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Most Canadians are indistinguishable from Americans... unless you're from Quebec.
Sports analogy, think of it like this... were in the same league, we do the same things, were in the same division, and were competitors.
Interesting to note... 80-90% of Canadians live within a 100 miles of the CAN - US border.
Yes, I am well aware that most Americans can’t seem to tell the difference. It’s subtle difference but Canadians notice it’s there. Americans in general seem to have a hard time noticing subtle.
One example is in the area of individual rights. Canadians are a lot more comfortable balancing individual rights with social responsibility.
By the way, the idea that many Canadians live close to the border because they are emotionally dependent on Americans is absurd. Waterways and railroad lines plus climate helped determine where people originally settled and where subsequent infrastructure was built.
I get this. Canadians have become very prideful and boastful of their Nation vs the US today. Not that it is bad. Just they use to see Americans as that and as the title "The Ugly American" denoted. Now they have it and do it.
Reading between the lines. You clearly see a superior belief in themselves and more and more SOME desire to separate themselves from the US.
When I was told The US is a FORIEGN NATION to one posting here. Got a full picture. Few Americans see Canada that way.
Not sure why someone would feel slighted by someone stating a simple fact. To Canadians, you are a foreign nation. That doesn't mean odd, or strange ( that's a different thread ).
Canada is a foreign nation to the Americans I've met. They may say they feel comfortable here, but considering how different our political systems are, the social programs, the way the school systems are funded etc, it is completely foreign to an American.
I’m in my 20s now and only just moved to Canada from America this month, so maybe it’s just my lack of experience talking, but... Canada? More conservative than the US? I have a very hard time believing that. They don’t have strict abortion laws, they legalized gay marriage 10 years before we did, they accept more immigrants and refugees per capita, they have universal healthcare and an official policy of multiculturalism, etc.
I think people get reserved and conservative confused. Canadians in general, are less in your face, but socially we are generally more liberal than the average Americans. A more, live and let live attitude.
Most Americans would be shocked to learn that we have medical assistance in dying, and no abortion laws.
I can't see that happening in the US anytime soon.
Equal marriage you mentioned, but it should also be stated that in common law marriages are also treated equally.
I think people get reserved and conservative confused. Canadians in general, are less in your face, but socially we are generally more liberal than the average Americans. A more, live and let live attitude.
Yup, I totally agree.
Quote:
Most Americans would be shocked to learn that we have medical assistance in dying, and no abortion laws.
I can't see that happening in the US anytime soon.
Equal marriage you mentioned, but it should also be stated that in common law marriages are also treated equally.
Other differences of note:
- The last execution in Canada was in 1962
- Universal health care across Canada came into effect in 1968
- Canadians as a whole are a lot less religious. Most striking is a 2018 poll which indicated that 53% of Americans considered religion to be very important in their lives compared to only 27% of Canadians. See map here:https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/...mitment-01-00/
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I'm not sure if Canada or America is more or less socially liberal because liberal and conservative have such subjective meanings, but here is a list about Canada that some Canadian posters seem to have forgotten.
Canada:
- Women's suffrage (the right to vote) passed in all of Canada in 1944, but passed in 1920 across all of the U.S.
- Canada remains a monarchy, the most ultra-conservative government system in the continental western hemisphere. For the U.S. this is 1700's style, because they ditched "our" government back then and came up with something new. Also, that something new may be the most emulated government in the world, and sparked huge social revolutions around the world that have changed the way everyone looks at their governments. This includes a gigantic influence on Canada's liberalism - William Lyon Mackenzie, Papineau, for example.
- Indigenous Canadians were only allowed to vote in Canada in 1960, compared to in 1920 in the U.S. Most were already allowed to vote in most U.S states by 1920, and the federal government made it universal by 1920. The last residential school, schools to make you "white" closed in Canada in the 90's - that's the 1990's not the 1890's.
- Indigenous Canadians only became citizens of Canada in 1956. They became citizens of the U.S. in 1924....
- Canada has remained a much more "white" and culturally segregated country even despite recent push for multicultralism. If I am in Quebec, it would be very rare for an anglo Canadian from say Ontario, or B.C. to know anything about what the popular music, movies, and other cultural products are here, and they usually don't care to know either. Take African-Americans who are very mainstream as Americans. So Hip-hop, jazz, R&B, fried chicken, BBQ cornbread, are very typically American things, right? Also consider that in the world wars black Canadians were only allowed to dig ditches (#2 Construction Battalion) whilst African-Americans were flying fighter planes in combat against Nazis (Tuskegee Airmen).
- Anglo Canadians are very reserved, or have a conservative approach to conversations, more conservative in sharing their opinions, and not as tolerant of opinions that are different than theirs. "Keep it to yourself". Americans are more open to conversations, more free to share their beliefs, and more tolerating when someone has polar opposite beliefs. "Freedom of speech". So this is why you see entertainers who decide not to perform in Canada. They see people like comedians being handed life-destroying fines by the government for accidentally offending someone. Not a very "live-and-let-live" approach.
- Tying into a couple of points above, in the U.S. they get a Barack Obama or Donald Trump, whilst in Canada we are told who the party nominee will be, we are told! Americans actually go and pick it themselves which is much more liberal. We are also told who will be in the senate, whilst they vote on it. Where is the first person of colour who is prime minister of Canada? Who has come close? Crickets. Which woman has gotten to become a serious candidate as prime minister? There is no Canadian Hilary Clinton or another female who lost by a hair. Oh, and nearly 90% of Canada is owned by a foreign monarch who resides in London, not exactly forward-thinking.
- Marijuana legalization took off in the U.S. IIRC Washington and Colorado are very famous for this. Canada saw that this is the new wave of "change" and made it a federal law after several U.S. states and a much larger population did.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natnasci
I think people get reserved and conservative confused. Canadians in general, are less in your face, but socially we are generally more liberal than the average Americans. A more, live and let live attitude.
Most Americans would be shocked to learn that we have medical assistance in dying, and no abortion laws.
I can't see that happening in the US anytime soon.
Equal marriage you mentioned, but it should also be stated that in common law marriages are also treated equally.
I doubt it, several US states have assisted suicide. The population of Americans who have this in their state is more than double the population of all of Canada, not to mention that out-of-staters could just travel to the nearest state to participate, if they wish.
The U.S. is so diverse and has so many new things going on down there that I doubt anything shocks them. Canadians are the ones who are shocked and/or offended. "Oh my god, Donald Trump!". "Oh my god Barack Obama"! "I can't believe it"!
No abortion laws at all sounds like a very American way of doing things. A Libertarian wild-west style approach.
I am not sure if "Live and let live" is a more conservative or liberal approach.
What I see in modern Canada, especially with the millennial and younger, is in an your face approach trying to get one to approve of the LGBTQ+ culture, multiculturalism, drugs, divorce, Canada #1, and all that those other buzzword causes. Ironically these are often enough the least tolerant people you'll come across, yet they have taken the word "liberal" as their own!
Last edited by PBeauchamp; 08-30-2019 at 04:17 PM..
Nothing new, they have been saying that since the 17th century.
If an American wants to halve the number of available jobs, cut their pay by 25%, pay 30% more for the goods and services they buy, and pay double for their housing, that is up to them.
I love Quebec due to cultural reasons, it is the only place where I feel home.
But anglo Canadians are essentially ripped off on a daily basis, and instead of advocating change, they go on to create a series of myths to justify their robbery.
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