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Good thread, though there are more similarities, there are a lot of differences too
Canada has that the US doesn't:
French as a federal language alongside English.
Quebec's main language is French, in all of the US the official language is English so a Tennessean and a New Yorker speak English, different than when an Albertan goes to Quebec the Albertan has to get used to see French signs everywhere.
Metric system as the standard rather than the imperial system.
Spelling that is closer to the Commonwealth so Canadians use 'colour' and America use 'color'.
Canada still has the British royalty as the head of state, unlike American who kicked out Britain in 1776.
Canada was populated by American loyalists who escaped the Patriots who did not like Britain.
Canada has the prime minister rather than the president who is the US head of state.
More passion for Ice hockey and winter sports (except basketball, then again even that sport was invented by a Canadian).
Free Healthcare, but it is much less competitive than the US.
More rural land.
US has what Canada doesn't:
Diversity of Climates. Other than Vancouver which has similar weather to Seattle, Canada is bone chilling cold and snowy. US has both, plus Mediterranean climate in California, hot desert climate, subtropical climates in the Southeast and Tropical in South Florida.
More and bigger cities. The state of California has more people than the Maple Leaf flag nation.
Racial minorities have way more influence in the US than Canada. Soul food is eaten by everyone in the south, Tacos are in abundance from Texas to California, and Asian food is enjoyed by West Coasters from Seattle to San Diego. Ethnic foods are readily available around supermarket shelves and restaurants in both countries but there is more in the US.
Diversity of fast food companies. Canada rallies around and is fiercely proud of Tim Hortons but of course being a bigger country by population, much more to choose from in the United States.
I have once heard that if you took away the Southern United States, the US would be closer to Canada in culture. The "Yankees" and "Dixies" competed for control of the United States and no discussion in American history is complete without the discussion of the Northern and Southern US history from civil war to recunstruction to the Northerners who move South and vice versa.
The highest crime rates in Canada are typically in the "first ring" of the major cities, just outside the downtown core but before you actually get into the true stereotypical suburbs.
Which is also true for many U.S. cities. In Houston, for instance, the central area inside the the 610 freeway is booming as are the outer suburbs. It's the area in the middle, that first ring, that is poor and ghetto.
Of course, the crime rate in Houston's ghettos are much higher than those in Toronto's ghettos, but similar pattern, with this donut of poverty.
Speaking of Toronto, I thought Vaughan was known for being sketchy, while Markham is incredibly safe, clean, and educated, even by Canadian standards.
This gives a rather skewed portrayal of the situation in rural Canada.
Probably over 95% of rural areas in Canada have extremely low crime rates.
I agree I would say 99% of rural areas in canada have extremely low crimes rates.
Also not all native communities are in delporable conditions. I have been to several here in Manitoba ( the mean streets of Manitoba) and they were actually quite nice. New homes new schools etc etc. Not all of them, but not all of them are terrible places either.
Some Canadians tend to exaggerate how bad things are in some places. Specially Toronto. In all honesty you have to watch your back more here in Winnipeg and cities like Halifax than you do in Toronto. And these cities are all safe.
I agree I would say 99% of rural areas in canada have extremely low crimes rates.
Also not all native communities are in delporable conditions. I have been to several here in Manitoba ( the mean streets of Manitoba) and they were actually quite nice. New homes new schools etc etc. Not all of them, but not all of them are terrible places either.
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You make a really good point. I forgot to mention that not all indigenous communities in Canada are dangerous and depressed. Quite a few of them are reasonably nice it's true.
French as a federal language alongside English.
Quebec's main language is French, in all of the US the official language is English so a Tennessean and a New Yorker speak English, different than when an Albertan goes to Quebec the Albertan has to get used to see French signs everywhere.
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True.
Many Americans claim that areas with high Hispanic populations are equivalent (with Spanish) to what Quebec is when it comes to French.
French in Quebec is on a whole other level though. And as a result of that, French in Canada tends to be on a whole other level as well.
Vaughan isn't really sketchy. It's where Italian-Canadians who made it big in Toronto built huge McMansions for themselves.
Markham is fine as well.
Sketchier areas would be Jane-Finch, Rexdale and parts of Scarborough in Toronto itself, and also parts of Mississauga and Brampton, for example.
So inform me here. My impression is that Markham is one of the safest, most well educated cities in Canada, a growing, cookie cutter, master planned, highly desirable suburb. It has an enormous Chinese population, does this mean its school district is stellar? Chinese people seek stellar school districts, after all.
I heard Markham is not a bedroom community but it's instead an edge city, with lots of high tech corporate offices. Even then, its high rise construction is pretty underwhelming, other than some shorter high rise condos in the urban village/downtown they're building. Is this true?
Brampton, I know has an enormous Bangladeshi community and also a fair amount of Blacks. On Google street view, though, the new neighborhoods of Brampton look just as nice, safe, and clean as a new area in Markham.
Mississauga seems like it has an enormous skyline, lots of high rise condos.
Also, have you been to or heard of Irvine, California? It has many parallels with Markham. It's of a similar size, and is also a growing, master planned edge city suburb with lots of high tech, finance, and pharmaceuticals. It's also heavily Asian, with the largest group being Chinese, but also home to a large South Asian and Middle Eastern population. It's an outer suburb, too. They have a very strict urban growth boundary of sorts, where forty percent of the land area is permanently reserved for wilderness and open space. Needless to say, it is one of the safest, cleanest, and most highly educated cities in the U.S.
Look up Irvine on Google Maps, and let me know what you think and how it compares to Markham. Of course the obvious difference is that it's in a warm sunny coastal climate with lots of palm trees and Markham ain't, but I think there's a ton of similarities.
So inform me here. My impression is that Markham is one of the safest, most well educated cities in Canada, a growing, cookie cutter, master planned, highly desirable suburb. It has an enormous Chinese population, does this mean its school district is stellar? Chinese people seek stellar school districts, after all.
I heard Markham is not a bedroom community but it's instead an edge city, with lots of high tech corporate offices. Even then, its high rise construction is pretty underwhelming, other than some shorter high rise condos in the urban village/downtown they're building. Is this true?
Brampton, I know has an enormous Bangladeshi community and also a fair amount of Blacks. On Google street view, though, the new neighborhoods of Brampton look just as nice, safe, and clean as a new area in Markham.
Mississauga seems like it has an enormous skyline, lots of high rise condos.
Also, have you been to or heard of Irvine, California? It has many parallels with Markham. It's of a similar size, and is also a growing, master planned edge city suburb with lots of high tech, finance, and pharmaceuticals. It's also heavily Asian, with the largest group being Chinese, but also home to a large South Asian and Middle Eastern population. It's an outer suburb, too. They have a very strict urban growth boundary of sorts, where forty percent of the land area is permanently reserved for wilderness and open space. Needless to say, it is one of the safest, cleanest, and most highly educated cities in the U.S.
Look up Irvine on Google Maps, and let me know what you think and how it compares to Markham. Of course the obvious difference is that it's in a warm sunny coastal climate with lots of palm trees and Markham ain't, but I think there's a ton of similarities.
Canadians don't really do the "school district" talk like Americans do. No one says "you can move there but just remember you'll need to put your kids in private school".
Schools are funded per pupil with the same amount across the entire province here. So a poor area's schools won't necessarily be crappier due to being poor.
Obviously in some areas a higher percentage of school kids will be from poor families or ESL, or both, but it's not a topic of conversation. Living in a rich or a poor area is obviously a choice that people make, and some people send their kids to private schools, but it's part of an overall choice couples and families make about where to live.
It doesn't drive the discussion as it often seems to do in the U.S.
Also, Canada doesn't really have "university suburbs" like you have in California (Irvine, Berkeley, Fullerton).
Canadians don't really do the "school district" talk like Americans do. No one says "you can move there but just remember you'll need to put your kids in private school".
Schools are funded per pupil with the same amount across the entire province here. So a poor area's schools won't necessarily be crappier due to being poor.
Obviously in some areas a higher percentage of school kids will be from poor families or ESL, or both, but it's not a topic of conversation. Living in a rich or a poor area is obviously a choice that people make, and some people send their kids to private schools, but it's part of an overall choice couples and families make about where to live.
It doesn't drive the discussion as it often seems to do in the U.S.
Also, Canada doesn't really have "university suburbs" like you have in California (Irvine, Berkeley, Fullerton).
Academic performance in Canada might not be socioeconomic as much as it is in the US, but is there a correlation with Chinese or South Asian heavy schools having better performance?
From what I get, all unis in Canada are located in the inner city and seldom in the suburbs?
Academic performance in Canada might not be socioeconomic as much as it is in the US, but is there a correlation with Chinese or South Asian heavy schools having better performance?
School boards in Canada seem to cover larger areas and are usuallly more socio-economically balanced than school districts in the U.S.
In Canada every school board seems to have strong schools (often really strong) and what people sometimes do is seek permission to transfer their kids to a stronger school within the same board, if they don't like their "assigned" school. But even in a big city like Toronto you wouldn't have large numbers of white collar affluent parents totally writing off the public schools. In fact, most rich kids in Toronto go to publicly funded schools.
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