So if it turns out that I am a Canadian citizen by descent, I should really get a better grip on what that actually means. What do I need to know, and where can I learn it? I have only an American layperson’s knowledge of Canada, other than having worked on a ton of work visas and green cards for Canadians over the past 25 years and have only spent a long weekend in Toronto in 1994.
Where do I begin, really? Hopefully need answer fast…
Start with this Canadian beer commercial.
Not a serious answer, but
Everything I know about Canada came from that movie and SCTV.
For a much better answer, let’s try paging @Northern_Piper
I’m pretty sure @wolfpup & @Dr_Paprika are Canadian also.
Which led me to this thread: The Canadoper Café 2024 is now open!
So @FinsToTheLeft; @Spoons @Mark_Finn
Truly, the answer depends on why you ask the question.
Canada is very often reduced to a bunch of outdated stereotypes, even by Canadians. So if you ask this question in general, you’ll get a bunch of banal general commonalities like hockey, curling, donut and automotive chains, politeness, bad weather, beer commercials, comedians old and new, “We are not the US” (though we kinda are), and Québécois (Newfoundland, Ukrainian, Indigenous, Multiethnic) food.
Equally, a bunch of banal regional commonalities, old and often dated stereotypes of moderate accuracy, based on the main regions: BC, Alberta, the Prairies, Ontario, Québec, The Maritimes, The Rock (Nfld.) and “The North”.
These dated stereotypes are often somewhat true, but do not well represent huge swaths of people. We used to be a nation of largely European immigrants, along with many other places. India and China have led the list more recently.
This quick Internet guide seems to offer exactly what you want.
If you need to bone up on history or specific citizenship questions, these might borrow very heavily from recommended reading materials and can sometimes be very “you wouldn’t know it unless you had read the textbook, even for Canadians”. So, like a college course, perhaps read what they recommend rather than general Canadian history. However, if they make no recommendations or you have specialized things you are interested in, let me know and I can give you other guidance. Maybe the Guide covers some of that. (On quick perusal, The Canada Guide seems exceedingly well done and fairly comprehensive…)
Here’s an important tip, which I present in a handy Q & A format:
Q: Is it true that Canadians are so exquisitely polite that they say “sorry” for almost any reason, and often for no reason at all?
A: Yes.
Q: What would be an example?
A: Say you’re in a supermarket, and a Canadian rams their shopping cart into you. They will of course immediately say “sorry”, but it’s your obligation, as a Canadian, to also say “sorry” for inconveniencing them by being in their way.
Q: How do Canadians pronounce the word “sorry”?
A: They pronounce it correctly. If you wish to pass yourself off as Canadian and avoid being immediately outed as a USAian, you must never pronounce it “saree”, which is not an expression of apology but rather an Indian woman’s garment. Remember, USAians, the word “sorry” is spelled with an “o”, not an “a”.
Q: What about the last letter of the alphabet?
A: It’s “zed”, of course. Rhymes with “red”.
Q: Is your fondness for Canada possibly enhanced by the fact that you recently received an unexpectedly enormous income tax refund?
A: Why, yes, now that you ask. Sorry if you did not.
Thanks, I’ll take a look! I’m interested in culture as well as history. If I am Canadian (and it seems like I very well may be), it’s by descent from my paternal grandmother. Her parents were also immigrants from Eastern Europe, and they don’t seem to have been very well acculturated, so I am starting from a pretty low baseline. But I am a big believer in civic participation, so I need to understand current politics as well as history. Just pretend I am studying for a naturalization examination, I guess?
And not every Canadian ends sentences with “eh”- sure, my Canadian cousins do, but it is kinda subtle when they do it. I suspect others don’t and some say it clear and loud.
But don’t start- let it come naturally.
“So how you going to get the mouse inside the bottle, eh?”
“I’m gonna get a baby mouse, put him in, and then feed him in there!”
Back in 1972, the famous CBC broadcaster Peter Gzowski challenged listeners to come up with the best slogan starting with “As Canadian as…”.
The winning entry was “As Canadian as possible, under the circumstances”. I think that explains us quite well.
Contrast the founding principles of the USA - Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Hapiness - with ours: Peace, Order, and Good Government.
We’re also not as overtly patriotic or religious as Americans behave.
Everyone outside of Toronto hates Toronto. Most people in Toronto hate Toronto.
The fact that the Leafs have not won the cup since 1967 is a source of great joy in the country.
Canada is big, You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to Canada. (tip o the hat to D. Adams)
Tim Horton’s is no longer a Canadian company. Although the Timbits are still nice.
I don’t believe this is true. Most Torontonians love their city, but the hatred for it increases as the square of the distance away, the opposite of how gravity works. By the time you get to Vancouver, the hatred is palpable. Quebec is an exception – they simply hate all of the ROC (“Rest of Canada”) equally.
It is, but I don’t think it’s hatred for Toronto so much as hatred for the fat, pampered MLSE organization. It takes real drive and determination to win the Cup, and when you’re practically drowning in more money than you know what to do with, it’s pretty hard to work up any determination or do anything more than just lie back and burp. Which, figuratively, MLSE has been doing for 57 years.
Say “eh” a lot.
Oh, and Canada won the war of 1812.
I have a bunch of cousins in Canada. That’s about the only difference between me and them.
(The war of 1812 was a funny war. We fought for a while, neither side won their overall goals, but both sides won minor goals and both sides declared victory afterwards. I was taught in school that we won and was very surprised when my cousins had a very different view of it.)
Some of my cousins live in Toronto. They think it’s nice. I visited them a couple of times. Where they were was nice. I don’t have any complaints about Toronto. I like Hamilton better, but Toronto is fine.
Yes, true. I was including the Greater Toronto Area, including Milton, Clarington, Caledon, Brock etc. (another thing the OP will need to know)
Many folks within a few hours of Toronto dislike it. Those much further away do too, though sometimes Ottawa more. Toronto spends too much time wondering what people think of it, and overuses the phrase “world class” without making the improvements that would make that so.
Toronna is “a city of neighbourhoods”, ridiculously diverse, mostly harmless, quite polite and pleasant for a city of its size. You don’t want to drive there, especially in and out of the city. About two-thirds the cost of NYC, still pretty expensive for real estate, but not for other things. It’s improving. Many deeply cool under the radar spots. Has always had more than its share of egos, of course, pushing 4m people if generous with the Sharpie. Vancouver is prettier, Montréal more sophisticated, Calgary more boisterous, Halifax more relaxed.
Toronto can be described as a large collection of diverse neighbourhoods, although I guess many big cities could probably be described that way, too. A few things that make Toronto different from many American big cities is that areas in and around the downtown core are eminently livable and have very desirable properties. Another is that Toronto has been very good so far at maintaining large amounts of green space. In my previous house, I could look out the window and see nothing but forest as far as the eye could see, like living way out in the country, yet I could literally walk to a subway station and be downtown in 20 minutes. Admittedly that’s not common, but Toronto does have a lot of forested green space.
I’ve very rarely been to Hamilton, but my impression is that steel production and related industries have made it basically an industrial blue-collar city, although I understand that it does have some nice suburban neighbourhoods. A really nice town just north across the lake from Hamilton is Burlington. Moving northeast towards Toronto, there’s Oakville and then a whole bunch more nice places all along the lakeshore.
Montreal probably is indeed more sophisticated while also being less boastful than Toronto, but if I had to pick a single adjective I’d describe Montreal as more “beautiful” than Toronto. Beyond just the beauty of Mount Royal and the captivating charm of Old Montreal, neither of which Toronto has anything to compete with, Montreal just has generally more attractive architecture in its many beautiful buildings. Even the subway system caters to one’s aesthetic sensibilities, whereas Toronto’s subway is indistinguishable from the one in New York.
I don’t disagree.
I did that in 2004 and don’t care to repeat that experience! (The long weekend trip was a short break before starting a new job, and it was short notice to get reasonably priced airline tickets. I am just glad the friend I stayed with didn’t live downtown, but even so, getting to her place was pretty hair-raising. Especially pre-GPS.)
Start listening to Rush.
I visited Montreal decades ago (1976, to be exact) and I remember that the subways were very quiet, because they ran on rubber tires rather than steel wheels so you don’t get that horrible screeching noise when the trains brake.