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No Australa is much more connected to Britain than Canada. i live in the great white norht, and i can tell you - while there is a strong expat community here, and symbols of "old" britain - most of the white anglo canadians have been established here since the 17th century - as long as the Americans - and there is a large swathe of francophones.
While Australia, had waves of British immigration in the 1950s and 1960s.
Australia is definitely FAR more connected to the UK in a sporting context that's for sure!! Australia itself is obviously nothing like the UK but Australians are an awful lot like the British, certainly all of the ones I've met.
At a sporting level its pretty obvious the ties between Australia and the UK are broader than between Canada and the UK. You'd have to be blind not to see that. But also don’t overestimate the popularity of cricket in Australia or forget that League and Union are only played in NSW and Qld, and that the letter is a minor niche sport even in those two states.
But sport isn’t the only connection between countries, and in terms of things like tourism, trade, government relations, and the basic structure of government, those between Canada, and even the US to an extent, and the UK are deeper.
I’ve no reason to doubt that the Australians you met in the UK fit in. They obviously feel an affinity with the place, and are doing their best to experience and live the UK experience. Why would they not? Immersing yourself in another country is usually a very positive personal growth experience. Similarly, why would anyone is Australia see the need to make a Brit feel out of place - the migrant experience is pretty close to most of us? But I suspect you do underestimated how diverse Australia is, not only in terms of people’s ethnic backgrounds, but also in terms of lifestyles and geography. Places like rural QLD or NSW can be pretty socially and politically conservative (which is not necessarily either good or bad), someone in the NT whether white, Asian or Aboriginal, lives a lifestyle totally disconnected from anything you’ll find in Europe, and there are parts of NSW where the 1970s hippie movement never faded away but became the dominant mainstream.
We certainly have our share of people who’d fit right into the less than flattering stereotype of folk from certain NA countries I suspect you hold.
Its good to hear from some of our Canadian friends that not only are they not American, they're also not British. But why they would think we are is a mystery.
We have no superpower on our border, history and geography have separated us from the Olde World and its historical legacy (truly out of sight, out of mind), in the mid 20th century we had to fight for the survival of our nation which forever swept away any real remaining divides or bitterness between the major ethnic groups, and it’s so pleasantly easy to forget the rest of the world is even there and just do our own thing. Perhaps, they’re just a little bit.......... jealous?
Last edited by Bakery Hill; 08-10-2016 at 01:45 AM..
At a sporting level its pretty obvious the ties between Australia and the UK are broader than between Canada and the UK. You'd have to be blind not to see that. But also don’t overestimate the popularity of cricket in Australia or forget that League and Union are only played in NSW and Qld, and that the letter is a minor niche sport even in those two states.
But sport isn’t the only connection between countries, and in terms of things like tourism, trade, government relations, and the basic structure of government, those between Canada and the UK are deeper.
I’ve no reason to doubt that the Australians you met in the UK fit in. They obviously feel an affinity with the place, and are doing their best to experience and live the UK experience. Why would they not? Similarly, why would anyone is Australia see the need to make a Brit feel out of place - the migrant experience is pretty close to most of us? But I suspect you do underestimated how diverse Australia is, not only in terms of people’s ethnic backgrounds, but also in terms of lifestyles and geography. Places like rural QLD or NSW can be pretty socially and politically conservative (which is not necessarily either good or bad), someone in the NT whether white, Asian or Aboriginal, lives a lifestyle totally disconnected from anything you’ll find in Europe, and there are parts of NSW where the 1970s hippie movement never faded away, it became the dominant mainstream.
We certainly have our share of people who’d fit right into the less than flattering stereotype of folk from certain NA countries I suspect you hold.
Its good to hear from some of our Canadian friends that not only are they not American, they're also not British. But why they would think we are is mystery.
We have no superpower on our border, history and geography have separated us from the Olde World and its historical legacy (truly out of sight, out of mind), in the mid 20th century we had to fight for the survival of our nation which forever swept away any real remaining divides or bitterness between the major ethnic groups, and it’s so pleasantly easy to forget the rest of the world is even there and just do our own thing. Perhaps, they’re just a little bit.......... jealous?
Its good to hear from some of our Canadian friends that not only are they not American, they're also not British. But why they would think we are is a mystery.
I am not saying you are exactly like the British, only that you have a lot more similarities to them than you acknowledge. Canada has many similarities to the UK. And get this - I also think the US has significant and obvious "parentage" with the UK, in spite of what many people think.
But I do think that Australia's similarities overall do rank it higher in Britishness than Canada. Even if neither country is even close to being close to identical to the UK, and that both are rapidly moving to somewhat a "post-British" place identity-wise.
Anyway, in spite of what you might think, I don't really have a horse in this race, which if it even exists, is between (Anglo-)Canadians and Australians.
You may not know or have forgotten this, but I am a French-speaking Canadian living in Quebec.
Where I live we kiss on both cheeks to greet each other and the kids sings Frère Jacques and Au Clair de La Lune, not The Wheels on the Bus and Row Row Row Your Boat.
No one mistakes us for the British. Or Americans even. Or the French really.
But sport isn’t the only connection between countries, and in terms of things like tourism, trade, government relations, and the basic structure of government, those between Canada, and even the US to an extent, and the UK are deeper.
While not identical, the basic structure of government is probably most similar between Canada and Australia. That's why exchanges between parliamentarians and poli sci scholars are so common between the two countries.
Yes, there are some differences and the Australian parliament in its functioning is more like a hybrid US-UK system, whereas Canada's is more purely Westministerian.
But Australia like Canada has a Governor-General, Lieutenant-Governors in the states/provinces. The division of powers between the central government and the states/provinces is not dissimilar.
Australia has a High Court whose functioning and appointments process (GIC) is quite similar to the Surpreme Court of Canada's.
Need I go on?
On the other hand, I find local government in Australia is more British in style whereas Canada's is more American. Even the largest Australian cities are usually split up into small municipalities often the size of a neighbourhood or district that would be part of a much larger city with no equivalent and effective local government if they were in Canada. Although the population of these "suburbs" (as they referred to in Australia, even if they are dense inner city areas) is generally larger that their equivalents in the UK (the "city" of London only has 8,000 people for example) it's still an obviously British-inspired form of government.
Australia's pop culture/entertainment industry/star system is also much more intertwined with the UK's than Canada's is. (Well, some might argue that Anglo-Canada doesn't even have one - but what it does have is totally and firmly ensconced in the US machine...)
In fairness, the externalization of Australia's is basically two-pronged, with one tentacle in the US and one in the UK. (In this way, it's kind of like Quebec's, which has one foot in France and the other in the US.)
Anyway, you don't see UK tabloids trying to snag bikini shots of Canadian "soapie" stars like they do for Aussie starlets... (Well, Anglo-Canada doesn't have its own "soapies", so it's kind of a moot point anyway...)
I am not saying you are exactly like the British, only that you have a lot more similarities to them than you acknowledge. Canada has many similarities to the UK. And get this - I also think the US has significant and obvious "parentage" with the UK, in spite of what many people think.
But I do think that Australia's similarities overall do rank it higher in Britishness than Canada. Even if neither country is even close to being close to identical to the UK, and that both are rapidly moving to somewhat a "post-British" place identity-wise.
Anyway, in spite of what you might think, I don't really have a horse in this race, which if it even exists, is between (Anglo-)Canadians and Australians.
You may not know or have forgotten this, but I am a French-speaking Canadian living in Quebec.
Where I live we kiss on both cheeks to greet each other and the kids sings Frère Jacques and Au Clair de La Lune, not The Wheels on the Bus and Row Row Row Your Boat.
No one mistakes us for the British. Or Americans even. Or the French really.
i doubt many believe canada is more culturally similar to the uk than australia , of course australia is closer in this sense , canada is influenced by the usa for obvious reasons where as australia culturally is still a child of britain in many ways , economically both australia and canada are similar to each other , both countries economies are still heavily dependent on their natural resources - commodity sector , the uk is a more sophisticated economy than both canada and australia which isnt to say the uk is wealthier , its actually less wealthy per head than both australia and canada , australia has grown its wealth massively since the mid nineties , thirty or forty years ago , canada was significantly wealthier than australia , the huge growth in the australian economy is completely tied to the rise of china
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