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1. Infrastructure: U.S. offers decidedly better road and highway infrastructure than the vast majority of Canada. Canada, due to its huge geography and sparse population, is actually extremely "under-developed" infrastructure wise than most other OECD countries, and understandably so. Australia is the closest developed country that can compare with Canada in this area.
Of course, America's heavy investments into road and interstate infrastructure also comes at a huge cost as demonstrated by the highly deficient investments and service levels in the country's metropolitan transit systems. When traveling for work in LA few weeks back, my colleagues/clients were absolutely shocked to hear that I took the bus/metro to office everyday from my hotel (and to be fair LA has a very decent light metro system despite its bad reputation), whereas in Toronto or Montreal, 3/4 of my office comes to work by transit or bike even on cold snowy days.
2. Weather and geographic diversity. U.S. offers much more varied geography and climate - everything from wintry weather to tropical all year round - something very very few countries the world can boast (China is probably the only one that can boast such varied geography and climate all within its borders).
3. General attitudes towards sensitive topics - folks in America are just much more expressive and extroverted when expressing their views on different issues. I've lost count how many times I've had heated debates with Uber drivers in California, NYC, PA, MA, etc. on Trump, impeachment, climate change, etc. etc.
I'm not saying this is necessarily a good thing - sometimes it can feel extremely tiresome having news channels blasting 24/7 partisan news, where as in Canada, news and everyday conversations on current affairs tend to be much more calm, reserved, and level-headed. Debates on LGBTQ rights/marriage, climate change, public healthcare, etc. are already foregone conclusions in Canada, whereas in America they are still relatively "controversial" headline news.
Kind of like how Toronto is New York run by the Swiss, as the actor Peter Ustinov reportedly quipped decades ago. I always think that quote is so à propos.
Kind of like how Toronto is New York run by the Swiss, as the actor Peter Ustinov reportedly quipped decades ago. I always think that quote is so à propos.
Let's leave out the Toronto-NYC comparisons... before the plethora of Toronto boosters on here start coming out in droves
Back to the topic, another minor difference I noticed is the lack of 24 hour cable news in Canada. I think Toronto may have 1 local channel (CP24) that broadcasts 24/7 local news and traffic conditions, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp has a 24 hour news/info channel, but they are all several notches below the likes of CNN, Fox, etc. Quite refreshing actually because I don't know any sane person who actually needs to watch "breaking" news 24/7.
Back to the topic, another minor difference I noticed is the lack of 24 hour cable news in Canada. I think Toronto may have 1 local channel (CP24) that broadcasts 24/7 local news and traffic conditions, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp has a 24 hour news/info channel, but they are all several notches below the likes of CNN, Fox, etc. Quite refreshing actually because I don't know any sane person who actually needs to watch "breaking" news 24/7.
There's also CTV News Channel, which broadcasts 24/7. Mostly news, national weather, business, and a couple of political affairs talk shows. Rarely sports, unless it's a big deal somehow ("Raptors Win NBA Championship" made it, run-of-the-mill sports scores don't). At any rate, CBC News Network and CTV News Channel are the only two national 24/7 cable news channels I know of in Canada.
Let's leave out the Toronto-NYC comparisons... before the plethora of Toronto boosters on here start coming out in droves
Back to the topic, another minor difference I noticed is the lack of 24 hour cable news in Canada. I think Toronto may have 1 local channel (CP24) that broadcasts 24/7 local news and traffic conditions, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp has a 24 hour news/info channel, but they are all several notches below the likes of CNN, Fox, etc. Quite refreshing actually because I don't know any sane person who actually needs to watch "breaking" news 24/7.
As Chevy noted, you do have CTV News Channel which is 24-hours as well.
One thing that is a lot rarer in Canada are metro area or regional news channels. (Though some might argue the French channels are regional, they are actually "national" in scope, especially RDI.)
I believe that only Toronto and Vancouver have regional 24-hour news channel (CP24 and BC1).
If broadcasting in Canada was a developed as in the U.S., Toronto would probably have more than one all-news channel and places like Alberta (over 4 million people) or even Atlantic Canada (2.5 million people) would likely have them as well.
Kind of like how Toronto is New York run by the Swiss, as the actor Peter Ustinov reportedly quipped decades ago. I always think that quote is so à propos.
Steve Martin once said Toronto is just like New York, only without all the "stuff".
There's also CTV News Channel, which broadcasts 24/7. Mostly news, national weather, business, and a couple of political affairs talk shows. Rarely sports, unless it's a big deal somehow ("Raptors Win NBA Championship" made it, run-of-the-mill sports scores don't). At any rate, CBC News Network and CTV News Channel are the only two national 24/7 cable news channels I know of in Canada.
There's the Global News channel too, or at least here on the coast they are on cable 24/7, I don't know about in other provinces.
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Used to send some time in the Gulf Islands of Canada. Just lovely.
I found locals very friendly, they said "eh" pretty often, drank more tea and hard cider than I was used to--and didn't much care for Californians. (I was one, but I guess not typical) because the locals would complain about them to me...until they found out I was from SF. We'd share a good laugh over that...
I love the Gulf Islands, and stay on Salt Spring at least once a year.
First I've ever heard that they don't care much for Californians, or anyone really. Were they perhaps talking about boaters?
I love the Gulf Islands, and stay on Salt Spring at least once a year.
First I've ever heard that they don't care much for Californians, or anyone really. Were they perhaps talking about boaters?
I lived in BC for a long time, I am also surprised to hear this. California is so far away, most people in my experience didn't have strong feelings about Californians. It wasn't a place that came up often, and when it did, it was to draw positive parallels between the state and BC. Like "we have things in common with California, since we are also on the West Coast and share integrated industries like tech and film". No one thought less of them than other Americans.
Canada and the USA are very similar. Quebec by far has more history than most of the USA (comparably to where the Spanish had settled in what is now continental USA if anything) and has been able to retain their Franco-Canadian/Latin culture apart from Anglo-Canadian encroachment with various laws as well as laws that might benefit First Nations while the USA gov keeps encroaching into Native lands such as the Pipelines in the Dakotas.
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