same goes with travel - as I asked before. We travel just as much within Canada as Americans do within the US.

PLUS we travel a ton in US.

PLUS we travel a ton in the Caribbean.

And we even travel a bit more than Americans do to places like Europe.

Where do we find the time and the money to do all this?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2016, 10:07 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,756 posts, read 37,644,012 times
Reputation: 11522
Quote:
Originally Posted by newdixiegirl View Post
While Canadians might be better travelled abroad than Americans, they are not WELL travelled abroad, outside of, say, the US, Cuba, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. Typical winter destinations for Canadians. Some Canadians ARE worldy travellers (as are some Americans). My brother is. My cousin in Halifax is. My good friend in Montreal is. A few regulars here in the Canadian forum are. But most Canadians aren't. You might believe otherwise, Nat, but I don't.
I used to be a big believer in the Canadian Worldliness Exceptionalism Theory.

Now, I still do think that Canada does benefit a bit from the small is beautiful phenomenon that is described in the post here:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/22337673-post5.html

But only slightly so - and less and less so. We are also very affected by (North) American and Anglosphere insularity.

It's not really that much harder to find a Canadian who thinks that Piazza Dante was named for a guy who played quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings than it is to find an American who thinks that.

Even Canada's élite people are not exceptionally cultured and worldly when you compared them to Europeans of the same social class, or even élite people in more struggling countries like Argentina, Brazil or Mexico.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2016, 10:43 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,756 posts, read 37,644,012 times
Reputation: 11522
Default From my "Canadians and Canada" file

One anecdote about Canadians and how some don't know much about Canada, is from my wife and I, both of us having travelled all over Canada and abroad.

Anyway, over about 25 years, cumulatively my wife and I have run into a half dozen (maybe 10?) fellow Canadians who were absolutely dumbfounded by the fact that we spoke French and were from Canada, and not France!

Now, admittedly that's not a lot. But still, it goes to show that Canadians very ignorant about Canada do exist out there.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2016, 10:53 AM
 
909 posts, read 1,142,067 times
Reputation: 616
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post

Unless Canadians are basically travelling all the time and visiting the rest of Canada PLUS the United States PLUS the Caribbean.


Which is virtually impossible.
No it isn't. One year you go to the U.S., next year you go to another destination in Canada, next year Caribbean, following year in Europe, following year in Canada again, etc. It's fairly common to switch up destinations and it's far from impossible. That's what I do.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2016, 10:58 AM
 
909 posts, read 1,142,067 times
Reputation: 616
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
One anecdote about Canadians and how some don't know much about Canada, is from my wife and I, both of us having travelled all over Canada and abroad.

Anyway, over about 25 years, cumulatively my wife and I have run into a half dozen (maybe 10?) fellow Canadians who were absolutely dumbfounded by the fact that we spoke French and were from Canada, and not France!

Now, admittedly that's not a lot. But still, it goes to show that Canadians very ignorant about Canada do exist out there.
I will admit I have met some people who didn't know about Canada outside of their home province. This is because they didn't travel outside of their province. Having said that, it certainly doesn't prove Americans know more about their country than Canadians know about theirs. The people who I have met who only know about their province were even more knowledgeable about their province than I am and I live there as well. So it goes both ways. Those who travel a lot will know less about the province they live in and will probably not visit as many paces in the province itself.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2016, 11:02 AM
 
Location: Gatineau, Québec
26,756 posts, read 37,644,012 times
Reputation: 11522
Quote:
Originally Posted by GM10 View Post
No it isn't. One year you go to the U.S., next year you go to another destination in Canada, next year Caribbean, following year in Europe, following year in Canada again, etc. It's fairly common to switch up destinations and it's far from impossible. That's what I do.
If this is indeed typical, during that time, the vast majority of Americans are likely to have travelled in the U.S. only.

Which in turn makes them more well-travelled within their own country than Canadians are, right?

This is not that hard to understand. (And neither circumstance is necessarily better or worse.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2016, 11:05 AM
 
Location: Austin TX
11,027 posts, read 6,449,865 times
Reputation: 13258
I admittedly didn't read this thread because it seems a bit pointed. I did however have a rather unpleasant experience with Canadian Border Patrol last year in Alberta. It hasn't in any way colored my perception of Canada, but is worth noting.

I drove my Subaru from Austin, Texas up to Glacier Nat'l Park last summer. I booked a couple nights at the Prince of Wales Hotel up in Waterton Park as well. When we reached the border crossing, the immigration officer was beyond rude. He came out of the building and up to my window and his first words were "Texas plates, huh? How many guns do you have on you? Should I let you in?" I replied simply "none, sir". He shook me down for a good ten minutes straight, asking me politically pointed questions, badgering me that "I thought all you Texans carry guns?" and offering his criticism of Texans. He searched the car, took our passports, went back inside and ran a check on them, then came back out and as he handed them back to me said "Not too many Texans up here. You might want to keep things on the down low while visiting".

I was pretty shocked. It was a rather nasty, unexpected incident and it left me genuinely upset. He was unprofessional and stepped well outside the boundaries of his job. We went on to have a lovely stay, but I'll never forget his rude treatment and personal takes lobbed at us. I hope it was nothing more than a rare event of a jerk having a bad day. I can't imagine him putting Americans through his own personal gauntlet of insults on a daily basis.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2016, 11:19 AM
 
Location: Vancouver
18,492 posts, read 15,334,343 times
Reputation: 11929
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Without responding to every post in the thread, I'll say this:


For the purposes of what is being debated, Canadians don't have to be little-travelled in Canada or have zero knowledge about Canada in order to "lose" this argument. They just have to be less travelled and knowledgeable about their own country than Americans are about theirs.


While this is a bit hard to prove without anecdotes, there are some facts out there.


When one considers lower passport ownership among Americans (half that of Canada?) and the fact that Canadians spend a significant proportion of their time and money travelling in the U.S. (and the Caribbean), whereas Americans spend less time travelling outside their country, it's likely obvious Americans are travelling more in their country than Canadians are travelling in theirs.


Unless Canadians are basically travelling all the time and visiting the rest of Canada PLUS the United States PLUS the Caribbean.


Which is virtually impossible.


Similarly, when it comes to knowledge of country: Americans consume primarily US stuff when it comes to books, TV, movies, etc.


Canadians by and large consume a bit of Canadian stuff and also tons of American stuff. The American stuff they consume subtracts from the "brain time" they devote to Canadian knowledge.


Again, unless average Canadians are devoting two or three times more brain time to stuff in general, it's hard to see how such a huge share devoted to American stuff can still lead to Canadians knowing as much about Canada as Americans know about the US.

Passport ownership, or should I say LACK of passport ownership doesn't necessarily equate to travelling within ones own country. For example, non-passport holders in Canada and in the US can't fly. You need one to board a plane. So you are limited in transportation modes within your own country.
My guess in that non-passport holder aren't travellers to begin with even within their own country.

GM10 answered the next point. Each year somewhere different, or in my case day trips or camping trips over the border are very close. It's totally possible.

Brain time. LOL. Well I'm not brain specialist, but equating all " brain time " as equal in energy seems awfully simplified.
Entertainment, is just that entertainment. The energy my brain devotes to foreign programming is not the same energy that I devote to the more serious stuff ( Canadian ) here at home.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > Canada
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top