I think the difference is that we don’t treat our flag (or iconography, like the maple leaf) with the reverence that Americans treat their flag. We’ll use flags to advertise sales on used-car lots, for example, and it has nothing to do with patriotism–it’s just eye-catching. Remember, although we’ve existed since 1867, we’ve only had our own flag (that is, one that’s not based on the UK flag) since 1965, and the novelty may not have worn off yet. And the lack of a formal flag code like the US’s, dictating the display and treatment of flags may have something to do with it also.
Don’t misunderstand–Canadians may well be as passionate about their flag as Americans are about theirs, and we do treat ours seriously at times–you can see the seriousness at military funerals and Remembrance Day ceremonies, for example. And many Canadians would remember the international kerfuffle that erupted when, during the 1992 World Series, a colour guard of US Marines flew the Canadian flag upside down. At such times, and others, we certainly feel a certain sense of pride and patriotism. But in our day-to-day lives, it’s pretty much just a decoration at the gas station, the corporate campus, the hotel (where it might be hidden among other national flags), or the used-car lot.
As for the maple leaves in corporate logos, it’s simply a way to indicate that this is the Canadian arm of the US parent. Why that’s necessary, I don’t know. There are certainly many US companies doing business here that don’t see the need to put maple leaves in their logos (examples would be IBM, Microsoft, Halliburton, Citi, and GM).
I’m not the OP, and it may not be what you were looking for, but I’d suggest that the CBC excels at news–while a bias may at times appear in domestic news, international news is usually presented factually, and without a spin one way or another. That may or may not be as a result of not having business or geopolitical interests in a lot of foreign places, as the Americans do, so things can be presented neutrally without losing or offending viewers. But for whatever reason, you can get a good idea of what’s going on in the world from the CBC, and you can make your mind up from there.
Sports is another area that the CBC does very well, especially hockey. They’ve been broadcasting it for sixty years or so, so they know how, and in the process, they’ve spoiled us all–it is sometimes painful to watch a US broadcast of a hockey game; the cameras have no idea how to follow the action and as a result, the director doesn’t know how to present the play for the TV audience. And in large international sports events, such as the Olympics, the CBC will try to show all the action by all the athletes–it will show an entire event (downhill skiing, for example), and not cut between events just because a Canadian happens to be competing.
Lastly, children’s programming is another thing the CBC does well. How many Canadian Dopers recall shows like “Mr. Dressup,” “Friendly Giant,” and “Chez Helene”? They were nice, simple, kid-friendly shows, but not at all like what we often think of as a kid’s show (i.e. recycled cartoons and a Krusty the Clown-type host). They were often educational in some way, but the education was so subtly done that we kids never noticed until we all realized we could play the Friendly Giant theme on school-issued recorders, or learned enough French from Helene to stumble through our first school French lessons. No parent ever worried about leaving a child in front of a CBC children’s show, and the CBC did them extremely well.
