Truth behind stereotypes of Canada and Canadians?

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Lily

Well, we don't all live in igloos, the majority of us live close to the border, so we have very similar climate to the US, I personally live in Victoria slightly below the 49th parallel, so the weather I experience is much warmer than states like New York. We do not always say eh, almost no one says that, we more commonly say hey. We do have a beautiful landscape, lots of trees, oceans so we do tend to spend a lot of time outdoors hiking, skiing etc. While Canada does not have as many guns as the states, there are quite a few hunting rifles, and gang violence brings quite a few guns into the country, especially as we are right next door to the US. We are a very peaceful nation which supports few wars, but is into peacekeeping. Canadian troops have gone on many peacekeeping missions. Canadians mostly do believe in helping those less advantaged then themselves and are fairly liberal, Alberta is much more conservative though. Gay marriage is fairly well supported and religion and politics almost never meet. Very very very very few Canadians believe in clubbing baby seals, most of us are very against it, and we are also very into the environment, at least here in BC. At my university, there is at least one recycling can for every garbage can if not more. Canadians are also very open to other cultures, as you can tell from the events in our big cities.

Abe A

I worked at an outlet mall in Michigan, I am an American I do have to say some of the greatest conversations were with Canadians. They never had to buy anything, and I would still like the one's I spoke to the most. They were always cheerful and the one's that talked about getting beer at 11:00 in the morning were always the one's I related to the most. I don't know what stereotypes us American's have about you, but my experiences were good. I know people want to knock us Americans with stereotypes. I have always appreciated the one's who take the time to talk about international relations and the teeter totter of our exchange rate. I think it's good to have kinship with them because I know I had ancestors immigrate through Canada to get here. Long live the brotherhood!

Katie: I suspect your so-called friend was pulling your leg. If you rely solely on what someone said in order to form your own opinions then you will miss out on a lot. However, if you lack the initiative to find some things out for yourself then stay where you are.
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As for the question, I consider myself to be a citizen of the world. I don't care about stereotypes and generally don't notice them...

...except for one.

There seems to be this odd notion that Canadians say "oot" and "aboot" for "out" and "about". I have lived in different parts of Canada my whole life and never ever have I ever heard anyone say "oot" and "aboot" when they mean to say "out" and "about".

jah.hardway

I live in an igloo
I speak french
i love hockey
i drink a lot of beer
i club baby seals
im not very smart
i end every sentence with Eh?
i eat poutine
i drive a snowmobile (year round eh)
im always polite
ive never fired a gun
i don't pay for health care, or prescriptions
I AM CANADIAN

Alphabetty

I live in Canada but like Z consider myself a human being before a Canadian. Canada is a beautiful place and i feel lucky to live here. I think perhaps that is one thing that separates Canadians from Americans we are less into being PROUD citizens, i think we individuate ourselves from our country more than our neighbors to the South. Canadians are like people from everywhere else, some of us are nice some of us our awful; but if you examine us as a collective i would say these things about the Canadian psyche.

1) We are helpful: in most places (perhaps not Toronto) Canadians are really helpful . . .we open doors we get your car out of the ditch for you, we shovel elderly ladies sidewalks

2)We love outdoor sports: in general most Canadians are really into being outside we canoe, seadoo, kyack, run, swim, bike ATV, snowmobile, ski, skate our way across our beautiful natural country (unfortunately too many of us like motor powered leisure activities and we are polluting our beautiful country)

3) we are peaceful: Canadians are more appalled by senseless crimes and violence then people of most nations and compared to cities of the same size elsewhere our violent crime rates are very low. - also weapons are fairly rare.

4)We are intelligent: A heck of a lot of us go to college and or university and we have a very high literacy rate!

5)We are liberal: (despite the current conservative government) Canadians believe in paying higher taxes to help those less fortunate and that everyone deserves free health care!

6) We resent being trod upon: We hate hate hate when people come here with superior attitudes (like the punk who thinks her friend was "discriminated against" at his hotel PS. how did he know all the people in the crummier half were "American" it's not like we have different accents!) if you demean us we will get mean and rude and we are funny smart people so you probably wont even notice you are being mocked . . . .

7) we have a sense of humor: we have to with this climate! east coasters are especially funny if you go to Newfoundland you will spend your entire vacation laughing!

Q&A

Canada Is a beautiful country and I can't imagine being born anywhere else. I don't think people realise that we too have pride in our nation and they say a bunch of things about us that are not true. Sure Canada is made fun of...but we are a very comedic nation so we mostly find the stereotypes stupid and the people that say them just silly. We may be laughed at or gossiped about but we are not hated like other countries near us...Wink wink nudge nudge.

don't know

Francois Quebequois

Stereotype of being Canadian is to be anti-American.

All our lives, everyday of our lives...our children's children have

to explain to everyone in this planet. that we are not americans.

but yet, we secrectly adore them . everything we do as

Canadians we have to compare.

http://www.pigdog.org/categories/canadia_sucks.html

Five myths about Canada you need to know about!

1. Free health care.

Canada's health care is not free. It is funded by a heavy tax
regime that takes hard earned money from even the working poor. If
you make $C20,000 a year. You will be taxed. Make more? Like $C75,000
and up? Oh, you can bet you will get hit with taxes. In some
provinces like Alberta, you also get the additional privilege of
paying health care "premiums" on top of your taxes.

The big hospital unions like the Registered Nurses and various
so-called "para-professionals" have taken over the health care
system and destroyed it. This is what happens when you create a
a monopoly, and worse, a government owned monopoly.

2. High standard of living

Huh? Since when? This country has one of North America's biggest
drug ghettos. It's called Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Canadians
have a lower per capita GDP than Americans. They also make less
money than Americans, and ironically many other countries: Ireland,
Germany, Switzerland to name just a few.

3. Peaceful

Nope! There are just as many acts of violent crime, drug gangs,
domestic murders in Canada as in the U.S. It's just never adjusted
for per capita, ie. the actual population of the two countries
and the size of the cities in each country. Canada has serial
killers, drug shootings, pollution, gang violence. How come we don't
hear much about this in the world's media, the way the U.S.'s
problems are constantly brought up?

4. Strong economy

No! Canadians just piggyback off the U.S. economy and they still
can't manage to get their unemployment rate down to anywhere near
to the U.S. rate, which was hovering in the low 5's most recently.
Canada's rate has varied over the last decade or more from 11% to
a low of about 7%. The country just sells off its raw natural
resources rather than having a productive economy through
strong innovation or research. Yet the Canucks complain about
selling those resources to the U.S. Huh?

5. Canadians are polite self effacing and humble

Whoa! Canadians are anything but polite and "European" as they
like to tell the world. Most Canadians I've met are ignorant,
boorish, self absorbed anti-American bigots. Go to a Canadian
workplace: see how they treat you, especially if you are a brown
or black person.

Go to a restaurant or a store. The tone is very cold and "British"
in nature. Look at how they drive. I have driven in Britain, the
U.S. (San Diego, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Seattle area).
Nowhere have I seen such stupid backward drivers as I have seen
in B.C. and Alberta.

Basically Canada needs to have its huge pompous self absorbed ego
deflated. Canadians are hypocrites and they love to be delusional,
and self absorbed about how great they are. The U.S. incidentally is the
country where a lot of Canadians, (about 600,000 at last count), go
to live well, retire and of course, for employment. Hypocritical or
what?

Katie

I have never been to Canada, and I don't think I ever will. My very close friend told me that when he went to Canada he found a swank hotel to stay in. When he went to check in, they said his family had to be in the back hotel. He later realized that all the people from the states were in the back hotel, which was disgusting, and all canadians were in the nice section of he hotel. He paid the same price as the nice hotel's standard. I think that that was unjust. But this is just one instance, and I am going to judge all Canadians. And, I don't know any stereotypes about Canada, except seal clubbing, which is inhumane.

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