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I think it depends on where you live in the States. I live near the Detroit/Windsor border and it's not weird for people to cross the border for work or play or worship.
There are some cultural differences, but Timmy's is a staple in SE Michigan. So is getting CBC w/your cable package. We even have a curling club.
Nice topic, considering that Freedom Fest is starting soon.
To be honest as a Canadian I don't think we are. With the exception of a few Pacific and North east states the U.S is mostly a conservative country, where Canada is not. We have different cultures - of course we share a generic North American culture in someways but there are many differences. There really isn't a gun culture in Canada like the states and the gangster element just isn't here either apart from a few teeny tiny pockets in Montreal and maybe Toronto.. We're mostly gang free and for the most part low crime
Another thing is healthcare, Canadians support government and tax funded healthcare where as Americans are 100% opposed to "socialized medicine" and prefer private care through an employer.
Accent is another thing.. It is said that Canadian and American English is close to 99% similar but to me there are jarring differences. Most Americans I notice speak with a drawl or a bit of a twang (Great Lakes area) and even the west and pacific states still have a little "twang" going on where Canadian speech for the part is clipped, with raised vowels and extended monopthongs. When you think about it, there is nowhere in the US where they sound Canadian even the neighbouring great lakes areas sound entirely different with a night and day contrast. And to me as a Canadian "Minnesotans" and "uppers" sound absolutely nothing like me - they just sound like they have a great lakes accent with maybe some Finnish? I have no clue why we're thought of as sounding similar. Again, nowhere in the U.S can you find truly Canadian speech patterns and nowhere in Canada will you find anyone speaking American English with flat twangy vowels ("sarry" "owwt" ect)
In my opinion we really are not very similar at all.
If you step back and look at planet earth, everything you described, despite some inaccuracies or exaggerations, are quite immaterial. Outside of maybe Austria and Germany off the top of my head, Canada and the US are pretty damn similar in terms of set up and day-to-day culture and I've lived in both countries. No two places are exactly the same, even within countries, and one can nitpick things like accent and tax funding of services but lifestyle for the vast majority is pretty much the same for all intensive purposes. The only significant differentiator is Quebec in this regard.
In my experience, political mindset is probably the biggest difference and largely based on different historical events in the US (revolution, slave trade, superpower status, bigger rural states/population). But political mindset is also quite regional within both the US and Canada and much of it is driven by historical circumstances and conflicting objectives as opposed to more fundamental/innate differences. The band of how things are organized, ideas, and what is acceptable is not that wide when compared to the rest of the planet, especially non-Anglo countries. Compare Canada, for example, to countries in the rest of the world like India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Greece for instance if you really want to see bigger societal differences.
Last edited by johnathanc; 06-18-2015 at 07:12 AM..
To be honest as a Canadian I don't think we are. With the exception of a few Pacific and North east states the U.S is mostly a conservative country, where Canada is not. We have different cultures - of course we share a generic North American culture in someways but there are many differences. There really isn't a gun culture in Canada like the states and the gangster element just isn't here either apart from a few teeny tiny pockets in Montreal and maybe Toronto.. We're mostly gang free and for the most part low crime
Another thing is healthcare, Canadians support government and tax funded healthcare where as Americans are 100% opposed to "socialized medicine" and prefer private care through an employer.
Accent is another thing.. It is said that Canadian and American English is close to 99% similar but to me there are jarring differences. Most Americans I notice speak with a drawl or a bit of a twang (Great Lakes area) and even the west and pacific states still have a little "twang" going on where Canadian speech for the part is clipped, with raised vowels and extended monopthongs. When you think about it, there is nowhere in the US where they sound Canadian even the neighbouring great lakes areas sound entirely different with a night and day contrast. And to me as a Canadian "Minnesotans" and "uppers" sound absolutely nothing like me - they just sound like they have a great lakes accent with maybe some Finnish? I have no clue why we're thought of as sounding similar. Again, nowhere in the U.S can you find truly Canadian speech patterns and nowhere in Canada will you find anyone speaking American English with flat twangy vowels ("sarry" "owwt" ect)
In my opinion we really are not very similar at all.
The United States has a wide range of dialects and accents, so the fact that Canadians have a different accent doesn't really differentiate you all that much in our eyes. I live in Michigan, for instance, and while I guess the accent isn't exactly the same, it's close enough that I don't think it sets you apart all that much.
While Canadians have different policies, I've met enough Canadians to see that we're not that different. Parts of Canada are very conservative and religious, much like the middle part of America. Sure, Ottawa might be different than, say, LA, but maybe not so much different than the Eastern US.
Maybe it's because I've lived so close to Canada my whole life (just two hours away) and interacted with enough Canadians, but aside from government policies and some attitudes (guns, etc), there's just not that much to separate us.
Yes, they are. The US and Canada are very similar. I feel like Canadians like to say "No, we're more similar to Australia" or "The US? No, we're more like Europe" but let's be serious. Canada really isn't that different.
The United States has a wide range of dialects and accents, so the fact that Canadians have a different accent doesn't really differentiate you all that much in our eyes. I live in Michigan, for instance, and while I guess the accent isn't exactly the same, it's close enough that I don't think it sets you apart all that much.
While Canadians have different policies, I've met enough Canadians to see that we're not that different. Parts of Canada are very conservative and religious, much like the middle part of America. Sure, Ottawa might be different than, say, LA, but maybe not so much different than the Eastern US.
Maybe it's because I've lived so close to Canada my whole life (just two hours away) and interacted with enough Canadians, but aside from government policies and some attitudes (guns, etc), there's just not that much to separate us.
A Michigan accent and an Ontario accent is night and day. You have the "oots and aboots" on one side of the river and the "battle of pap" (bottle of pop) on the other. That may seem trivial but it shows a disconnect in cultures and social interaction.
Politics in Canada and the U.S. are drastically different. You have to understand religion and political views are rarely if ever expressed here whereas the US they're apart of life.
Every morning I wake up, wash my face, comb my hair. I love my wife, kiss my son goodbye, and go to work. I call my mom often, and take her a gift on Mother's Day. I work, I worry, and I try to do the right thing. I like all kinds of music, I play guitar (poorly), and I watch youtube videos occasionally. I worry about the government, I worry about the world, I don't have answers for the world's problems. I'm a man and I hate it when I cry watching "The Champ". I meet a really nice girl in Halifax once. I live in Kentucky.
The political differences don't matter much, IMHO, since they are contingent on the present moment. A century ago, everyone remarked on how much more conservative Canada was than the U.S.
There are of course cultural differences between the U.S. and Canada. But overall I think they tend to be natural variations between a common North American culture. Anglo-Canadian accents are so close to the U.S. because such a large proportion Canadians were ethnically American, between the Loyalists who went to New Brunswick (and eventually Ontario), the New Englanders who moved north into the Eastern Townships of Quebec (and also eventually moved west to Ontario as well, and the American settlers who moved into British Columbia. The majority of old-stock Anglo-Canadians probably have at least one ancestral line going back to the 13 colonies.
Have differences piled up over time? Sure - most notably because the continued connections to Great Britain meant the system of government was significantly different from the U.S. But the underlying culture is IMHO no more variant from say New England culture than New England is from the U.S. South - arguably less so in fact.
Minnesota accents sound Canadian-ish, and I'm sure Maine is very similar to Nova Scotia or Quebec. There are some connections between Toronto and Buffalo, and I'm sure there are also connections between Vancouver and Seattle. The majority of Canada's population lives within 100 miles or so of the US border, they're not very different from us.
And the majority of the population may live close to the border but we don't live on the border. Few of us cross over to the other side.
So despite 61% of Canadians living less than 100 miles from the US border means there's no cultural spillovers, on either side, whatsoever?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beavertail
We don't really have the fondest feelings about Americans either. Anti-Americanism is rampant.
Aaaaaaand there's the point of this entire thread. Just projecting your feelings upon the entire population of Canada to justify them, huh?
I had a coworker I worked with this past year that moved down here from Edmonton, and save some differences in religious views and language vernacular, there wasn't much difference between us.
Not really sure why some are so persistant in proving a point that Canadians (or other countries, in general) don't like the United States. I'm not a flag-waving patriot, but damn, our political leaders that make decisions don't represent the way all 300 million of us live, think, or act.
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