[QUOTE=Mr. Moto]
This is interesting. My wife used to bitch about non-tipping “Canadians” all of the time. Of course she had an excuse - she worked as a teenager in a pancake house in Plattsburgh, NY, and served an awful lot of Quebecois.
[/QUOTE]
Ghetto is as ghetto does.
I’m flabberghasted. Really. I had no idea. I thought there were only a handful of black people in the NHL.
Shit. All this time I thought “Canadian” was a code word for “faggot.” Well, I’m sure that little Nancy at the gym’s pretty confused right now.
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi]
You see, this is why I need to go to the White People meetings. Its not like they put this stuff in the newsletters.
[/QUOTE]
Well you should. Hell, you’re in SA around the damn Norwegians all day…
It must be the mood I’m in this afternoon (hey - two weeks of snow in April will do that for a person) but I’m finding this absolutely hilarious.
[QUOTE=black rabbit]
I’ve heard of it second hand, from folks that work in restaurants. FWIW.
[/QUOTE]
Heard it back in the late 1980s, while working in a pizzeria in suburban Buffalo. Blacks had a reputation as being very stingy tippers – if they even tipped – while among waitresses and waiters, Canadians were also known as poor tippers. If they had a lot of deliveries to black customers, and got more than their fair share of stiffs because of it, they might say something like “I’m not making anything tonight, 'cause I’m delivering to so many Canadians!”
.
Right, that was the connection I misremembered.
So I guess the evolution goes:
Canadians are poor tippers.
African-Americans are poor tippers.
We want to complain about our black customers, but
We can’t do so without appearing racist and possibly getting our asses kicked. However,
4a. Canadians are a peaceful species and kinda clueless anyway so
Is that about right?
.
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Let them twist in the wind next time they come crying to the real Canada for water or oil.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, deny them hockey players and Celine Dion too, and they’ll be repenting in no time.
Well O.K., maybe the Celine Dion threat could backfire. Substitute Molson instead.
.
Disclaimer:
I consider neither African-Americans nor Canadians to be poor tippers.
Nor do I consider Canadians clueless.
However, I also do not consider Canadians peaceful. They’re up there. Plotting.
.
[QUOTE=El Cid Viscoso]
Shit. All this time I thought “Canadian” was a code word for “faggot.” Well, I’m sure that little Nancy at the gym’s pretty confused right now.
[/QUOTE]
So did I, actually. Well, not the vulgar term, but just “gay.” I have no idea where I got this–I have a vague memory of a stand-up comedian whose routine had something to do with “gay or Canadian?” kind of like the old MTV “Dead or Canadian?” thing, and that’s probably where I got it.
The spouse and I will still comment to each other that “That guy looks Canadian,” but it’s not at all in a disparaging way–just a little verbal in-joke. I know that neither of us mean any disrespect by it (to gay folks *or *Canadians 
), and we don’t ever say it loud enough for anyone else to hear.
I’ve never heard “Canadian” used as a code for “black” before. That’s a new one on me.
Good backtracking there…
Now you’re only going to be 2nd up against the wall when the revolution comes, eh.
[QUOTE=Liberal]
That’s what happens when you suppress speech. The ideas remain. Only the words change.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, what’re we going to do now, ban the word “Canadian”? We’ll be reduced to furtive gestures and sniggering. 
[QUOTE=andros]
.
Right, that was the connection I misremembered.
So I guess the evolution goes:
Where I worked, that was pretty much it. However, not all black customers were “Canadians” - just those that didn’t tip. A conversation between a manager and driver might have gone like this ..
Manager: “Okay, you’re taking five pizzas to the Black Engineering Society on campus.”
Driver: “I hope they’re not Canadians …”
If they tipped, a week later, the conversation might have gone like this …
Manager: “Okay, you’re taking five pizzas to the Black Engineering Society on campus.”
Driver: “Cool!” (looking forward to making a lot of money in tips on one run)
It wouldn’t have gone like …
Manager: “Okay, you’re taking five pizzas to the CANADIAN Engineering Society on campus.”
I’m going to make a guess that the term probably had its start in an American city on the Canadian border with a large black population – Detroit, Buffalo – and made its way from there. Along the way, it lost the hospitality industry/tipping connection, and mutated into a code word substituting for the n-word.
I’ve never heard of this before, much less heard the word itself used that way.
And I’ll tell ya something else, their beer sucks!
My sister and I (we’re both gay) use the word Lebanese as a euphemism for Lesbian when we’re in mixed company.
[QUOTE=Euphonious Polemic]
Good backtracking there…
Now you’re only going to be 2nd up against the wall when the revolution comes, eh.
[/QUOTE]
And I, for one, welcome our new Canuckistanian overlords.
.
[QUOTE=El Cid Viscoso]
Shit. All this time I thought “Canadian” was a code word for “faggot.” Well, I’m sure that little Nancy at the gym’s pretty confused right now.
[/QUOTE]
Nope. The correct geographical euphemism for gay people when you really don’t want anybody to know you’re talking about gay people is “Sodomite.”
Or “Djiboutian.”
Or “Rod and Lance, from the Isle of Man.”
They’ll never catch on. Trust me.
[QUOTE=andros]
And I, for one, welcome our new Canuckistanian overlords.
.
[/QUOTE]
Your first task is to make BrainGlutton drink our beer.
I’ve heard Canadian used in this context in Cleveland, OH. It seems to be especially used by people who work in government or the like, people who have to at least keep a veneer of decorum about their person because of their job.