Originally Posted By: King Brown
Canada developed differently because it wanted to be different from Americans.


KB: There is some historical basis for saying the reason America and Canada developed differently was that Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamiltion were a few men short and stimied by weather when they made a move against a key British position two centuries ago. The real question is whether Canada would be any different today had the French not lost the Battle of Quebec--yet won the war of words. C'est la vie!

A good read on te topic is America: A Citizen's Guide by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (of The Colbert Report, and Canadian, I think). While a humourous account of American governemt in action (or inaction), there are numerous sidebars by one Samatha Bee explaining how Canadians are different. According to Samantha, "The story of America's independance from England is very well known, but did you know that Canada was once part of the British empire? It's true! We Canadians threw off the same British yoke as you, only we took a more leisurely route to liberation. In fact, you might say we've been 'declaring' our 'independance' for more than 200 years. Kind of...I'm sorry if this in any way seems like I'm bragging."

My wife Nancy and I have spent the past 36 years knocking about in our various sailbosts, living in an international community of like minded long-distance sailors on both sides of the big pond. Consequently most of our friends are non-Americans, and of this group, Canadians predominate. Socializing in the netrual venue of the Carribean six-on-and-six-off is quite different from taking a quick jaunt just across our mutual border. My observation of Canadians is that the Anglos and Americans are almost indistinguishable except for an occasional flaw of diction: "Ooot and abooot" via Toranto; Cha-kah-gah and "Dah Bears" from our second city; and the usual east coast afflictions of "Baastan" and New Yaak." And, of course, references to the "Great White" are lost on newbie American sailors.

The Quebecois are a mixed story; some fly the Quebec flag to the exclusion of the Maple Leaf, much to the consternation of Anglos and some French Canadians who do not wear their langauge on their sleaves. And often much to the consternation of the French nationals who actually have a Cabinet-Level department that perscribes usage that's legal, and there's even a National holiday to celebrate the French language.

In other words, true Frenchmen... OK, and Frenchwomen...wait, Frenchpersons Huh? I'll try again: Frenchmen and Frenchpersdaughters hear Canadian French as somewhat like Splanglish--neither fish nor fowl. To quote Samantha Bee on the topic: "One neat thing about Canada is that all our government business is conducted in both French and English, because a small minority of Canadians, called 'Quebecious,' never wanted to learn English, and we thought it was rude to ask them to. But the good news is that everyone has to learn French! Though actually, it's not really French, it's a regional patois that actual French people despise." Again, this is the Canadian counterpoint in a book about America authored by a Canadian. I'm not making this up!


Yet from my view, most Canadians are more like Americans than one would think, especially when removed to a mutually foreign port. I recall back in the early 1980s when our kids were aboard and they were our socializers; their friends' parents became our friends, and sometimes the kids would have to interpet for their parents who could not communicate in English. This blew me away; I had thought the language thing was completely political, but today I think all our French Canadian friends are up to speed on the language that greases the skids everywhere. Or so it seems, and thus Canadains have more or less morphed to the American template, just as we, too, have lost our regional distinctions. The thick Southern Drawl is history.

I'll give the parting shot on the differences between Canada and America to Samantha Bee. She describes the Canadian media as being different in-so-far as the CBC is government funded to produce public interest programming--sort of like our PBS. The difference is the lack of non-government programming and the "Canadian Content Laws" to: "...protect our essential 'Canadian-ness,' which we usually define as listing the ways we aren't American...[but]...honestly, looking back, I don't think the differences were substantial enough to justify this essay." And I agree, EDM

EDM

EDM