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Canada has a great deal of Scottish descended people and I don't know that Scottish people are stereotyped as all that reserved.
Like I said though I've never really got the sense Canadians are all that reserved. Not from the TV or my own interactions. The stereotype is more "polite" but I don't think that lack of rudeness equates to what I'd think of as "reserved." I'd think "reserved" is more like not being real expressive with your emotions and that doesn't fit Canadians I've dealt with at all. Online the Canadians I've dealt with are often not even polite and will very much tell you why they think you, or the US government, is idiotic. In life the few Canadians I've known usually like to laugh and smile as much as any American, maybe more.
Climate changes everything, even affecting the vitamins your body takes in. Long hours of darkness and cold mean less energy. Sitting inside for months on end means less people are outside littering in the streets, getting drunk on the streets, and less violence. Northerners aren't more reserved/polite/more peaceful, they just are a product of the climate they live in, same as southerners.
From Ontario (and including Ontario) all the way to the Pacific Ocean, Canadians are indeed quite a bit more reserved than Americans on average.
People in Quebec are a different breed altogether, and are every bit as exuberant and gregarious as Americans, if not more. This in spite of the fact that Quebecers live in a northern climate.
East of Quebec, Atlantic Canadians are probably least reserved population group among English-speaking Canadians. This is especially true of Newfoundlanders.
I assume you only mean French-speaking (Francophone) Quebecers. I wouldn't think Anglophones would be any different from other English-speaking Canadians, but I've never been to Quebec so I don't know.
I assume you only mean French-speaking (Francophone) Quebecers. I wouldn't think Anglophones would be any different from other English-speaking Canadians, but I've never been to Quebec so I don't know.
Well, French speakers are the vast majority of the population in Quebec, so the way they "are" generally defines the way Quebecers "are".
As for the English-speaking minority in Quebec, interestingly enough I find them to be fairly exuberant as well. Keep in mind that most anglos in Quebec these days are not particularly WASPish, and most are of Italian, Jewish (Ashkenazi), Greek, Irish, French-Canadian, etc. origins. In that sense, their ethnic composition is not all that different from that of "white people" in many of the larger cities of the northeastern United States. Plus they live surrounded by millions of French Canadians. All of which is enough to make pretty much anybody "non-reserved"!
My experiences haven't really indicated this. I visited a friend who attended college in Canada's capital Ottawa. I actually found everyone I met to be extremely friendly, albeit outspoken about American politics. But I felt an overall very relaxed vibe in the city which I was not expecting. But I will qualify that by adding that I interacted mostly with students, which of course is not a representative sample but I think it still indicates something.
Yeah, Canadians are friendly, but they definitely keep their distance. I dont think they're like reserved in the hipster sense of acting like you don't exist though.
Well this is just me but I view them as more serious and less loud and more likely to appreciate intelligent documetaries, etc. Unlike many Americans, Canadians don't seem obsessed with fun fun fun. They're more even-keeled meaning they'll watch a bit of reality tv but not too much. JMO.
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I think the weather definitely has some effect on their temperament. Like in Scandanavia, the people often socialise among friends and families in their homes rather than in the town squares, piazzas and parks like in say Spain or many tropical countries.
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