# Canadians/Americans:  Differences and Similarities



## Tsoman

When people talk about the difference between Canadians and Americans, the only differences people can come up with are differences in political views. And those don't really count, at least not in my opinion. Because you can compare the political views of texans and people from san francisco, but they're still americans.

On a one to one basis, I can't tell canadians and americans apart. Plus, so many canadians have american relatives, and so many americans, like me, have canadian ancestors.

Moderator Note:  The first three posts of this thread have been split from the thread "In Bed With an Elephant".


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## ElaineG

> On a one to one basis, I can't tell canadians and americans apart. Plus, so many canadians have american relatives, and so many americans, like me, have canadian ancestors.


 
My partner and I both have close relatives in Canada, he in Toronto's Italian community and me in Toronto's Jewish community -- just accidents of immigration, one set of relatives got on one boat and one on another, as I think back in the boat-getting days, you took whatever boat you could get!

Anyway, we have often noted that the, at least among our parents' generation, the immigrant community ties and differences (Brooklyn Italian/Toronto Italian v. Brooklyn Jewish/Toronto Jewish) were far stronger and far more noticeable than any Canadian v. American differences, and that you can't really tell the difference between an Italian auntie from Toronto and one from Brooklyn or Long Island.

I have noticed a much stronger cultural difference in Alberta, Saskatchewan, but than I notice a huge cultural difference in the Dakotas or Montana....


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## dificilima

Tsoman said:


> When people talk about the difference between Canadians and Americans, the only differences people can come up with are differences in political views. And those don't really count, at least not in my opinion. Because you can compare the political views of texans and people from san francisco, but they're still americans.
> 
> On a one to one basis, I can't tell canadians and americans apart. Plus, so many canadians have american relatives, and so many americans, like me, have canadian ancestors.



I sometimes work for an international agency that recruits staff from all over the world.  Their Canadian branch office is known for the high number of high quality staff they recruit for projects overseas while the American office struggles to come up with an equivalent number despite a much larger population base and hundreds of applicants.  The work is stressful and involves rough living in multi-national teams in remote locations.  Canadians, asides from being frequently bilingual, just seem to  tolerate stress better and are more adept at dealing with people from different backgrounds with divergent points of view.  That's not to say there aren't many talented and qualified Americans, it just takes a bit longer to find them.

I am also reminded of a comment of a friend of mine who worked for an international student exchange program.  An American born and bred herself, she confessed to me that although the kids were all great, Americans just tended to be more high maintenance. 

I myself am an American who knows more than one neurotic Canadian, but I think that perhaps there are a few lessons in international citizenship that my compatriots could stand to learn from our neighbors in the North.


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## PandaX

dificilima said:


> *Canadians, asides from being frequently bilingual, just seem to  tolerate stress better and are more adept at dealing with people from different backgrounds* with divergent points of view.  That's not to say there aren't many talented and qualified Americans, it just takes a bit longer to find them.



Surely no other country of such a significant population has more experience in such a matter as America does.

You could have also been seeing a different business culture within a particular company. They can vary greatly.


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## danielfranco

So far, I can usually detect Canadians amongst us by their affinity for the tag question "eh?" and for sometimes pronouncing "about" a little bit like "a boot".
Well, that, and the big fat-ass horse-riding in red suits and round hats, that is....


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## PandaX

danielfranco said:


> So far, I can usually detect Canadians amongst us by their affinity for the tag question "eh?" and for sometimes pronouncing "about" a little bit like "a boot".
> Well, that, and the big fat-ass horse-riding in red suits and round hats, that is....



Unless they are of the French Canadian variety it is difficult to distinguish between Americans and Canadians. The "eh" ending of a sentence, though, is  a dead giveaway.<img>


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## don maico

How did the accents come about? How did the US accent influence the Canadian one?


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## PandaX

don maico said:


> How did the accents come about? How did the US accent influence the Canadian one?



I guess it all boils down to geography and migration back and forth.


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## Setwale_Charm

I must say that after having been placed into a family from Toronto for a while, I found it fairly easy to distinguish Canadians, esp. those from Toronto. They just do not sound the same as Americans. I would not be able to name the particular differences though.


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## Chaska Ñawi

don maico said:


> How did the accents come about? How did the US accent influence the Canadian one?




Blame Ed Sullivan.  Once my parent's generation got hooked on him, there was no turning back, eh?  

A lot of the slang comes from the American media.  As far as accent goes, the continent is divided linguistically by regions, not borders.  Ontarians speak the same English as people in upstate New York and Pennsylvania, Maritimers speak like New Englanders, and so on.


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## PandaX

Setwale_Charm said:


> I must say that after having been placed into a family from Toronto for a while, I found it fairly easy to distinguish Canadians, esp. those from Toronto. They just do not sound the same as Americans. I would not be able to name the particular differences though.



What you were experiencing was a regional accent in the same way you get different regional accents in America.

The typical Canadian and American accents are generally indistiguishable. You would have to spot different word and expression usage to notice the difference.


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## jabogitlu

I agree with the poster that said North American dialects/accents are divided by region, not border.  I can't tell the difference between someone from Kitchener or Grand Rapids.  But I can tell the difference from my two friends in Hamilton (Ont.) and Tennessee.


Linguistics aside, I've always felt that Canadians in general are much more progressive and open-minded than Americans.  They've never fought a direct war or been invaded (apart from battles on/around the land before the true formation of the country).  (They have contributed troops to the War in Iraq, though.)  And look at their stance on a hot-topic social issue in America - gay marriage.  The government passed a resolution endorsing it as a matter of equality!  How daring!   Just this month the conservatives tried to drag it back for a vote down, but it was once again accepted.  And finally PM Harper said that the matter was over and gay marriage was there to stay.  I don't like him much, but a conservative like George Bush would never have handled matters like that.

I could easily move to Canada. =)


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## don maico

IT's kind of strange for me because here  I am living in  this small island with 60000000 people inhabitants. There are some fairly clearly defined areas where certain accents prevail no matter how much people move around (with the possible exception of the London one, which now covers virtually the whole of the SE of England, and that was due to massive migration from the "big smoke"( London)). So I am thinking we have two very large countries with vast expanses  of unhinhabited land speaking with  accents which seem to my ears veeery similar. I mean it's not like they are anything like Jamaican for example.  I just wonder how accents develop? I kind of think Australian accents may have come from cockney, particularly as they share some terms like mate with the Londoners. Where does  the American accent come from?- West country English pehaps( Plymouth) and why don't Canadians speak more like us or completely differently?  Okay cross border travel may account for some of it and maybe media exposure, but we get a lot of the latter as well. but  Whilst we may well adopt some of the terms used by you guys, we stick to our accents like glue.
Maybe Nova Scotians speak more like us


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## jabogitlu

Well, different parts of the American accent came from different places.  The area in which I grew up was settled mainly by Irish immigrants; so much so, in fact, that my grandparents said "pint" instead of "point," "jint" instead of "joint," etc.  I still use (with friends/family) words like "ye" and "yuns (you'ns)" which seem to hearken directly to an Irish accent.


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## PianoMan

What really bugs me of the American point of view towards Canada is how much they insult and bash our neighbor to the north (even if jokingly).  As far as I'm concerned, Canada's doing better than we are as far as economy goes.  It's a beautiful country and fellow Americans should just give it a break.


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## Setwale_Charm

don maico said:


> IT's kind of strange for me because here I am living in this small island with 60000000 people inhabitants. There are some fairly clearly defined areas where certain accents prevail no matter how much people move around (with the possible exception of the London one, which now covers virtually the whole of the SE of England, and that was due to massive migration from the "big smoke"( London)). So I am thinking we have two very large countries with vast expanses of unhinhabited land speaking with accents which seem to my ears veeery similar. I mean it's not like they are anything like Jamaican for example. I just wonder how accents develop? I kind of think Australian accents may have come from cockney, particularly as they share some terms like mate with the Londoners. Where does the American accent come from?- West country English pehaps( Plymouth) and why don't Canadians speak more like us or completely differently? Okay cross border travel may account for some of it and maybe media exposure, but we get a lot of the latter as well. but  Whilst we may well adopt some of the terms used by you guys, we stick to our accents like glue.
> Maybe Nova Scotians speak more like us


 
 As a South-Westerner, I realise that many people consider the Westcountry accent to be the closest to American pronunciation and might conclude there is a link between those. It is true that it is closer to American pronunciation that any other British accent probably, more that Glaswegian or Oxford or Scouse at any rate. 
 However, I do not think American accents stem form any particular accent in the UK. Also because, firstly, they are all different too and have changed thorough the years, secondly, I believe, American English is based on a great many of language from each of which it has borrowed some vocabulary and some pronunciation features. 
 The same might be true for Canada as it is such a multi-national country. The only reason why it was probably less so in the case of Australia is perhaps that it is only now beginning to attract masses of immigrants from different backgrounds. For a long time, it was predominantly British/Irish and preserved a lot of the culture and language of these two countries there. I am sure, soon Australian English will include more and more the traces of other languages and sound further and further away from British English.


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## jabogitlu

^ As is the case in New Zealand; the younger generation(s) there are speaking more and more north American English after television has basically switched to American programming.


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## don maico

Setwale_Charm said:


> As a South-Westerner, I realise that many people consider the Westcountry accent to be the closest to American pronunciation and might conclude there is a link between those. It is true that it is closer to American pronunciation that any other British accent probably, more that Glaswegian or Oxford or Scouse at any rate.
> However, I do not think American accents stem form any particular accent in the UK. Also because, firstly, they are all different too and have changed thorough the years, secondly, I believe, American English is based on a great many of language from each of which it has borrowed some vocabulary and some pronunciation features.
> The same might be true for Canada as it is such a multi-national country. The only reason why it was probably less so in the case of Australia is perhaps that it is only now beginning to attract masses of immigrants from different backgrounds. For a long time, it was predominantly British/Irish and preserved a lot of the culture and language of these two countries there. I am sure, soon Australian English will include more and more the traces of other languages and sound further and further away from British English.


fair comment!


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## PandaX

PianoMan said:


> What really bugs me of the American point of view towards Canada is how much they insult and bash our neighbor to the north (even if jokingly).  As far as I'm concerned, Canada's doing better than we are as far as economy goes.  It's a beautiful country and fellow Americans should just give it a break.



In my experience Americans tend to ignore their northern neighbors and if anything the criticism flows down much more from the north. The ignoring part also irritates many Canadians. <img>


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## PianoMan

That's definitely true, but I've seen two-way insults.


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## jp_fr_linguaphile

I have noticed the pronunciation of other words that give Canadians away: progress and drama.  I have NEVER heard an American, even from the Atlantic states pronounce progress "pro-gress."  All Americans I have ever heard say "prah-gress."  And as for drama, I have heard "dramma" from Canadians whereas in the US we say "drah-ma."  

Has anyone else noticed this?

Politically speaking though, I have to agree with jabogitlu.  Canada is truly the only country in North America that can be called "the home of the free and the brave."  I admire a country that does more than pay lip service to the virtuous concept of "equality for all."  I used to cringe when I had to say the Pledge of Allegiance... "with liberty and justice for all?"


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## modus.irrealis

jabogitlu said:


> (They have contributed troops to the War in Iraq, though.)


 Not Iraq. Afghanistan, yes, but that's a whole different kind of war.



jp_fr_linguaphile said:


> I have noticed the pronunciation of other words that give Canadians away: progress and drama.


I only have prah-gress (in the noun at least), but I have both pronunciations with drama (and also in words like pasta, taco, etc.) and I don't know what controls which one I use in any given case. But this does seem to be a difference and it's discussed at http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Canadian/canphon3.html#pasta.

Another difference that seems pretty consistent is that Canadians say "grade 10" but Americans say "10th grade" and I've seen that give people away in the past.

Many of the similarities could also go back to the American revolution, after which a large number of loyalists moved to Canada.


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## JGreco

I once read the American accent developed out of the influence of the way German immigrants spoke english in the U.S. At one point I heard that German was almost once the official language in The United States. This makes sense to me because of certain pronunciations such as in certain words where "s" is pronounced like a "z" at the end of the word such as papers (pay-perz), curtains (kehr'nz), batteries (bah-der-reez), etc. There are several examples for this phenomenon


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## Pedro y La Torre

JGreco said:


> I once read the American accent developed out of the influence of the way German immigrants spoke english in the U.S. At one point *I heard that German was almost once the official language in The United States*. This makes sense to me because of certain pronunciations such as in certain words where "s" is pronounced like a "z" at the end of the word such as papers (pay-perz), curtains (kehr'nz), batteries (bah-der-reez), etc. There are several examples for this phenomenon



The Germans in my old school used to say this too. It's not true! 



> An urban legend, sometimes called the Mühlenberg legend after Frederick Muhlenberg, states that English only narrowly defeated German as the U.S. official language. In reality, the proposal being referenced was only to have government documents translated into German as a secondary language. The United States has no statutory official language; English has been used as a _de facto_ basis, owing to its status as the country's predominant language.



On your second point have you heard ze way dat ze germans speek when zey speek in englisch? I really doubt the American accent developed out of that!


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## jabogitlu

Ack - my mistake, I was typing and thinking quickly and wrote Iraq in place of Afghanistan.  Lo siento!

My best friend who's from Burlington (of Coat Factory fame) and who now lives in Hamilton also says the "grade 10" thing.  Also, there seems to be a more recognized difference between "college" and "university" in Canada, probably due to British influence.  For example, while I attend University, I always just say "I'm in college," a remark which my friend is always quick to correct.


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## Outsider

JGreco said:


> This makes sense to me because of certain pronunciations such as in certain words where "s" is pronounced like a "z" at the end of the word such as papers (pay-perz), curtains (kehr'nz), batteries (bah-der-reez), etc.


The English pronounce those words with [z], too.


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## zimbron

Hi everyone.  I might seem a bit out of place in this discussion since I'm from Mexico.  However I lived in Canada for a year and I go back for vacations whenever I can.  Also I live in Monterrey, a city 2 hrs away from the border with USA and you can find me in Austin Tx. or San Antonio at least once a month.

To me, the main difference of Canadian and USA culture is the friendliness of the people.  When traveling around Canada with my brother we felt welcomed anywhere we went.  People would go out of their way to point us in the right direction. They were happy to help someone and in general very eager to show their country and give us a good impression of it.

On the other hand, whenever I go to USA I feel unwanted.  It seems everyone is distrustful of everyone else.  It is as if they felt you were out to get them.  In Texas (I cannot speak of the whole USA as I haven't spent enough time in other cities) people will try not to notice if you seem lost.

Of course this might be a very limited comparison.  The fact that people react differently might have something to do with the whole immigration debate in the USA.

And about (or should I say aboot?) the language:  the inclusion of french or at least french-in-origin words make it easy to distinguish an american from a canadian.  Who else says "tuque" heh?


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## jp_fr_linguaphile

JGreco said:


> I once read the American accent developed out of the influence of the way German immigrants spoke english in the U.S. At one point I heard that German was almost once the official language in The United States. This makes sense to me because of certain pronunciations such as in certain words where "s" is pronounced like a "z" at the end of the word such as papers (pay-perz), curtains (kehr'nz), batteries (bah-der-reez), etc. There are several examples for this phenomenon


As far as I know, the Canadians pronounce "z" too.  In fact, I thought the whole native English-speaking world pronounced it that way.


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## fobits

I've been biting my tongue and staying out of this thread, because I'm sure that some will find my remarks offensive.

I was born in the United States, in the State of Michigan, and lived there for the first 22 years of my life. I have now lived 
in Canada for 40 years, the last 35 as a citizen.

When I crossed the border, I didn't notice any profound differences. Canadians use some words and expressions 
which are different than the US version, such as the "Grade 10" already mentioned. The word "bum" has completely 
different meanings in the two countries.  The cigarettes are better and the money has a picture of the Queen. 
I can't say, though, that I experienced any great culture shock.

It wasn't until I had been here for a while that I began to appreciate that it really was a different country with a different culture.

The biggest difference, I would say, is that Canadians don't hate each other, or other people, to even remotely the same 
degree that Americans do. There are bigots and racists here, nobody can deny it, but they are few and far between 
compared to their American counterparts.

Michigan is a Northern state, but _many_ of the people I knew used words like "nigger", "greaser" and "New York Jew" 
as everyday terms. During my first year in college, one of my roommates (from Nebraska) used to come back to the dorm room 
and boast about how he had shoved some "big stinking nigger" off the sidewalk. The other roommate and I kept hoping that 
one of them would break a few of his arms, but it never happened.  

I have _never_ heard Canadians speak of each other that way, not even when the FLQ was setting off bombs in Montreal. 
There are arguments between English and French-speaking Canadians, between Westerners and Easterners and so on, 
but never with the poisonous hatred which seems to be a part of the American air.

When I arrived in 1967, that could be partly ascribed to the fact that English Canada was racially and culturally more 
homogenous than the US, but that is no longer true. Canada is now accepting large numbers of immigrants from all 
over the world.

I live in a large apartment building in Toronto, and in this one building there are at least 20 _familias de habla español_, 
along with people from the Caribbean Islands, Arabs, people from various countries in Eastern Europe... the list goes on. 
There is more prejudice against Jamaicans than anybody else, but even that is directed against some individuals rather 
than the group as a whole.

I could rant on and on about the way Canada looks at the rest of the world, about the comprehensive Medicare and 
welfare programs and so on, but I'm already betraying my Yankee roots by writing this. It isn't likely that a native-born 
Canadian would do it - they are too polite.


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## itxaro.

From foreign non English point of view, Americans and Canadienses seem much the same. But I supose it`s this way too for foreigns when they regard Spanish and Portugueses, for example.


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## cuchuflete

Thanks to Fobits for the Canadian & American insider view.  It sounds reasonable to me....however....... I now live in a part of the US that seems more like your description of Canada.

You made me think back to my earlier years in the mid-west, northeastern, and mid-Atlantic US.  Much of what you described was present.  But it was different in New Hampshire and in Maine.  I am wondering why, in front of you.

Possible similarities to your Canadian environs:
Homogeneous populations, well settled for many generations,
the people were secure in who and how they were.  Then came substantial inward migration.  The locals remained as they were, with a little broadening of perspective.  The immigrants from other parts of the US largely adopted local ways...including the lack of racism and other tribalisms and
hyphen-American preoccupations.  

No offense taken because you spoke honestly.  Americans have flaws as well as good sides.  I did meet one racist Canadian, one time, in one place, and that person stood in contrast to all other Canadians I've ever known.  


Bienvenido Itxaro.  Good to have your viewpoint.  As an American who has lived briefly in both Spain and Portugal, I do find substantial differences between the cultures, but that is the subject of another thread.


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## vince

If we must speak of generalizations, Canadian culture is essentially the same as American culture, with a couple exceptions (hockey, Tim Hortons). The language is basically the same, down to the slang and accent. Again, there are minor differences, like Canadians saying "aboot" (or more accurately, ab-uh-oot).
 However, the main difference is that of values. Canadians tend to value community and trust in the government rather than individualism. They tend to look for consensus with others before jumping into a decision unilaterally.  Most people are  what the American media calls "liberals": there are very few conservatives, although Alberta and eastern British Columbia are more conservative than the rest of Canada. There is a general sense of laissez-faire attitude when it comes to political issues: there may be many things people want to change, but few are passionate enough about them to do anything.


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## djchak

I found Fobits post enlightening as well.


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## Québec-Jakarta

I think Fobits made a excellent point.  And Vince too.  But it's all social, moral and political.  The intinial question what if there's other differences besides that.  I can tell no.  When I was still living in Québec, I was going south of the border to play music in casinos on a regular basis.  And when the people, 90% of them americans, was coming to talk to us after the gig or during the breaks, THEN they were asking us "where do you come from?"...  because without the french-canadian accent, we were looking like genuine Americans...  We all have the same ancestors after all.  You have to communicate or make good obsevation of a canadian to tell the difference.  But that's based on MY experience...  And let me tell you something else every disturbing...  Almost all the Indonesians and Malaysians I meet here don't have a clue of what Canada is...  When I explain or point it on a map, most of them think it's part of the USA...


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## mplsray

jp_fr_linguaphile said:


> As far as I know, the Canadians pronounce "z" too. In fact, I thought the whole native English-speaking world pronounced it that way.


 
The NBC comedy program _Saturday Night Live_ once had recurring characters, meant to be Chicagoans, who devoiced the final consonant of _the Bears,_ pronouncing it "da Bearss." This phenomenon has recently been discussed in the Usenet forum sci.lang and can be seen via Google Groups archive here.

Among the interesting points of that thread are these two: 

(1) To one member of the newsgroup, who is from the UK, "almost _all_ Americans heard on the BBC seem more or less to devoice final /s/."

(2) Another poster gives an explanation for this (supposed) devoicing, saying that what is actually occurring is the shortening of the preceding vowel.

By the way, the story that German was once almost made the official language of the US, mentioned earlier in this thread, is an urban legend.


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## Cheesee = Madness

I, being native of Canada, have a very biast view towards my own country and the US. However I'll try to keep most of the stereotypical, and untrue ones to myself.  Other than the pronunciation of a few words, and Z (American Zee, Canadian Zed), I have noticed that in almost all American movies, and the one highschool I've visited they have metal detectors. I've never seen any in any Canadian school. 

We have many similarities, we both love Pizza and fast food. We both have the same stereotypes about cops and donuts . We both used to be colonies of the British empire. We both now run our own countries.

Our political systems are a little different, but we respect each-others countries in general. We both have itelligence agencies but theirs is split and ours isn't (FBI, CIA)(CSIS)

We have a combined defence, and they test many of their weapons on our soil. We have(Had?) a very open border between us. We created a trade union with Mexico.

We used to be enemies (Back in the day when we were the Canadas, and not Canada), and the Canadas have been invaded several times by them.

(I'm sorry for any confusion that might result in the use of the "We's")


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## EmilyD

I think that some folks in the U.S. have, ironically, a romantic (ideological/political) sense of Canadian culture and values.

1.  Canada accepted people from the US who were fleeing the military draft (VietNam War) and,

2.  Canadians have universal health coverage.

Canada's immigration laws have long been touted to be more liberal than those of the U.S.

_Nmi_


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## Grekh

PianoMan said:


> That's definitely true, but I've seen two-way insults.


 Yes, me too. When I was in Canada, Canadian people used to bash Americans. I haven't been to the USA but I've had some conversations with some and they don't like their neighbours...I don't seem to realize why this happens, but it's a funny thing when you hear canadians not wanting to be confused with americans.


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## Sepia

Michael Moore, director/writer of "Bowling for Columbine" discovered that Canadians don't lock their doors and they have a huge amount of guns around like the USAmericans do, but don't run around shooting each other as much as they do. I think that is a very significant differnce.


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## timpeac

Sepia said:


> Michael Moore, director/writer of "Bowling for Columbine" discovered that Canadians don't lock their doors and they have a huge amount of guns around like the USAmericans do, but don't run around shooting each other as much as they do. I think that is a very significant differnce.


 He discovered that Canadians don't lock their doors? Well, no wonder they don't need to run around shooting each other. They know that they can just walk in through the front door and do it at their leisure.


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## Cheesee = Madness

timpeac said:


> He discovered that Canadians don't lock their doors? Well, no wonder they don't need to run around shooting each other. They know that they can just walk in through the front door and do it at their leisure.


I forgot that one. When I'm home I don't lock my door. I'd also like to point out that Americans like football(The American kind not soccer) more than we do. I'm not saying that we don't like football, just that Americans in general like it more.


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## JamesM

I think that's too broad a generalization to make as a difference between Canadians and Americans. I, for example, don't lock my front door, but my friends who live in metropolitan L.A. do. My sister in a small town in California doesn't, nor does my sister-in-law in Ohio, but my mother, who also lives in another small town in California, does, simply because she has been burglarized twice. My Canadian friend in Victoria, BC locks her door. 

Let's not paint with too broad a brush here. This is not a valid difference between Canadians and Americans.


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## silverdaizy

I feel that the main differences between Americans and Canadians are the mannerisms, the fact that Canadians _tend _to be more polite and open-minded and just their general interest/knowledge of different cultures and the world. For example, if you ask a Canadian to name all *51* states, I think the average Canadian would be able to name at least half, if not all 51. If you ask an American to name the *10 *Canadian provinces (leaving out the 3 territories!).. the grand majority would be able to name a few... but perhaps would be more likely to name the most well-known cities (Toronto, Montreal, etc.). I think part of the problem is the American education system (and the current leader..?). Most American schools only teach American History so how can we expect the people to know about the rest of the world?? ...And if President Bush comes to Spain to see President Zapatero and says, "Oh, I didn't know you spoke Mexican here!", it's no wonder things are the way they are.

When I moved abroad and started to see things in a different light, I realized that of course people think we're the same because *worldly* speaking we are quite similar, maybe in the same way that people see Australians and New Zealanders similar, or the English and Scottish- *when looking from an outsider's perspective *(I'm not trying to ruffle anyone's feathers here.. I know that is a touchy subject as well). But the truth is that the rest of the world doesn't really know much about Canada. You only ever hear things about the US. The most typical comment I hear is "Oh, Canada. It's cold there!" It's the only thing people now about Canada. The weather is (supposedly) very cold and we have a lot of beatiful nature; forests, lakes, mountains, wild animals, etc. The recent Canadian election wasn't even covered on the main news channels!  But of course, there is not lack of coverage on the American election campaigns. However, despite all this, I do prefer coming from a "less well-known" country that kind of keeps to itself and doesn't draw too much attention.


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## modus.irrealis

Cheesee = Madness said:


> I forgot that one. When I'm home I don't lock my door. I'd also like to point out that Americans like football(The American kind not soccer) more than we do. I'm not saying that we don't like football, just that Americans in general like it more.


But I lock my door and there can't be that many Americans who like football more than I do, and although I am a fan of the CFL (unlike most people around me), I'm a much bigger fan of the NFL (like most people around me). Anyway, though, I do agree with you -- it's all a matter of "in general" and there you can find some pretty big differences I think, although there will always be overlap.


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## Athaulf

Sepia said:


> Michael Moore, director/writer of "Bowling for Columbine" discovered that Canadians don't lock their doors [...]



As a resident of Toronto, I could only laugh at that (and at many other things in Moore's documentary). Although the city is relatively safe when it comes to violent crime, the situation is absolutely horrible when it comes to petty theft. Anything worth stealing that isn't locked or nailed down can easily disappear the moment you turn your back. Not locking your door would be really insane around here.  

Of course, there are places in Canada where you can leave your door unlocked safely, but as other posters have pointed out, there are many such places in the U.S. too


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## gotitadeleche

Grekh said:


> Yes, me too. When I was in Canada, Canadian people used to bash Americans. I haven't been to the USA but I've had some conversations with some and they don't like their neighbours...I don't seem to realize why this happens, but it's a funny thing when you hear canadians not wanting to be confused with americans.



I would not consider this to be the general view of Americans toward Canadians. I have never heard any negative criticism of Canadians, and I personally consider them as friends and neighbors.


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## Chaska Ñawi

Putting on my moderator toque ....

Please stick to differences and similarities between Americans and Canadians.  Please do _not _flog the extremely dead horse named Who-are-Americans - he has already been beaten to death in several other threads.

If you'd like to discuss what it's like being a smaller neighbour of the dominant country of a continent .... check out the thread In Bed With an Elephant.

Thanks, eh?


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## Porteño

danielfranco said:


> So far, I can usually detect Canadians amongst us by their affinity for the tag question "eh?" and for sometimes pronouncing "about" a little bit like "a boot".
> Well, that, and the big fat-ass horse-riding in red suits and round hats, that is....


 
Exactly, it's the 'aboot' that always identifies a Canadian for me on the TV.


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## silverdaizy

Porteño said:


> Exactly, it's the 'aboot' that always identifies a Canadian for me on the TV.


 
I just want to clarify that the whole 'aboot' thing really only applies to Eastern Canada.  Or at least I only notice it when people from Eastern Canada speak and not when a 'westerner' does... but maybe that's because I'm from the west...???


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## gotitadeleche

Also, some Americans from the eastern U.S. have the aboot pronounciation.


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## Sepia

Athaulf said:


> As a resident of Toronto, I could only laugh at that (and at many other things in Moore's documentary). Although the city is relatively safe when it comes to violent crime, the situation is absolutely horrible when it comes to petty theft. Anything worth stealing that isn't locked or nailed down can easily disappear the moment you turn your back. Not locking your door would be really insane around here.
> 
> Of course, there are places in Canada where you can leave your door unlocked safely, but as other posters have pointed out, there are many such places in the U.S. too


 
Well, I never said that I believed the "not-locking-their-doors"-part.

As a matter of fact, my brother and his wife - both Vancouverites - are very particular of locking their doors. 

But what the shooting is concerned, I think he (Michael Moore) is right.


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## mora

I think door locking behavior in each country is much the same, essential in urban areas, not so much in rural areas. 

I think notable differences are:
- attitudes towards immigrants, particularly illegal immigrants, it is not the big issue in Canada that it is in the US
- attitudes towards religion; a significantly higher percentage of Americans identify themselves as members of a church, and politicians talk an a lot more about God , as in ending speeches with 'God bless America', which is not done in Canada

mora


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## fenixpollo

silverdaizy said:


> I think part of the problem is the American education system (and the current leader..?). Most American schools only teach American History so how can we expect the people to know about the rest of the world?? ...And if President Bush comes to Spain to see President Zapatero and says, "Oh, I didn't know you spoke Mexican here!", it's no wonder things are the way they are..


 There are many causes for Americans' lack of "worldliness", but don't make a blanket statement blaming the educational system. All children in my state are required to take US History, World History and State History classes, at different levels of their education. The teachers who teach those subjects are capable, qualified and intelligent, and do a good job teaching the material. Nor can you blame the educational system for the fact that our soon-to-be-ex-president is an ignoramus. 

On the other hand, a society that would elect such a person, and who would refuse to pay higher taxes in order to have a high-quality educational system, obviously puts a lower value on education than on other priorities (such as military strength). So the American system of education may be inferior in quality to the Canadian one, but don't say "it's the schools' fault". It's the society's fault. 

Do Canadians value education more than Americans? I don't know the answer, because I don't know how much Canada spends on education per student, or how that spending compares with their military spending. I would quote you the American statistics, but I have a low tolerance for obscenity.  

I will say, though, that all the Canadians that I have met have been much more polite (please and thank you) than most any American. But maybe I've just met the very politest of Canadians. 





silverdaizy said:


> I just want to clarify that the whole 'aboot' thing really only applies to Eastern Canada. Or at least I only notice it when people from Eastern Canada speak and not when a 'westerner' does... but maybe that's because I'm from the west...???


 When I was in Victoria and Vancouver, I didn't hear the "aboot" pronunciation, but the "o" sound that I heard was not as flat as the American "ow" in "about". It was more in between -- "about" sounded like "a boat". In Alberta, the accent was almost indistinguishable from the accent of a person from Wyoming or Montana. So there is a difference in accent, but the E/W difference between the Canadian accents don't seem to be as marked as some of the regional differences between accents within the U.S.


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## mora

I travel widely in the US, and have many American friends and business associates. I would say there is virtually no difference in the quality of education, or the value placed on it.  I think there is greater variation between individual schools or school districts, than countries. 

Educated in Canada, in very good schools, before I started traveling in the US, I could not reliably name all 50 states, and could only reliably place about half of them on a map. I can readily do all of them now, but  now I have visited all states except those in the south east. Though I am avidly following the current election in the USA, I would give you a blank stare if you asked me to explain the electoral college system. My American friends do not know how the Canadian government is elected, so it cuts both ways. 

mora


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## fenixpollo

Grux said:


> isn't it a misuse of the word 'American'?


Not in English.

Here are three threads regarding the subject that can be found in the Cultural Discussions Forum: 

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=58287
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=51259
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=21002

To discuss the naming convention of "America" would be off the topic of this thread, so for the purposes of this thread, let's assume that "America" is being used as a synonym of "the United States".


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## the MASTER

OK. We've seen pronunciation and cultural differences/similarities discussed...I'm interested in how Canadians spell things. I've spoken to one who said that everything was the U.S. way and another who claims that they use the British (or dare I say _International_) convention.

What is the reality? And does it depend on the region or the individual?


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## suma

Years ago there was a funny SNL sketch, it was a spoof of another show about the subversion of America by Soviet /Communist types called Ameri*k*a.
the SNL spoof put Canada as the country slowly taking over and suberverting good ole USA it was called Ameri*d*a


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## mora

Hello,
Canada borrows from both, though I think the trend is towards American spelling in  recent years. Blame it on Microsoft and their US spelling spellchecker. This is what I can think of:
  Colour, labour, honour etc. rather than color, labor, honor. 
  We write a cheque, not a check. We also stick with the Brits for theatre, centre, metre, fibre and sabre.
We prefer the American aluminum, but measure its thickness in terms of the British gauge, not gage. 
We can't make up our minds on sulphur versus sulfur. 
 We do not use British English for tire (tyre) or curb (kerb) and prefer the 'z' over the 's' in realize, rationalize and similar words. We used to use 'programme' but that has almost disappeared and shrunk to the American 'program'. We use draftsman not  draughtsman, plow not plough. I am sure there are more, those are the ones that I come across regularly. It is not personal or regional, there are Canadian dictionaries and style guides that give the preferred Canadian spelling. 

Mora


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## xymox

Hi,

It seems as though this has gone off-topic, but it is definitely an interesting thread!
Differences and similarities.....
The USA don't have social security, Canada does.
The USA has over 300M inhabitants, Canada has 34M and is larger in territory, not much, but it is.
Canadian banks are regulated - extremely regulated! There are no private banks.
There are more firearms in Canada (per capita) than in the USA, but there isn't half the violence - Canada being heaven for hunters....firearms must be locked in a special cabinet and only one person in the home has access to that cabinet. This is extremely controled.
And, Canada is part of the Commonwealth, the USA are not.

I have lived in 5 different countries inclusing the USA and Canada (obviously, I'm Canadian).
I have been asked by Americans if we really do live in igloos and travel to and from work on snowmobiles, and I have also been asked the same question by southern European people.
As far as the accent goes, I am rarely mistaken for an American in Europe. I'm asked if I'm Irish, probably because I studied with a great number of people with Irish ancestors, Italians and Jewish people and was raised basically on the East Coast (this was mentioned before).
It is difficult for me to distinguish Americans from Canadians abroad when I hear a normal conversation, but when there is interaction with local people, I can tell straight away. The attitude is totally different. Canadians are much more discreet and quiet. This may be because we do not own the world, and no one else does either.
I will end my post by saying that it seems to me that Canada has kept more of a "European touch". When I travel to the USA , I don't feel at home at all, however if I go to Australia or the UK, the feeling is different.

*I am not saying that one is better than the other, but that there are more differences than similarities.*


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## 0216monty

xymox said:


> Hi,
> 
> It seems as though this has gone off-topic, but it is definitely an interesting thread!
> Differences and similarities.....
> The USA don't have social security, Canada does.
> The USA has over 300M inhabitants, Canada has 34M and is larger in territory, not much, but it is.
> Canadian banks are regulated - extremely regulated! There are no private banks.
> There are more firearms in Canada (per capita) than in the USA, but there isn't half the violence - Canada being heaven for hunters....firearms must be locked in a special cabinet and only one person in the home has access to that cabinet. This is extremely controled.
> And, Canada is part of the Commonwealth, the USA are not.
> 
> I have lived in 5 different countries inclusing the USA and Canada (obviously, I'm Canadian).
> I have been asked by Americans if we really do live in igloos and travel to and from work on snowmobiles, and I have also been asked the same question by southern European people.
> As far as the accent goes, I am rarely mistaken for an American in Europe. I'm asked if I'm Irish, probably because I studied with a great number of people with Irish ancestors, Italians and Jewish people and was raised basically on the East Coast (this was mentioned before).
> It is difficult for me to distinguish Americans from Canadians abroad when I hear a normal conversation, but when there is interaction with local people, I can tell straight away. The attitude is totally different. Canadians are much more discreet and quiet. This may be because we do not own the world, and no one else does either.
> I will end my post by saying that it seems to me that Canada has kept more of a "European touch". When I travel to the USA , I don't feel at home at all, however if I go to Australia or the UK, the feeling is different.
> 
> *I am not saying that one is better than the other, but that there are more differences than similarities.*



Let me do a summary here.


_-Canada has better social security than the US does. Oh, sorry. The US has none. _
_-The US are more violent, much more, despite the fact that they have less guns per capita
__-The US have more people and less land._
_-Canada’s banks are extremely regulated. Did Xymox mention the barely regulated banks in the US and the financial crisis? No, he did not._
_-Canada is part of the Commonwealth, and has kept more of a “European touch”._
_-Xymox is rarely mistaken for Americans in Europe.
__-Canda is a heaven for hunters.
__-Canadians do not speak like Americans in that they don’t think they own the world. _
_-No one else owns the world, not even the Americans_
_-Canada is very different from the US, definitely not saying Canada is a better place though.
_
-_Did I miss some points, probably._


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## Brioche

silverdaizy said:


> I feel that the main differences between Americans and Canadians are the mannerisms, the fact that Canadians _tend _to be more polite and open-minded and just their general interest/knowledge of different cultures and the world. For example, if you ask a Canadian to name all *51* states,



Fifty-*one* states?  Who joined the union after Hawaii?


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## mora

0216monty said:


> Let me do a summary here.
> 
> 
> _-Canada has better social security than the US does. Oh, sorry. The US has none. _



This statement is false. It is not helpful, it is an attempt to portray Canada as 'better' than the US, not simply different. 

http://www.ssa.gov/

As a Canadian, I also object to characterizations as 'polite' or 'open minded' because they are smug cliches not supported by any evidence. When different cultures have different customs, it  can be perceived as rudeness, when it is simply different. 

 In my experience, there is no shortage of rudeness and closed-mindedness in Canada, just as it unfortunately exists in  other countries. 

With respect, 

Mora


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## silverdaizy

Brioche said:


> Fifty-*one* states? Who joined the union after Hawaii?


 
Well, technically there are only 50 states but sometimes Puerto Rico is referred to as the 51st, although it's really not.


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