The first things that come to mind are: a parliamentary system of government, the healthcare system, and lack of private higher education (for the most part.) What are other major differences?
I’ve only been to southern Ontario but if you hadn’t told me, I would have thought that I was in Nebraska.
The basis of the US Constitution is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Ours is Peace, Order, and Good Government. This comes out of a war vs. a natural move to self-government and I think it colours who we are as a people in spite of our high immigration rate.
We also have a somewhat less polarized political system that is multi-party, but the range is also less broad than the US. Conservatives are probably closer to moderate republicans, Liberals to moderate Dems, and the NDP left-leaning Dems like the Squad.
Our parties are not as deeply rooted at the different levels of government, so people may support a different party at the provincial level, one which may not even be a national party.
Of course, there is the official bilingualism.
Having a parliament choosing the prime minister rather than separately elected congress and president makes an enormous difference. Parliament can get rid of the PM at any time. But the OP has hit on the main points.
Population vs geographical size is a big difference. Similarly, how this population density is distributed.
The biggest difference is in the candy. Canadian Kit Kats taste different than American. Canadian Smarties are like U.S. M & Ms (and U.S. Smarties are like Canadian Rockets). Canada has wonderful confections like the Aero bar and Coffee Crisp that may have dropped from heaven.
And, in Canada, they are chocolate bars, not “candy bars”.
mmm
Elections in Canada are run by Elections Canada, a non-partisan organization. I think the US would greatly benefit from something like this rather than letting the parties run it. All the drama that Trump created by insisting the system was rigged against him would be impossible here. Hanging chads, impossible. Disenfranchising voters with voter ID laws, impossible. And we do actually require ID to vote but the list of things that are accepted as ID is very broad.
Canadians are way more safety oriented around guns. If you want to buy a gun in Canada you can do so but first and foremost you are getting checked out by the authorities. After that, you’re going to take a course on gun safety. I was a little shocked by a mobile billboard I saw in Vegas for a place where apparently anyone can go to just shoot some guns for fun. We don’t let people do that here.
Polymer money is the way of the future, we don’t use pennies anymore and we’re giving the stinkeye to nickels too.
Nah, that’s from the Declaration of Independence. The basis of the U.S. Constitution is
Canada is a country of immigrants added to the indigenous First Nations. These were originally largely British, French and European and then many other places.
Canada has always been both close to and, since 1812, wary of the United States. Most Canadians live close to the border. The United States economy and culture have always had influence, increasing over time. Some Canadian traditions can be approximately thought of as a mix of British, French and American ones. This is changing.
Canada has never had a civil war. Instead, it relied on political compromise and regional negotiation. This kept the peace between the English and French, made language an issue, made regional governments powerful compared to the federal one and placed some emphasis on community values, not just individual ones. Canadians are thus reasonably peaceful, polite and compliant. However, stereotypes are just that and if annoyed Canadians can certainly be passive-aggressive. Most Canadians are well educated and all political stripes are generally proud of universal healthcare, a degree of social welfare, historical military participation and modest economic successes.
So in contrast to the US:
I would respectfully add to that that we (Canadians) are generally pragmatic if not indifferent to guns in that we don’t have a near religious zeal associated with gun ownership.
And Franklymydear raises an interesting point as well in that not only do we have the big onus, we can also afford to ride on its coat-tails. It’s a bit annoying and somewhat embarrassing to those of us who are/were in the CAF.
One major difference is that Canada is heavily affected by the USA (whether it likes it or not) - whether it’s the brain drain, or immigration policies, or softwood lumber, or whatnot - whereas the USA is relatively little affected by Canada. This creates a dynamic where Canadians are much more knowledgeable, and informed or involved with, developments going on in the USA than vice versa.
This may be a skewed view of mine since I’ve only had relatively little interaction with Canadians and Canada (a grand total of a few days in Toronto and a few Canadian friends) - but I get the impression Canadians are far more levelheaded and focused on facts and data while Americans are hotheaded and blown about by emotion here and there.
In economics, I’ve read that Canada has higher cost of living, a more “anti-competitive” culture, lower wages, and that that is one reason a lot of talented Canadians head south, especially to work for the FAANG companies.
Maybe. But a lot of us thought Trump could not be elected here in the US, until he was.
Sorry, I knew that but had a brain fart!
As a Torontonian, it pains me to say it but:
I worked with a bunch of Caribbean nurses in Toronto who were enormous fans of Rob Ford. This is because it was known in the community that if they had a problem, his office would take it seriously. They were willing to forgive him a great deal, including his many flaws. I remember one nurse chuckling at the memory of Ford telling the press that he did not cheat on his wife “since he had enough to eat at home”. “What a wonderful, mischievous man he was!” My Toronto Liberal friends were far less forgiving.
Trump, by contrast, cared not a fig about his constituents.
Yes, our elections are more simple affairs. Federally - we vote for the member of parliament. The party with the most seats won (usually) forms the government. Elections are easy to decide - only one position on the ballot, I think the most names I’ve seen was about 8, and generally only about 3 of the (major) parties tend to stand a chance.
Ditto for provincial. The biggest ballot is for mayor and council, and usually includes school board at the same time.
These are all paper, mark with an “X”, and still get counted mostly by next morning. Most I’ve waited in line to vote was about 20 minutes. pretty much all elementary schools in the area seem to be voting sites, none of this one site for thousands of people. Early voting can happen about week before the election, same locations. And there’s no rule against handing out water to people in line; you just can’t hand out election materials.
US-style attack ads tend to backfire in Canada and turn people off - specifically, people say “we don’t want to be like the Americans.”
I don’t recall any elections for county, or other intermediate positions, in any of the provinces I’ve lived in. Those positions are usually civil servants appointed by the province. Ditto, all cabinet positions are (usually) members of parliament elected. judges, prosecutors, etc. are appointed by the government. A common joke in Canada is that in some places in the USA, even the dog catcher is elected.
There is a senate in Canada, but it is appointed until age 75 (much as the senators until about 1900 were appointed by the state governors in the USA)
The exception, is that all bills have to be signed by the Queen. Really, this means the Governor General, representative of the crown. The government selects someone as GG and the Queen, being outside of Canadian politics, rubber stamps the selection. This is a much better system than places like Italy or Israel, where the “president” serves the same role and is usually a “used” politician; in both those countries, their president has at one time or other been charged with corruption. Our biggest scandal was the last GG resigned recently because she was an obnoxious bee-yotch to her staff.
In the provinces, the same process applies but the title is Lieutenant Governor.
Rob Ford being elected Mayor of Toronto was really a rather odd anomaly, and I’m not sure that I can fully explain it. My working hypothesis is that before Ford, Toronto had a series of socially ultra-liberal mayors like David Miller and Barbara Hall (also Mel Lastman, who did many good things despite being insane; his motto should have been “not quite as crazy as the others”). After the 1998 amalgamation, where many of the suburbs became part of the City of Toronto proper, the traditionally liberal city core was joined by the much more conservative suburbs, who I think flocked to Ford as a protest against some of the past ultra-liberal mayors and dislike of Ford’s main opponent, a former high-ranking politician in an exceptionally unpopular Liberal-majority provincial government. I also think it wasn’t clear at the time of the election, as it was with Trump, that Rob Ford was altogether as deranged as he turned out to be. Still, as misguided as he undoubtedly was in many respects, Rob Ford had a genuine concern for the best interests of his constituents. The comparisons with Trump are mostly very superficial.
ETA: Acknowledging the fact that @Dr_Paprika previously made the same point about Rob Ford actually caring about his constituents.
Plus, Ford campaigned on “stopping the gravy train” and cutting the wasted tax dollars at city hall - only to find when he got in that decades of belt-tightening and cost-cutting meant there really were no savings to be had. There was only the perception that city hall was full of fat cats.
Ford was a poor mayor but a great local representative. Business oriented types much prefer the professional and competent dullness of Tory types. Ford did have character, not always found in Canadian politicos, though I know many embarrassed by his weaknesses. He was a better politico than his brother, who was still surprisingly empathetic during Covid.
Canada didn’t have plantation slavery. I think this is the biggest difference. I have come to believe that the mass industrial enslavement of Africans is the root and source of pretty much everything that ever happens or doesn’t happen that is on the surface insane and irrational, in the USA.
I used to live in Montreal. Just a glance around any commercial street tells you you aren’t in the US.