Does English Speaking Canada have more in common culturally to the US or commwealth countries like (Aus, NZ or UK)? (living in, fence)
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This is recurring thread that seems to get restarted every couple of months. We just finished one it seems.
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Yep.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fish & Chips
It's disappointing that Canada isn't appreciated for its own identity. It's a country always being compared to somewhere else.
This thread denies the identities of pretty much all countries mentioned. Even Australia and New Zealand, which most Brits and Americans usually think of as alike, have their points of similarities and profound differences. And of course, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have long been pretty culturally diverse immigrant societies anyway, and there has been a lot of parallel migration to each from common source countries like China, Viet Nam, Italy, Poland, Germany, Korea, Greece, Ireland, Macedonia......
Last edited by Bakery Hill; 03-08-2017 at 12:45 PM..
Since Canada is on the border of the US, would it have naturally have more in common with the US culturally, or conversely since its a member of the nations of Commonwealth, would it have more in common with the other commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom? This obviously only applies to English speaking Canadians, what are you views?
All of the countries you mentioned share many contemporary cultural similarities but I think all of the commonwealth nations share more common values with each other than any of them share with America.
What I think is a more salient point though, as Return2FL mentioned, Canada puts a lot of energy into resisting and trying to not be like America and not wanting to be compared with or equated with America. This is in spite of the fact that America is its closest neighbour and trade partner and Canada has been constantly bombarded and inundated with all things American throughout its history.
Canada has never felt threatened or that it needed to resist any of the commonwealth nations. That should tell you who Canada has more in common with. Regardless of what languages are spoken.
Canada has never felt threatened or that it needed to resist any of the commonwealth nations. That should tell you who Canada has more in common with. Regardless of what languages are spoken.
Isn't that just geography, and the large neighbour effect, though? The whole Canada-US dynamic is eerily similar in a lot of ways to the NZ-Australia relationship. Kiwis even like to distance or distinguish themselves from Australia, as Canadians do from the US. In some ways its almost like two pairs of siblings, that are almost like collective twins. The smaller siblings are focussed a lot more social programs and welfare, while the larger siblings take a more active role in global affairs; both larger siblings have pretty noisey and full-on political scenes compared to the smaller twins, but are quite OK with that.......the smaller two like to view their history as lacking some of the darker sides they see in their older brothers, both of whom seem more at ease in acknowledge the incongruities, paradoxes, darker moments and ambiguities of their pasts...
Last edited by Bakery Hill; 03-09-2017 at 03:18 AM..
This thread denies the identities of pretty much all countries mentioned. Even Australia and New Zealand, which most Brits and Americans usually think of as alike, have their points of similarities and profound differences. And of course, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have long been pretty culturally diverse immigrant societies anyway, and there has been a lot of parallel migration to each from common source countries like China, Viet Nam, Italy, Poland, Germany, Korea, Greece, Ireland, Macedonia......
The focus of this thread is Canada, and I feel that Canada's identity is far more overlooked than the others.
In the past hundred years, Canada has had to struggle to maintain it's individual identity and resist the power of the huge elephant that lives next door.
The day to day influence of the US comes in many forms. Some are minor, such as the spelling of some words, while others are massive such as the wall to wall TV and internet avalanche that we get 24/7.
In order to maintain our own music and publishing sectors, Canada introduced a series of "Canadian content " rules about how much of our radio music content had to be by Canadian musicians . Magazines had to contain a majority of articles written by Canadians. TV productions had to have a majority percentage of Canadian actors, and behind the camera people. The result in the 1970's was the emergence of a number of musicians, song writers, authors and TV performers who would have otherwise been smothered by the US monster.
Today, we watch the political and social upheavals in the place next door, with a mixture of amusement and fear. The US is becoming a threat and a worry to us in Canada. We think of individual Americans as good people ( many of us have family members who are Americans ) but their Government now is a thing to be feared. What used to be a hidden form of anti immigrant bias is now emerging as an official policy at the US border. Recent examples of outright bigotry by US border officers against Canadian citizens , who are "not white and have a muslin name " are the tip of the iceberg, I think.
America under Trump is going to be a real test of our patience and diplomatic determination to stand up to their idiotic policies. The first example is the recent influx of "undocumented travellers " who are crossing into Canada from the US. The US Government is making a lot of noise about "deporting all illegals" . Canada is doing the right thing.....accepting and sheltering them. Walking though last weeks blizzard in Manitoba, with temps of minus 30 C and winds of 60 kph, shows just how desperate they are to get here. OR to flee the US.
Canada has no choice about who our neighbour is. We do have a choice about how we relate to them.
Isn't that just geography, and the large neighbour effect, though? The whole Canada-US dynamic is eerily similar in a lot of ways to the NZ-Australia relationship. Kiwis even like to distance or distinguish themselves from Australia, as Canadians do from the US. In some ways its almost like two pairs of siblings, that are almost like collective twins. The smaller siblings are focussed a lot more social programs and welfare, while the larger siblings take a more active role in global affairs; both larger siblings have pretty noisey and full-on political scenes compared to the smaller twins, but are quite OK with that.......the smaller two like to view their history as lacking some of the darker sides they see in their older brothers, both of whom seem more at ease in acknowledge the incongruities, paradoxes, darker moments and ambiguities of their pasts...
This is quite true.
What's perhaps most astonishing is that the big guy in one equation (Australia) is smaller than the small guy (Canada) in other equation.
So Australia is the U.S, and Canada is New Zealand, which has about the same population as Greater Montreal.
Though it's true that "Anglo-Canada" and Australia are much closer in population.
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