So what are the diffrences betwee America and Canada then? Eh?

Great Debates
1

Well what exactly is the difference?

Living in London I meet a certain number of Canadians (and any number of tea-tippers), and the thing that I am struck by is how unhappy they are to be taken for Americans (which we Brits inevitably do), as the accents sound similar to us.

So what exactly are the differences?

I can think of:

The Queen on the money (a touch of class, that)

Policemen on Horses with big hats (must be a bit awkward undercover)

Proper bacon

Ending every sentence with “eh”

Ice hockey

Better stamps

Any others I should know aboot?

2

In Canada, our election results tend to reflect the actual vote.

(This might be an IMHO thread.)

3

Not any more, it isn’t.

In the United States, when the election results have been turned into mush by partisan state supreme courts, our federal Supreme Court straightens out the lower court’s mess. Bush won in Florida by a majority of the votes there. Get over it.

4

Lib, get the Miami Herald’s thorough analysis of the vote. And stop judging which courts are partisan and which not (as implied).

As it happens, Bush would have won the state’s electoral votes in a thorough recount statewide. There were numerous flaws in whether every person desiring to exercise his franchise was able to cast a valid vote.

The problem doesn’t need any further post morteming. But it does need fixing. E.g., if a military voter’s absentee vote is not properly postmarked after being properly mailed from the APO or FPO station, no amount of Democratic partisanship will make that anything but a bona fide attempt to cast a valid vote by a military voter. Likewise, an erroneously double-punched ballot where the voter was instructed by the election inspector to mark in pen which choice he had intended to punch should be a valid vote for that candidate, regardless of what Republicans have to say about not counting overvotes. Steps need to be taken to provide equipment with which a voter is enabled to cast a ballot and have it counted as he intends it to be. Period.

On that note, can we agree to avoid hijacking further a thread about a foreign country?

5

Its VERY VERY VERY cold up there. I almost live in canada, just a “short” swim across the lake, and let me just say that its too darn cold here, and getting colder.

“Seriously” though look into the Jon Candy movie “Canadian Bacon” ( http://us.imdb.com/Title?0109370 ) to be enlightened on other differences. Hilarious movie.

6

If I may dare to answer the OP, two things come to mind pretty quickly ('cause they’ve both been in the news pretty recently): proportionally, there’s more public spending on health care in Canada than in the United States. And at the same time, there’s proportionally less spending on the military.

Canadians are also, I’d wager, more sick of being asked this question than Americans are. I’m sure a Venezuelan would object to being called a Columbian, even though in fact there may not be that many substantive differences between the two countries (gasp!). But somehow it’s more titillating when a Canadian tries to have national pride.

7

First, let me say that I was wrong.

Second, let me say that I meant to say that our federal elections tend to reflect the actual popular vote and by implication that U.S. presidential elections do not.

Third, let me say I was also wrong about that: going as far back as 1900, I only found 3 years (1900, 1916, 1960) where the eventual winner had less than one million more popular votes than his opponent. The 2000 election, where the loser ended up with slightly over 500, 000 more popular votes than the winner, was the anomaly.

Fourth, let me say I was wrong.

We now return this thread to its intended purpose.

jm

8

She’s only on the 20 now… used to be on the 1 (still is if you can find one…), ok, she’s on our coinage as well… ANYways, the best part about our money is colour coding! In the US it’s all green! I can’t tell if he has a roll of 1’s or 100’s! In Canada, you see a roll of brown bills, you make the grab and you run… (100’s are brown)

I have never seen a Mountie on horseback in full dress! I mean, I’ve seen one on television and in print, but never serving and protecting my neighbourhood! Our cops look like, this…

Peel Police

I have had “Canadian Bacon” maybe five times in my life! Strip Bacon is the way to go!!!

Depends where in Canada you grew up. Accents vary all over the place, just as they do in the US. Take a trip to Newfoundland… then to Toronto… HUGE difference! The “eh” thing… well I prefer it from the Americanisms… “yall” … well the drawl in general. Anyways, big stereotype on both sides…

Well, we both play Hockey… Canadians take it pretty seriously, so do many Americans…
You may be surprised to find, that Canada’s national sport is Lacross!

Ya, that’s true!

[ul]Sure! Our Political system is COMPLETLY different!

We have NO IDEA what grits are… and why you would eat something called a grit!

Michael Moore pointed out that we don’t lock our doors… I do, but apparently I’m among the minority!

We have a lot of guns too, but we don’t like to shoot each other as much

We have 5 big banks for the whole country, instead of 5 thousand per state!

and IMHO the biggest difference between Americans and Canadians: Canadians don’t believe our propoganda!
[/ul]

9

I’m American. I didn’t think there were any differences until I made my first trip to Canada a couple of months ago, but I’m beginning to change my mind. Some random observations:

– Canadians, even in cities, seem less paranoid about strangers and more willing to assume you’re a good person unless you give them reason to think otherwise. (One notable exception: if the Canadian happens to be an immigration official and you are a slightly hippieish-looking young woman traveling alone, you are assumed to be Up To No Good.)

– Some English-speaking Canadians seem to have a chip on their shoulder about all things French. Some Canadians seem to have a chip on their shoulder about all things American. I can’t think of any parallel phenomena in the US, but I’ve never lived in a border area, so I could be wrong.

– Canadian trains are rarely four hours late, unless they are really American trains coming from the US. If the train is four hours late, the nice railway people will pay for you to take a bus or cab instead. With Amtrak, you’re pretty much SOL.

– There are many, many war memorials in Canada, and the sheer number of people who died in World War I is staggering. (I don’t know if this has much of an effect on contemporary Canadian culture, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it occupied a similar place in the national psyche to our Civil War.)

– One thing that seemed strangely-familiar-yet-different was the level of overt public patriotism – it’s the only country I’ve been to, besides America, where it was common to see flags in front of private homes. The Canadians seem to take it one step further, however; I was struck by the number of businesses with names like “Bob’s Canadian Garage” (duh, like anyone would expect to find a Malaysian garage in the middle of Toronto…)

– There are a lot more Lebanese restaurants. Yum.

Actual Canadians, feel free to correct any of these points – I’ve only been to Ontario and Quebec, and it wasn’t for very long, so I should probably shut up now.

10

Here is my stab…
Politics:
There is a joke that asks what are the differences between Canadians and American’s that goes like this
“When a strange noise is heard in the house at night the American will go for his gun while the Canadian will call the police who arrive in great numbers,”
There is more of a belief that Policies and legislation will fix problems. There is animosity towards our government but not a general distrust.

We still have the Parliamentary system and have 5 official Parties. Thanks to the ungodly thrashing of the BNA act by the Privy Council’s (Our highest court for the First part of our history as a nation.) decision the Debates between Provincial rights verses Federal Powers is just a headache.

GEOGRAPHY:
Most of the country is pretty rugged, Yes it is colder up here, but most of the population tends to live along the southern boarder so for many it is no colder than those Americans who live in cities on their Northern most Boarder. The Country is also Very Big. I mean Vast. Second largest Land mass with only 30 million of us living here. Once again the differences from one region to the next is also incredible. From the Tundra in the North, the large stretch of Parries and Mountains in the West (Not that different from the States) Fertile growing valleys and the rugged Canadian Shield and the Maritime Provinces, like the red sandy shores of PEI or the Rocky shores of Newfoundland.

Culture
We are officially a Bi lingual country but the regional and cultural make up of our country is pretty vast. Even within the English Majority. If you travel from East to West and then North you may have a hard time believing these people make up one nation.
Our country has adopted a Multicultural policy rather than the melting pot Ideal. That in itself causes friction with each new wave of immigrants which historically subsides in a generation.

Canadians seem to have a slightly different attitude to technology than Americans. Americans Use technology, but there is a certain wariness to new technology at first. To them it seems it is a means to an end. Canadians tend to be more geeky when it comes to new technology. We embrace it we play with it and we look for the next step. It is like a kid with a new toy. Though we are innovators too we don’t have the powerhouse economy the US has.
The biggest difference though is if you ask an American what is an American they could give you paragraphs of information. Ask a Canadian what makes them Canadian and they will think hard, look puzzled and answer “We’re not American,” But they’ll have a hard time coming up with a concrete answer.

We have a national inferiority complex where we have been overshadowed by First England in the glory days of the Empire and then The United States.

We fight to keep the nebulous culture we have, even though we aren’t sure what it is.
We started off valuing the community rather than the individual
because our frontier was not as friendly to making it on your own. That is slowly changing as American Media influences and better living standards seem to change our attitudes.
The truth is the one thing that binds us all is not love of country, respect of Government but Hockey. It is no joke. Ask a Canadian what is one of the greatest Canadian moments in recent history and most will tell you the Winning goal of the Summit Series against the USSR.

Personally that isn’t as sad as it sounds because the truth is during Our Olympic gold winning game every Canadian put aside their regional and cultural differences and celebrated and felt… Canadian
That is just a scratch on the surface and a generalization so I’m sure you’ll hear more or better descriptions. And No We are not like those in “Canadian Bacon”
Fer Cripes Sake John Candy was a Canadian playing an American.

11

I find that the single biggest difference is how we express nationalism. Americans are very in-your-face about their national pride, what with all the flag waving and saying the Pledge of Allegiance daily (okay, weekly). Canadians tend not to be very demonstrative of their love of country unless there are special circumstances, such as winning the gold medal in Olympic hockey, men’s and women’s, or on Canada Day, or whenever the subject of the War of 1812 comes up and we fondly recall how we beat the American aggressors all the way back to Washington D.C.

Also, I find Canadians to be generally more polite than Americans. Perhaps this is because we aren’t packed together so tightly, so we feel happy to see another person, whereas in cities like NYC you’re never more than eight inches from the next person, which puts everyone on edge.

Our “fully funded” health care system is a big difference from a societal point of view. No one gets refused treatment at our hospitals, although there can be a back-log so long that you’ll die of starvation in the waiting room.

Our beer is waaaaaaay better than the swill that passes for beer in the States, perhaps because enduring our frigid winters requires a stiffer drink.

Oh, and it’s a toque, not a wool cap.

Aside from that, and our much more attractive money, there really aren’t a lot of differences.

Did I mention we all live in igloos and drive dog sleds to work?

12

I’m not sure Fretful. I’m from Minnesota, that’s the US side of the border (despite some recent proposals in threads to move us over to the other side). I think I have a lot more in common with Canadians than Alabamans.

I don’t think most Minnesotans assume you are up to no good.

We’ve made a national joke out of Texans having a chip on their shoulder about other states, so I don’t think it holds (note, certainly not all Texans, there are perfectly reasonable, humble Texans out there).

There certainly are differences between the US and Canada. Basically, they are two seperate countries - with a lot in common, but still, two seperate countries.

The OP, rephrased by an American: “Hey, I can’t tell the difference between an English accent and an Aussie accent - other than the Crocodile Hunter and Big Ben, aren’t they the same place?”

13

Poly wrote:

[…shrug…] Ask the hijacker. That’d be Fatwater Fewl.

14

I’ve never met a Canadian I did not like.

And I love hockey (Detroit native)…

Overall, Canadians, IMHO, are laid back, polite people.

15

Lib, he threw the screen pass. You ran the extra 20 yards.

I’ve had occasion lately to think about just this very thing. Less a matter of politics or whatnot I think the major difference is this:

Americans are more aggressive, on average, than Canadians.

It’s not so much that ‘Canadians are more polite’ or ‘Americans are more rude’ or anything like that. It’s that the American culture tends towards (as kingpengvuin described above) valuing individual acheivement more than group acheivement and therefore what others would call ‘rudeness’ or ‘pushiness’ is found to a greater extent south of the border.

I think this can be seen in politics, international relations, the business community, hell…everywhere.

“I’ve got mine, Jack.”

16

As a slight hijack… Canada’s most southern point is Middle Island in Lake Erie (Latitude 41N 41 minutes)…

27 US States have land North of that latitude including California. Not that it adds anything to the debate but jsut for perspective. Detroit, MI is directly NORTH of it’s border city, Windsor, Ontario.

As for the differences, I would say that as a whole Canadians are far more Socialist than Americans as a whole. That is a large generalization, but fairly true…

A good way to describe Canadians attitudes might be: “Me first, as long as everyone else will be OK”.

17

And how many yards will we credit to you and Poly, Jonathan?

18

So they have Lebanese garages then? “Bob’s Lebanese Garage”?

19

Actually, on the front page of the National Post, the Liberals are frequently called Grits. It used to be a much more popular slang expression, along with Whigs, for the party of Laurier and King.

(Of course, your second question now becomes somewhat more interesting…)

As for politics, a huge difference is the parliamentary (Westminster Model) system vs. the presidential one. Each has strong points, but essentially the idea is that in Canada the legislative and executive branches are intrinsically linked. The executive is formed by the party with the largest representation in the House of Commons. It means that there’s a lot more policy coordination, and therefore a lot less debate. Our government tends to get more legislation passed (oddly enough for Canadians, who often feel as if it’s still doing SFA), but it seems as if there’s a hell of a lot less debate about it.

20

[hijack]Is there any correlation between the nickname “grits” and the food? (I still don’t know what a grit is…)[/hijack]