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

Great Debates
41

There are far more similarities than differences between Canadians and Americans. Just consider all the Canadian entertainers in the U.S. - how many of them would you have known were Canadian before you were told? Think of Peter Jennings, Mike Myers, Neil Young, etc. Same people.

Here’s how to make a Canada: Take Minnesota and New Hampshire. Stretch them out across the country. Throw Seattle onto the west coast of that country, and a few New England cities onto the east coast. Throw Austin Texas where Alberta would go, minus the ethnic population. Pick a large midwestern city like Minneapolis and drop it where Toronto would go.

Voila. You have your own Canada.

Seriously, I think the biggest difference I’ve noticed between the U.S. and Canada is that Canada seems more regulated and uniform. You see the same salt shakers and sugar containers in all the restaraunts. The stores all look the same. And the population is much more ‘anglo’. We have a much smaller black population, and almost no hispanics. We probably have a higher percentage of immigrants from Asia and the Middle East.

Our low-rent districts are not as bad as the worst areas in the U.S. The first time I was in Miami I was amazed at how you could go from a posh, beautiful neighborhood, and within 10 minutes of driving be in an urban disaster area.

Another difference: Outside of the older, central Canada, everything is fairly new here. The oldest houses in Edmonton seem to date to about the turn of the century, and the vast majority are no older than 50 years. It’s all newer suburbs up here.

Oh, and we have an incredibly lousy government.

42

Sam, where would the Maritimes be in that new country? It was indeed very Anglo when I was there, although Halifax and Sydney had their pockets of diversity.

And I did see some pretty lousy Micmac neighborhoods in the middle of Cape Breton, but they still had their own houses, surrounded by breathtaking scenery. Indian hillbillies! (apologies to posters who are indeed hillbillies).

My cousin Josephine had just retired from a position in the NS government, and she was a-bitching away. It seems that Canadians love the country (Halifax was a-flutter with flags) but everybody dislikes the gummint.

There also was a sense that each province/region seems to think that each OTHER province/region is getting more money/respect/attention than they are. That’s an American thing too, but it’s less strong here in my observation. Y’all have never had a Civil War, so maybe that’s why it’s stronger up there.

43

Canadians are as tacky as Americans and as snotty as the British.

Seriously, as a Canadian who moved to the U.S. at the age of 27, I’ve started thinking lately, every time I go back to visit my parents, that Canada is the country that middle-class, mostly suburban Americans would have if they could all get up, go somewhere, and build their own country. The infrastructure is nicer; the people are more pleasant and less anxious about anything besides a decent lifestyle; the politics are more fractious just because there’s less to debate; we’re prouder of our children’s accomplishments because they’re so much more manageable. And there’s the secret sense of superiority that comes from not being last in the race.

Take the U.S. Eliminate the extremes of poverty and wealth, crime & violence, high and low culture, good and bad education, and ideology. In other words, throw America into the dryer with some rocks for five or ten spin cycles on ‘hot’: wham, you’ve got Canada.

One cultural indicator I find telling: Canada has more donut shops per capita than any other country in the world, by a factor of five.

44

I will politely assume that the level of condescension in this statement was not intentional.

45

Very well put. I regretfully admit that I have several Molson Canadians in my house right now (as crappy as Blue, IMO). However, I stick to the magnificent tasting Big Rock label for actual drinking, although I have been known to knock back Moosehead on occasion.

46

So there are differences then!

It’s just that in Britain we tend not to know much aboot Canada, and rather too much aboot your southern neighbours eh.

I am interested in the idea of a different culture. England is near the following countries: Wales; Scotland; Ireland and the cheese eating surrender monkeys.

You know you have left England with five miles of crossing any of these borders, they really are very different, different accents, or indeed languages etc. It just seems that Canada and USA are more homogonised.

Are canadians thinner than americans, or is canada full of zeppelins in lycra too?

47

I thought I’d chip in, as although I’m by no means an expert, I’m from around the same parts as owlstretchingtime and would have possibly noticed the same differences as he would.

My girlfriend is Canadian, and as a result, I have spent a lot of time around Canadians and a little time in Canada.

I can only speak from my own experience, of course, which was in Alberta around the Lethbridge and Calgary areas, but I did notice a few differences between the English and Canadians, and between Americans and Canadians.

Firstly, Canadians are about the friendliest people I have ever met. Just little things like strangers nodding a hello in the street and shopkeepers asking after my health took a lot of getting used to. Having lived in London all my life, it was almost like going back in time to my grandparent’s age, as this is the kind of friendly behaviour they always used to remiss about when talking about the “good old days”!

While there I noticed no evidence of crime, in stark contrast to my life in London, and everyone was incredibly nice to me and accepted me straight away. That’s apart from my girlfriend’s older brother who seemed thoroughly dejected that I have dress sense, avoid cowboy hats, and follow football (soccer) rather than hockey. :wink:

Although they liked Americans and had American friends, the Canadians I met would jokingly put down Americans and get insulted if mistaken for or referred to as an American. A bit like many Scots would be towards the English, I guess. They were fiercely patriotic (but not in a drum beating, nasty way) and the Canadian flag flew pretty much everywhere. I’m not sure if this had something to do with it being fairly near the American border though. As mentioned in an above post, Canadians display almost lightening speed when informing you that someone on American TV is from Canada. A year ago I couldn’t have named a famous Canadian, now I can name hundreds. It seems there really are a lot of movie stars and very talented people who have come from a smallish population.

One thing that struck me was how similar the landscape and customs were to American “western” movies we see on TV. As dim as it now seems, I had no idea that Western Canada had cowboys, a proud ranching history and a large population of native Canadians (Sorry, I don’t really know the proper way to refer to them. Native Americans still, I guess?).

Their accents are slightly closer to English than American accents are. For example, people knew what I meant, and didn’t give me strange looks, when I pronounced things like “Anti” and “Semi” in the English way rather than the American. Although when I asked about it I was told they used both ways. Most of their spelling seems to be in the English way as well. For example, “colour” rather than “color”.

Having the Queen as head of state seemed to be more popular amongst the older generations than the younger, but pretty much all seemed in favour of closer ties between Canada, the UK, and the commonwealth in general. Most displayed utter horror at the idea of Canada joining the USA.

There did see to be a language divide between western Canadians, and those from the east. I didn’t notice any South Park like or stereotypical Canadian vocabulary twists, except for the tendency to refer to other drivers as “buddy” in road rage situations. You know, like “Oh, why don’t you just cut me off, buddy!” :smiley: I would guess the whole “aboot” thing is probably restricted to the east where I believe there was a larger Scottish contingent among the early settlers?

Incidentally, some of the people I met seemed a little bitter towards the eastern provinces, suggesting that the richer western provinces subsidised them, but had less representation in parliament due to the smaller populations.

Canadian TV is a lot more censored than here in the UK. My girlfriend was shocked when she first heard the F-word on TV and saw naked people running about on channel 4.

Anyway, to answer the question, I think to some extent the British, Canadians and Americans have such a similar culture in many ways that the only differences really stem from the local area twists and issues.

P.S. - Beer is better (and stronger) than I found in America, but IMHO still not as good as ours!

P.P.S - Owl, the Canadians were thinner than the people I saw in America, but I wouldn’t wanna tar all Americans with the same brush. In a somewhat American style, people in Canada bought things in huge amounts from the local Walmart and Costco (you have to see the size of the ketchup tubs). On average, I would say the populations was a little more overweight than I see in the UK, but that might be something to do with how great the steak is there! :slight_smile:

48

No condescension was intended at all, actually, just exasperation. I am in fact a patriotic Canadian; I’m just going to school in the States at the moment. What’s more, this topic pushes my buttons a bit; the fact that it often suprises people to see Canadians with pride for their own country tends to set my teeth on edge.

I apologize if you read something into my earlier statement that I hadn’t intended; it should have occured to me that having a U.S. location listed next to my post would put such a different slant on it. :smack:

49

Fascinating thread.

Let me add some of my own thoughts, which will repeat of some of what we’ve already heard.

To understand the differences between Canada and the United States, you must first understand the similarities, and to understand that you have to examine the nations’ history and geography. The similarities between Canada and the USA can basicaly be summed up in three points:

  1. Both countries are former colonies of the British Empire.
  2. Both countries are immigrant-built New World nations.
  3. Both countries are really huge.

Points 1 and 2 sum up most of the common values shared by Canadians and Americans. There is a common value placed on the basic underpinnings of liberal democracy; freedom, capitalism, English common law, equality, and so on. There are differences here - Canadians widely accept government-run health care, many U.S. states have laws against homosexuality, the U.S. is economically freer, stuff like that, but the differences are not that great. Canada isn’t THAT socialist. If you ranked countries from 1 to 100 on Capitalism Index, the U.S. would be an 89, and Canada would be an 82.

As a result of the two countries sharing these values AND sharing much of a common history with Britain, there are many other incidental similarities. Culture is widely shared; Canadians watch Law and Order and Arnold Schwartzenegger movies, while Americans put up with Shania Twain for some reason. Most Americans and most Canadians share the same language. The U.S. and Canada have had many coincident historical events - they fought on the same side in a number of serious wars, gave women the vote around the same time, stuff like that. Both have mistreated North American aboriginal peoples, etc.

The other major similarity between them is size and the makeup of the population. Canada and the U.S. are BIG. Really, really big. Even U.S., with the world’s third-largest population and ten times the population of Canada, has far more empty space than populated space.

This means that Canada and the U.S. are, well, not European. The common idea of a nation-state sharing a common culture is a European idea, formed by the shift in Europe from feudalism to nationalism that started in earnest, I would think, with the Thirty Years’ War. European states had a vested interest in having homogenous populations; feudalism as a loosey-goosey system doesn’t require all your subjects have a common culture, but in a nation-state it’s awfully convenient if they do. Aside from holdovers like Austria-Hungary, there was an obvious and deliberate effort by most European nation-states to establish and even enforce a National Idenitity. Look at how many European nations actually banned the speaking of certain languages.

Canada and the U.S., other the other hand, are not European nations. There are, of course, elements of European-style nationalism, but I think it’s clear that both countries put far less emphasis on cultural homogenity (sp?) than their parent countries.

This, combined with the sheer SIZE of the countries, means that in any practical way it is impossible to compare the average Canadian to the average American, because there IS no consensus even on what a Canadian is or what an American is. Americans in Texas are very different from Minnesotans, who in turn are very different from the Miami Cuban community, who bear little resemblance to Hawaiians, who in turn are quite different from Nebraskans. We’re not talking about fringe minorities here; Americans who are very different from other Americans constitute ALL Americans. Same for Canadians; an Ontarian from Scarborough is very different from an Ontarian in the Ottawa Valley, who is very different from a Newfoundlander, who isn’t anything at all like someone from Calgary, and they’re all different from a Quebecer from Sherbrooke.

It’s impossible to say with any accuracy what the difference between Americans and Canadians is, because you’d first have to define which Americans and Canadians you’re talking about. Instead, you have to back off and speak in the broadest of generalities. There you will find the more general differences, and again I think this can be best summed up with a little history and geography. Basically, I would sum up the really important differences as such:

  1. The U.S. is warmer.
  2. Canada is bilingual.
  3. The U.S. was created by a revolution.

Rather obvious, but consider the consequences:

  1. American geography has resulted in the country growing much faster than Canada and consequently becoming a superpower, whereas Canada, while rich, isn’t as large or as significant a country. Canada’s smaller size also goes a long way towards explaining why it remained part of the British Empire until 1867, and remained tied to it until many decades later; it’s unlikely Canadians would have tolerated a lack of independence if the country had been substantially more populous and self-sufficient.

As a result of their relative sizes, Canada and the U.S. have two differences you notice on a day-to-day basis:

A) Canadians are far more aware of Americans than vice-versa, simply because America is so big and important. The U.S. exerts far more influence on Canada than vice-versa because it’s so much more populous. This really has little to do with anything besides sheer population; 280,000,000 people have more influence than 30,000,000. This has a sharp, very distinct effect on Canada’s self-image; Canadians are strongly, openly patriotic, and make a point to distinguish themselves from Americans, while at the same time having a bit of an inferiority complex towards them. An instructive point here is that the Canadians who are least rivalrous towards Americans are Quebecers - who, being so obviously a different nation, don’t share the same inferiority complex, because they don’t have to.

B) Canadians have a distinctly more internationalist outlook than Americans, primarily because Canada cannot wield much international influence on its own.

  1. Canada, of course, is a structurally bilingual country. It’s designed to be that way not out of the goodness of its heart, but because the country was originally FOUNDED as a compromise between Ontario and Quebec. As a result,

A) Canada’s bilingualism has been the absolute, no-questions-asked, #1 engine behind most of its history. The conscription crisis, regional arguments, Constitutional squabbles, oppression of minorities, separatist parties and separation referendums, the creation of at least one province (Manitoba), economic stratification, the rise and fall of Church power in Quebec, and on three occasions open civil war have all been the result of Canada’s bilingual nature. Not that bilingualism is BAD - it’s simply reality. Canada would not have survived had the two nations not formed one state, but the linguistic duality has defined the history of that state.

B) The country has become much more regionally fractured than the USA because of the fact that it was essentially created to suit the needs of Ontario and Quebec, with the other provinces added or created to suit central Canada’s needs - namely, the exploitation of natural resources and a bulwark against American expansionism. The various regional squabbles are too boring to get into, but believe me, if regional squabbles in the U.S. rated a 3 on the volume knob, Canada’s up around a 9.

Point 3, the U.S. having a revolution and Canada not, has obviously shaped both the history and governance of the two countries. Much of Canada was founded by refugees of the American Revolution - tens of thousands of people driven from their homes, their loved ones murdered and property stolen. They understandably took with them a bit of skepticism towards revolution. Canada’s political structure is, consequently, both more antiquated (an unelected Senate, the Queen as head of state) and more based on compromise and practical problem solving. The American system is idealistic, independent, and based on lofty principles. You could take the Constitution of the United States and slap in on pretty much any country; it’s a very basic governmental design. There are hardly any specific references to any part of the United States anywhere in the Constitution. You couldn’t do that with the Constitution Act of Canada, because it’s a very specifically written document with dozens of little exceptions and clauses that specifically deal with Canadians provinces and territories in different ways. American governance is based on principles; Canadian governance is based on practical concerns.

I hope this has been somewhat informative. Sorry for going on so long.

50

Canada: Mr. Dressup
US: Mr. Rogers

:frowning: I miss Casey and Finnigan

51

That’s a great post, RickJay.

52

IIRC, it’s in the Canada Act, right next to the clause requiring you to worship Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr as the Holy Trinity.

53

Rickjay, I just gotta say that that’s maybe the best description of the differences between Canada and the U.S. that I’ve ever read.

54

:smack: RIGHT! My Bad.

55

You misspelled Maurice Richard.

56

Is it a truism that because Canada can “afford” to not spend a large portion of their GDP on the military, they have a more succesful social framework relative to the US? If Canada spent as much a fraction as the US does, can it still provide above average social services to its citizens?

57

How ingrained is the metric system in the Canadian culture? I know officially Canada and the U.S. did switch to the MS around the same time only the U.S. did not and Canada did. I still remember my metric system work book in the late 1970s
preparing us for this great change that never occurred. Does the average Canadian think in metric, or imperial then convert the units?

Also in schools the U.S. uses 4th grade 5th grade while Canadians say grade 4 grade 5.

58

In my experience, Canadians (at least those born before the eighties) think both in metric and imperial systems. For instance, I have no idea what my weight is in kilos and I only found out my exact height in cm when I got my driver’s license. However, if someone tells me something is 40 miles away, or that a mountain stands 3000’ tall, I’ll have to mentally convert those values to km or m for them to make any sense.

When I grew up, we had an old thermometer that was in Fahrenheit, but now the Celsius scale is used almost exclusively. (But then again, I know that I like my pool water to be between 85 and 93 F, I have no idea what those values are in Celsius - as far as I’m aware, I’m not the only one.)

59

I think in both Metric and Imperial. I can do both k/hr and m/hr on the road, but for distances between places I prefer miles. Temperature depends on how I feel at the moment. And I couldn’t tell you what an ounce is, but I buy hamburger by the pound. Whereas a kilogram is only about 2.4lbs to me, a per 100 grams is how I buy luncheon meat, etc. Weird I know.

As to the differnces between Canadians and Americans? In regards to the individual people and cultures, there aren’t any. It pisses a lot of my fellow Canadians off to hear that but I think it is true. Someone raised this point earlier, but when you look at the difference between a Texan, Californian and a New Yorker, and a Newfie, an Albertan, and a Quebecer you will see that the range of differences are very similar. As in [texan, new yorker, californian] = [newfie, albertan, quebecer]. The two countries are the same in that they encompass such a wide range of different people, that for the most part, work toward common goals. Frankly, I don’t see why we are separate countries at all.

60

Living near the border, I can say that in these parts, the similarities are many and the differences are few. I think this concept bothers the Canadians a lot (at least the ones I know). Border cities are encroached with US culture, and they really strive to keep their own identity. Let’s not forget about the Canadian Content Rules that specify how much of radio and television broadcasts have to be of Canadian origin (I think they still have it) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/G11.htm. Otherwise, US shows/music would probably take over (which we all know is not a good thing). This rule helps keep Gordon Lightfoot and Helen Reddy employed.

I guess one way to put it would be, if I were to ask a canuck friend to tell some American jokes, he’d have like 50 of them, where as I don’t really know any Canadian ones (well, there’s the one about our Salvation Army taking on the Canadian army). They usually say there’s more to make fun of in the US, but I think it’s more that Canada isn’t really a major influence to our culture.

So near the border, we’re so much alike that it bugs the Canadians! There’s a much greater difference between the north and south US, then places like Windsor and Detroit.

And with the beer issue, it’s true, Canadian beer may have more alcohol, but I don’t judge a beer by its wallop. I’ve tried most brands and the average Canadian beer is not much different than the average US beer. People tend to take the best canuck beers and compare them to the worst US ones. In the grand scope of things, all North American beer pales to European beer, so who cares.