I love Canada

In My Humble Opinion
21

Canadians are pretty much immersed (drowned?) in American culture on a daily basis… US TV shows, books and magazines, celebrity news, just plain news, etc. Our Canadian news broadcasts often cover the major American national events, while I very much doubt there is much said about events in Canada on most US news broadcasts unless there has been a very serious crime (Dawson) or a new federal government or something! In fact, the amount of American media we are exposed to is pretty much the reason for the CRTC’s decision to let Canadian channels simulcast American shows, but the Canadian commercials (hence the SuperBowl complaints every year), and the so-called “Can-Con” (Canadian content) regulations that state the % of canadian shows or music a TV or radio channel must air.

Once you ignore all that media, the fact that the majority of Canadians live in a fairly narrow band of land near the border and therefore have a lot in common geographically with the northern states… well, shared experiences would lead to shared culture on that end, too.

But I do agree… we have a beautiful country, full of beautiful and friendly people… I am very proud to be Canadian.
As for ferry service from NS to PEI… yes: NFL
And in case you want to go via New Brunswick, there is now the Confederation Bridge to get you to PEI as well!

22

I’m quite jealous. I haven’t been home in over a year.

23

You can drive there. No, seriously, there’s a bridge to the mainland.

24

The fee could go toward teaching them how to spell words like colour and how to pronounce the last letter of the alphabet. :smiley:

25

Visit Alberta sometime…

We could be thought of as Texas “north”…

Except we tend to be more “Canadian”

We got bald prairie as far as you can see, Mountains you can lose your breath over

Glaciers, Tundra, and Forests of several type… all so thick you can get lost in a few yards…

Rodeos, Art Galleries, and Theatre.

Churches /Mosques/Ishrams/Temples (and more) that you can pray in anyway you want

On the whole, we don’t care about the colour of your skin, as long as you got something to offer (and we prosecute racisys)

Good schools, open land, and great highways

Kick ass northern lights

COLD winters and warm hearts

and NO sales tax… (just GST… Goddam it)

Come on up and say HI…

Warm Regards!

FML

26

I’ve got a LOT of family from Canada, from almost every province. When I was in my teens, I spent many summers helping out at my Grand Uncle’s farm in Saskatchewan. It was hard work of course, but I really liked liked being able to help him. (My Grandma and her brothers were born in Gull Lake.)
I remember how nice the nights were on the prairie, because I brought my telescope from home and we could see so many things, as the sky was so clear and so dark!

I really love Canada, especially as I have so many blood relations that have lived there all their lives.

27

*Oh, Canada
I would have never believed it
You got in my heart after all
You seem like such an endless place
In a world that’s getting small
No, Canada ain’t some cabinet man
In the Rideau Club at election time
Canada is somewhere out there
Oh, Canada is somewhere out there
Out past the timberline… *

Damn, I’ve got to dig that record out again. (Murray McLaughlin)

28

Just move a team to Hartford again.

Connecticut is, per capita, the richest of ANY state or province. Look, this is a great opportunity, don’t blow it. They can have a team later.

29

But, it’s from New Brunswick to PEI. Here’s a site :
http://www.confederationbridge.com/

It’s pretty close to Nova Scotia though, and a nice drive. For places to stay in NS, try the Lunenburg area:

http://www.town.lunenburg.ns.ca/

The whole town is a UNESCO site, much of it is preserved fishing village. It’s a bit touristy, so you can get good food and shops, but still very beautiful. Nearby Mahone Bay (http://www.mahonebay.com/) is also a good place to stay and a bit more off the beaten path - it really looks just like that picture!

30

I love living in Alberta. To me, it’s the greatest place in North America to live. Maybe the world.

In Alberta, you can find every kind of terrain you can imagine, from Rocky Mountains to prairie to deserts. You can ski some of the best sking in the world in Jasper, Banff, and Lake Louise. You can play some of the best golf courses in the world here. We’ve got lakes a’ plenty for boating, and lots of open space.

We get more sunshine than any other province in Canada. It’s dry, so the heat and cold are more bearable making for pleasant summers and tolerable winters. In the south, Chinooks can bring spring-like conditions throughout the winter.

Our economy is the hottest in North America, and one of the hottest in the world. We have the lowest taxes in Canada (and lower than most states), the highest standard of living, and the most economic freedom. If you like the rough-and-tumble cowboy lifestyle, Calgary’s your place. It’s full of head offices, conservatives, and good old boys. The Calgary Stampede is known world-wide. Calgary is only a short drive from great skiing in Banff and Lake Louise.

If you’re more liberal, come to Edmonton. The summer is full of music festivals and street events like the Fringe Festival. We’ve got great art galleries, concert halls, and a thriving ‘artsy’ core near the university along Whyte Avenue where you can still live a rather bohemian life. Lots of coffee shops and book stores. And the largest interior park system in North America.

One thing I have to point out, though, is that it’s a myth that Canadians are more caring about the environment. We may try to claim we are, but we’re not. Canadians use more energy per capita than do Americans (actually, more than 25% more). We drive the same big-ass SUVs and waste energy even more than you do. We claim to honor the Kyoto Treaty, but in the past 10 years Canada’s CO2 emissions have increased faster than the U.S.'s have. In fact, the U.S., per-capita CO2 emissions rate has remained relatively constant between 2000 and 2005, while Canada’s increased dramatically.

So we’re not particularly environment-friendly - we just talk the talk, and we have a nice country because it’s sparsely populated and our cities are relatively new and haven’t decayed much.

31

Coincidentally enough, I also just came back from my first trip to Canada–a canoe trip in the boundary waters, to be precise. I will enthusiastically agree with all the sentiments expressed in this thread. I was particularly impressed with how the border guards/park rangers just wanted to be friendly (and warn about the black bears), which is not at all the attitude of the American border patrol.

You do need to do something about those mosquitoes, however.

32

Look, this is a little embarrassing to read, or maybe that’s just the Canadian way, but by golly there’s a boat-load of beautiful places and people in the U.S. too.

States I’ve been to in no particular order:

Michigan
Ohio
New York
Tennessee
Kentucky
Georgia
Florida
South Carolina
Illinois
California
Nevada
Texas
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
Massachusetts

Maybe all you Merkins appreciate Canada because it’s so culturally indistinguishable from the U.S. but really, we’ve all got a fairly good thing going here.

33

Yes.

I’ve traveled a lot in New England and NY/NJ… except for the eternal suburbia it’s quite beautiful.

34

Well we do live in one of the most sparsely populated, cold-weather countries in the world. It’s “use energy” or “freeze to death”.

35

I agree that this is part of our energy usage, but I don’t think it accounts for nearly enough of our energy squandering. We like our big vehicles and big houses and our new toys. In other words, Canadians are just as big of consumers as United Statesians. We don’t think of ourselves that way, but we are.

36

I won’t argue that we use “more than our share”, but there are some basic reasons why we’ll never be as energy efficient as, say, Japan, or France, or a lot of other countries with comparable standards of living. We don’t have the density to support things like high speed commuter rail, and we have to burn natural gas to keep ourselves from freezing 5 months of the year.

37

…then you’ve got the dorks in this huge black SUV sitting in a parking lot with it idling, probably running the A/C, while they blasted their stereo for the ‘delight’ of all within earshot. Which was pretty much everyone.

Not all Canadians are my favourite neighbours. (Hey–two Canadian spellings in one sentence! Pass me a serviette, eh? I don’t want to drop my Timbit on the chesterfield.)

38

Very good, very good, Grasshopper! You have learned well! :slight_smile:

It is possible to design houses that require little heat through a Canadian winter. You just have to be a bit more ingenious. My friends have been living in such a house for ten years. We didn’t design such houses before, because fuel was inexpensive and its supply was reliable.

39

And what about our roofs, just up there keeping rain and snow off, and doing absolutely nothing with the kilojoules* of free energy that they’re bombarded with every day? I think Canadians have the potential to be a whole lot more consumerism-conscious, but it’s going to take a major shift in our paradigms.

*It sounded like a nice, energy-like word.

(Savannah, one winter I said, “Hey, the heater in this truck is really good, eh?” I have never felt more Canadian. :smiley: )

40

I’m working on it. :slight_smile:

So would you pick me up a double-double on the way home?