55 Replies to “Talking To Americans”

  2. My husband always tells me that I should have been born in New York. I feel so at home there, hanging out verbally with the taxi drivers, the waiters, strangers on the bus, in the park, on the street, whatever. I LOVE IT!
    And I feel sorry for myself that I’m Canadian–not really, but you know what I mean…Lots of people have asked me over the years, “Are you Canadian?” Of course, I always say, “Yes, I am.” More than once the questioner has responded, “Well you don’t sound or act like a Canadian.” I take that as a very high compliment, and think to myself, “GOOD!!”
    ‘Must be the Irish blood.

  3. I was born in Canada but moved to the USA at about age 20 and came back at age 33. I was in culture shock for about two years. I couldn’t get used to the dorkiness of Canadian.
    I am a guy who will immediately start talking as soon as the elevator doors closes. That has actually frightened people at times.
    I had always hoped that Candians would eventually develop more personality and become a bit more gregarious, but alas, with half the people in Canada now unable to even speak English … this ain’t about to happen.
    No wonder we can’t figure out what our culture actually is … nobody’s talking.
    We are a dull boring place and we didn’t have to be.

  4. I have always had reservations about Colby Cosh – partly because of his stupid name, but mostly because of it’s always impossible to tell what he really thinks (if he indeed does) or what he’s actually trying to say.
    However, in suggesting that Floridians talk with a southern accent, he is really revealing his ignorance.

  5. Just moved to Newfoundland after 10 years in Alberta and I have already noticed the difference in the level and content of conversation with strangers. At first it bothered me and I found myself thinking “None of your business for a while” but I have loosened up and enjoy the conversation that didn’t exist for the most part out west.

  6. in suggesting that Floridians talk with a southern accent, he is really revealing his ignorance.
    I guess, assuming you’ve been there, you’ve never been outside the coastal areas like Orlando or Miami or Ft Lauderdale, which are full of non-locals and immigrants. Much of the state, esp in the north, is pretty much like anywhere else in the Deep South, accent and culture-wise.

  8. The American TV thing is absolutely true. After moving to NY I immediately discoverd I knew exactly NOTHING about the place. Americans are considerate, generous, honest and energetic. When you are dithering over a map there will always be some random passer by happy to get you on your way. This is the rule, not the exception.
    The exception is drunks, drug addicts and punks. In areas where they congregate, the locals who are normal will often go out of their way make sure you know the area is bad and that you shouldn’t be there.
    Wander over to Jane and Finch in T.O. and see how many people warn you it isn’t safe to leave the top down on your rental convertible.
    Truthfully the only thing I really had trouble with over ten years in the States was the imbeciles in the immigration department. Pretty much rocks otherwise.

  9. Slightly OT but …
    When Rick Mercer does his “how stupid can I make Yanks look” interviews in the street – it ain’t funny.
    But when Americans do it to their own-self – it’s another thing.
    Example: Jay Leno (interview in the street) asks a youngish woman, “Which president was known as Tricky Dick?”
    Answer: Bill Clinton
    Fully qualified Knee Slapper.

  10. I have to agree as well. Having spent many months in various parts of the US, I have found the people there very helpful, friendly and honest. We have created a boogyman mentality concerning Americans.
    I can only surmise that it is our way of dealing with our huge inferiority complex as well as our smug holier than thou attitude.
    What do I base my opinion on? Working down there, as well as visiting family who live in the US.

  11. How sad but true. Besides the obligatory trip across the 49th for a weekend, most Canadians seem to take pride in thinking they know everything about Americans. Like comparing Canadians from Lotus Land (BC) to Newfoundlanders, America is as diverse as Canada is.
    Down here in eastern Texas, I found that folks would tell you to have a nice day and actually mean it. Spontanious conversations in an elevator are more common than not. Nothing I find more irritating than some stupid idiot trying to talk down Americans as if thier being Canadian somehow made them better.

  12. Better believe it! Can you imagine a frog, a rug-rider, or a towl-head, coming up with a tv show like THE SIMPSONS?

  13. I lived in the USA for quite a while. The American people are just plain wonderful. They are happy, polite, energetic, and helpful. Far too many Canadians are mysery-guts. When specifically these depressing Canuckians start to opine about America, I want to vomit.

  14. Gee. 300 million Americans don’t fit into a single stereotype? Who would have thought?
    But I have to say Canadians are better informed about the US than the reverse, no matter what the depths of Mr. Cosh’s ignorance. When I worked in Detroit – just 2 minutes across the border from Windsor, mind you – there was a guy at work who was sure that Clinton was also president of Canada. This same guy – an overweight, bespectacled, pasty faced telecom clerk who spent two hours a day changing the extension numbers of people who had left, entered, or moved within the company – also kept a loaded pistol in his car. As he explained “I feel naked if I’m not packing.”
    Then there was the girl in Santa Clara, CA. She was bright, funny, and beautiful. When I tried to explain the game of curling to her, she laughed me off, saying “No one could possibly play a game so stupid.”
    Then there was the scoutmaster from Philadelphia who brought his troop to our scout camp in Haliburton, Ontario. He brought along a parka – in July. Rumours abounded that some of the senior scouts filled it with rocks and dumped it in the lake, but I think they were apocryphal.
    Canadians may not know everything about the US, but I think on the whole we are tremendously more educated about them than they are of us.
    And the mystery that we learn most of this from TV? If you can read 200 words a minute – faster than most – you’re absorbing about 16,000 bits per minute. On the other hand, even today’s low def TV offers about 1 Mb/s. That’s 60,000,000 bits per min. When TV is offering almost 4,000 times as much info per second, it can afford to waste a lot of bits, and still give you more data.

  15. Re Floridians’ accents, I have a very good friend who grew up in the middle of Florida, outside big cities, and she’s a real Suthuna’. Our kids call her and her husband Miss (first name) and Mr. (first name) and my husband and I are named the same way by her kids. She makes oodles of iced tea, with tons of ice, and calls everyone “honey.” ‘Friendliest, kindest, most generous and hospitable woman going. Can-do, too.
    I’m old enough to remember Canada before it went all bent and twisted over Americans. A pox on Trudeau and his cabal who, methinks, seriously started this anti-American business to the extent that it became a national obsession and pathology.
    Canadians would feel overwhelmed by this HUGE neighbour to the South, but I don’t remember us ever hating Americans or wishing them ill. We just felt a little “insecure” and, quite possibly, “inferior.” I think we knew that this wasn’t the Americans’ fault. It’s just the way it was, we being outnumbered 100 to one.
    The crazy and nasty “I hate Americans” began, as near as I can make out, in the ’70s–around the time of Vietnam which, obviously, had an effect on the way Canadians looked at the U.S.. As I’ve said on this blog before, I preferred the company of Americans when I was hitch hiking through Europe in the early ’70s: they were much more fun, extroverted, politically knowledgeable, confident, and not always comparing themselves to others which, by then, had become a Canadian obsession: “Those Americans think they’re so great. Well, we’re not in Vietnam, we’re not big and powerful, we’re not throwing our weight around, we’re not,…we’re not…etc.” ‘Problem is, Canadians didn’t define ourselves by who we WERE but by who we WEREN’T. Crappy way to live.
    And we’re still stuck. Too bad–mostly for us.

  16. In my experience of living in the States for 5 years, I’ve found that some of them are good people but most of them aren’t. Most of my American friends would concur. They tend not to have an inner monologue, it’s true. You either like people or you don’t.
    Other than the politicians, Canadians don’t rag on Americans that much at all. We’re great people. But certainly not as cool as my favorite people – the Aussies. šŸ™‚

  17. Can anyone honestly say that most of what the average American knows about their own country doesn’t come from TV?

  19. Glad BATB mentioned the earlier attitudes of Canadians. I can also remember when there was a little bit of insecurity and defensiveness, but a positive attitude overall. Ironically, I think there was also more genuine pride in being Canadian then and it wasn’t based on hating Americans.

  20. Kevin B, I beg to differ about being knowledgeable about each other’s country. While a lot of people I work with cannot fathom the snow thing, a heck of a lot of Canucks haven’t experienced +100 degree (F) temperatures let alone work in that heat. I had the pleasure of introducing a new Canadian from Egypt the concept of walking on (frozen) water. And to actually play games on ice? Please, quit kidding. Mind you he also had a laught at the age of our history when he could go back 4 or more thousand years of civilization back home.
    In the medical technology field I have met and interacted with a lot of Americans and although some don’t know any more about it than say Minnesota, a lot are surprisingly knowledgeable. Just who you meet up with I guess. Kind of like telling a GTO native that Canada exists past the Manitoba border.,

  21. I have been living down in the US (Cali)for the last few years and find it wonderful. I have never met (with the exception of Newfies) a friendlier group of people then Southerners. They(southerners)do speak with an amazing array of accents and it is absolutely a hoot! I would suggest that like Canada it depends on where you live down here if you are going to meet interesting people or not.
    I did, and still do when I visit Ontario, find Canada a bit robotic when it comes to living life. Maybe its the high taxes or Euro influence, who knows.

  22. I think Colby needs to get out more.
    Jess – Orlando is a very transient place and not reflective of Florida’s southern culture. The real Florida, it’s rural heartland, is very Southern. What surprised me when I moved here a year ago, is that Florida is the biggest dairy state. How the cows survive the summers is a mystery to me. We moved here from New Mexico and by the end of August the heat and humidity rob you of your will to live.
    In spite of the stereotype of dumb slow talking Southerners, America’s best writers are from the South…Flannery O’Connor, Faulkner, Tom Wolf, Mark Twain, Tennesse Williams, etc.
    If Hollywood with their shallow, smarmy and most often grossly erroneous presentation of America dropped dead tomorrow it would be a blessing.

  24. Growing up in Alberta with Grand Parents that moved from the Dakotas in the 1890’s I learned to love America. The average Canuckistanian should that a yank every day for there freedoms, even the freedom do bash the ones that are there to saving your ass from the forthcoming holocausts.

  26. penny: ” What surprised me when I moved here a year ago, is that Florida is the biggest dairy state.”
    Um, excuse me? The USDA’s stats show that California, with 750,000 dairy cows over 500 lbs, is the US leader in dairy production. Wisconsin – cheeseheads, anyone? – is next with 650,000 cows. Florida, with a measly 40,000 cows, trails 17 other states.
    http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/agr05/05_ch8.PDF

  27. TV news does tend to be ā€œif it bleeds it ledesā€. Which is why it attracts utopians into its ranks who want to fix the world with a ā€œcentral planā€.
    European TV loves to show Rodney King reruns, I swear, everytime Iā€™ve gone to Europe over the last decade or so, thatā€™s what they show. US TV news is almost entirely negative in its portrayal of America and the rest of the world’s TV replays the most negative scenes they can find.
    Rodney King being brutalized by the LA cops is what the CBC, BBC and the rest of the worldā€™s government owned propaganda outlets like to show to reinforce their utopian socialism with ā€œsee what happened to Rodney? This could happen to you if you let those capitalists take over.ā€

  28. I maintain that ultimately there are few differences between Canadians and Americans.
    If one were to remove all the new immigrants to our countries and were left with the population of families who have been in North America for a while, we are virtually identical.
    The Canadians I have met here in the States could not have been picked out of a lineup. I don’t know, maybe they came down here and went native or something, and therefore were not representative of true Canadians.
    My view is that the differences between us have been vastly overrated, and Trudeau initiated an era in which false psychological projections began to be made on Americans.
    I’ve always maintained that ultimately in our core constituents we are just basically extended friends and family.
    I think we should all get to know each other a lot better than we presently do. I believe we would probably find that the small differences between us would simply be interesting.
    If anybody cares, for a long time I was “Greg outside Dallas”. Now I regret to say I am once again Greg in Dallas (duty calls) (dammit!).

  29. Interesting diversion from the start to here…
    My experience with US born and raised folks runs the gammut from world travelers to folks who never went more than 30 miles from home in an entire lifetime. I’ve met great and intelligent people and some real asses. The TV version of America can’t come close to the real thing.
    BTW the classic GTA resident does not even know there are time zones let alone a Manitoba border with Ontario.
    Been there and dealt with that dufus in a call centre based in Mississauga

  30. Here is the essential difference between Americans and Canadians (it was touched on above):
    Rick Mercer stole Jay Leno’s idea which is to go to “the man on the street” and test their knowledge of trivia and/or get gut reactions on issues for a laugh. Leno does not intend to belittle and insult people.
    Mercer’s mission is to insult Americans thereby somehow demonstrating that he (canadians) are superior. What an ASS.
    Remember when Conan O’Brien had his Triumph the talking pit bull come to Queerbec and actually insult people on the street a la Rick Mercer? They nearly had to convene Parliament for crying out loud!
    Does anyone in the US even know who the HELL Rick mercer is?

  31. Colby needs to get out of Edmonton more often. I lived there for two years and the only people that say hello or are friendly are the guys downtown or on Whyte that want some spare change.

  32. I don’t have a wealth of experience of dealing with Americans, but I do get impatient whenever I hear Canadians badmouthing them. My best friend told me she’s afraid of Americans…sad…she’s pretty street-smart, otherwise…there’s no excuse for that blind spot. My work has taken me to New England, the mid-south (St. Louis),and Atlanta (or HOT-lanta,and in June, they’re not kidding!), and I can honestly say, everyone was great, not to mention all the Texans at our honeymoon resort. As far as perceptions about our weather up here, they’re maybe a bit off…one poor guy in Atlanta couldn’t believe we’d just come through a heat wave before flying down there. Hey, if that’s as bad as it gets, you’re blessed.

  33. As a Canadian who lived for many years in the States, I find it incredible that anyone feels thay can take 300 million people and suggest they all have similar characteristics. One of the wonderful aspects of our great neighbour is that it is such a diverse society. You can find whatever type of person you are looking for – from the very best of class to the worst.
    That being said, I share the sentiment of many above that Canadians tend to be more reserved. That’s why I enjoyed my time living in the States so much. There are so many decent people there.
    I also endorse the comments about Jay Leno and Rick Mercer. Mercer is at his best when he goes after Canadians (like the Layton – Taliban peace negotiations). When he disses Americans he only embarrasses himself.

  34. gotta luv the yank hospital system, watch “House”
    five doctors per case everytime and looks like its free.

  35. Canadians may not know everything about the US, but I think on the whole we are tremendously more educated about them than they are of us.
    The US dominates the world monetarily, culturally, and militarily. Of course other countries are more educated about the US than Canada. Did you really believe Paul Martin’s ludicrous “we lead the world” mantra? And if one goes by our education system and our state-run CBC station, do you really believe we are that “educated” about Americans?
    Yes, many Americans are clueless about our weather. If you look at a map and look at the populated area of the entire US, it is a frickin’ huge country–and it appears that many choose to explore their own vast country. Overall however, I have found the Americans to be good people. I enjoyed visiting The South; they don’t call it southern hospitality for nothing. Americans are generally friendly, open, and inquisitive.
    And they are good business people. I have 3 suppliers from the US and they are all excellent–better than my 2 Canadian suppliers. Indeed, my best and most efficient supplier is from Dallas, Texas–those good ole boys who tawk in a slow I’m-laid-back drawl – are very efficient and consequently have helped me look good to my customers.

  36. There are some very good comments here and I agree with many of you – esp ‘been around the block’. I was born on the Montana/Alta/Sask border in the beautiful Cypress Hills. We had friends in all three areas and as I kid, I did not know there should be a difference. There really is no difference, our two country’s histories are different but the people are the same, IMO.
    Of course the U.S. has a much more exciting history than Canada does so people are more interested in learning about United States. As a Western Canadian, I found the wrangling of French/English in Canada’s history boring and foreign. I could identify with the wild west and the Civil War and the War of Independence and the pioneers in covered wagons (I read all the Laura Ingals Wilder books several times, Zane Grey, John Bell Wright…) – I was a rancher’s kid!
    I call the natiional celebration in July Independence Day and I celebrate it on Dominion Day AND on July 4th – we always celebrated both. Of course we knew more about Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Regan than we did about Cartier and Pierson because we could identify with the Presidents and we liked them. My Dad hated Tommy Douglas so I thought he was a criminal who lived in Insane asylum in Weyburn.
    Like BATB, I went to Europe in the 70’s and found that I really had more fun with the American crowd – I pretended I was an American most of the time because everyone was laughing at Canada with Turdo and his wife who was ‘laying a Rolling Stone’. It did not suit my ‘image’ to be linked with that trailer trash so I said I was from the Cypress Hills, near Havre, it was not a lie but people thought I was from Montana.
    ‘Anti American’ is the British loyalist element still mad that the Americans won WWI without French and British permission, further, they also won WWII. The people in Canada that I lived around viewed the winning of WWII as a team effort and they were VERY proud of the Canadians who had contributed so much to the fall of Hitler; they were grateful that the Americans saved the day by sending supplies, food and then soldiers to help the ‘good guys’ Turdo ruined all the good relations we took for granted. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is rebuilding bridges and I am getting used to being proud to be Canadian – I still have to remind myself not to be ashamed but it gets easier every day as I see the positive way the Conservatives are running the government. It is a good and novel feeling for me.

  37. Fascinating conversation here, for me. I have always hated the Jerry Springer show. I’ve never known anyone like those showcased. I was very disturbed to find that it was so widely broadcasted internationally. My thought being people who don’t know us will think those freaks were normal.
    My experience suggests, most Americans are more of a cross between the Brady Bunch, the Beverly Hillbillies, and the Addams Family than any freak Springer specimine.
    Hollywood and the media centers (NY and LA) have always been so completely far removed from American reality that there is no possibility they could mnufacture a way to represent American reality.
    It is very distrubing to me that crazy, unrealistic charictures of Americans are projected as fact by high profile media in the international press. There is no basis in reality, and beyond that, it really makes no sense.
    Americans are MTV decadent fundamentalist Bible beaters? Our head of state can’t score a BJ without us knowing it, but could muster enough mute ideological, America-hating, cro-magnons to silently assist in orchestrating a pre-planned elaborate attack on our own soil, against innocent Americans, on our own financial center without one person of conscience saying “HEY”? Are you kidding me? What planets do these freaks live on???
    It disgusts me to the core to just think of the abject pretense of misunderating one must start from in order to to fool onself into believeing that 9/11 could have happened this way.
    Americans have no Emperor. We have no Stalin. We have no Hitler. We have no Mao. We have no Great Leader. Whe have no totalitarian culture of idolotry. All we have ever had is each other.
    For the most part, Americans are simple hard-working, caring, charitable, and generous people. I would defy anyone to try and prove otherwise.

  39. Scuse me, espeically having double posted, but Toontown Kid mentioned something that really struck me as identifying the crux of all our differences: “And they are good business people. I have 3 suppliers from the US and they are all excellent–better than my 2 Canadian suppliers”.
    The central factor in the success of “American business” is that is is fair, profitable, and the terms are contractuatually agreed to by all parties involved.
    We don’t steal anything. We don’t take anything that is not paid for. We do not exploit, as the Socialists like to popularly pretend. In other words, WE DO NOT DO WHAT THEY DO.

  40. Some interesting comments here.
    I’d add another observation about ourselves (i.e., Canadians) relative to the US: we’ve had so much exposure to American media, we’re often inclined to assume many US legal, political and social practices are Canadian.
    Take “Separation of Church and State” for example. That’s an American political construct, not a Canadian one.
    And, until more comprehensive warnings actually became a legal requirement in Canadian jurisprudence, many police friends of mine used to get a big chuckle out of dimwits they’d arrest who claimed that their “rights had not been read to them.”
    They’d then have to be reminded that they’d obviously been watching too many American cop shows!
    Most telling is how the average suburban Canadian with no particular military connection views the Canadian Forces. Their whole view of what a military is, and how it operates, is drawn from US TV, news and movies.
    It’s very clear they do not realize for a moment that the Canadian military is actually very different from the US one, with customs, traditions and methodologies more akin to the British than to our southern neighbours.*
    * Gee, now just why would that be? But I suppose to answer that, we’d actually have to take an interest in our own history.

  41. “in suggesting that Floridians talk with a southern accent, he is really revealing his ignorance.”
    jlc, I am a northerner, aka “Yankee”, from Pennsylvania. I recently moved to southwest Florida. My boyfriend’s family has been here since before the civil war. Believe me, Floridians- the actual, native ones- are as Southern as they come. And yes they talk in Southern accents. Florida has more rednecks and cowboys than you realize. This Florida, the real Florida, is MUCH more representative to true Floridians than the people who inhabit Tampa, Orlando or Miami. Florida was a purely Southern state before all of the Northeastern Seabord decided to make this place it’s retirement community.

  42. I think the only difference between Canadians and Americans is that Americans would never have put up with the Trudeau, Chretien, Martin gang as long as we did. This may have something to do with the fact that that the US doesn’t have a government owned liberal propaganda media machine spewing socialist crap 24/7.

  43. “Then there was the girl in Santa Clara, CA. She was bright, funny, and beautiful. When I tried to explain the game of curling to her, she laughed me off, saying “No one could possibly play a game so stupid.” ”
    Ahh, if only that was true… Games you can play while drinking beer ftw.

  44. Ace sez:
    In my experience of living in the States for 5 years, I’ve found that some of them are good people but most of them aren’t. Most of my American friends would concur.
    I’m quite sure this says more about you and the company you keep than you realize.
    They tend not to have an inner monologue, it’s true.
    Mind-read much?
    Actually every American I know is quite able to multitask.
    We can converse with a person, size him up, and simultaneously keep our own counsel about the bad impression he’s made with that chip on his shoulder.
    It’s not beyond us. We do it all the time.
    We call it Live And Let Live.
    Less politely – Opinions, every asshole’s got one.
    You either like people or you don’t.
    You did just say “some of them are good people but most of them aren’t”.
    In this very thread a lot of Canadians have come to the opposite conclusion. Which, in a way, makes your point.
    Yes indeed, “You either like people or you don’t.”
    Again though I think you’ve revealed more about yourself than you’ve realized.
    Other than the politicians, Canadians don’t rag on Americans that much at all.
    You just wrote that most Americans are not good people.
    What the hell kind of inner monologue allows you to think of that as not ragging much?
    Your inner monologue about Americans must be a deeper, more bilious well than you’ve already expressed.
    We’re great people.
    No argument from me, generally.
    But you Ace? You can Bite Me.
    But certainly not as cool as my favorite people – the Aussies.
    I get the impression you’d like them a lot less if they didn’t live half a world away, say on your southern border.
    Aussie’s aren’t exactly world-renowned taciturn inner-monologists either.
    And they’re notorious brawlers Ace. A whole lot less Live And Let Live than most Americans are.
    Aussie’s are brawlers who despise smugness. And most Aussie’s think most Americans are just great.
    I’ll bet that puzzles you.

  45. kevinB – I stand corrected. You’re right. It’s first in dairy cows in the SE, not US.
    Hardly noted by the damn MSM with its lefty nuance and loathing of all things sincere, direct and nationalistic, our flag is out of our attics and “Support Our Troops” decals are on a whole lot of cars here. 9/11 has forever changed the national psyche. If you haven’t been to the States in the past five years that has to be one of the most glaring changes. It’s visible.
    Hollywood and the MSM know so little about us that they might as well be headquartered in Paris.

  46. Spent a few weeks in Fla. this past winter. A number of Canadians were staying in the same hotel as well.
    Quite franky, it was embarassing. Most of these people were rude and noisy. Constantly complaining about the lack of Tim Horton’s coffee and televised hockey games.Constantly bragging about “free health care” Carried on with an air of superiority and smugness.
    I was, quite franky, ashamed to be a Canadian.
    So ashamed in fact that when an American guest would ask where we were from, I responded “near Buffalo.
    I don’t know why this is happening but I think it’s a throwback to the Trudeaupian era.
    Obviously a lack of self-confidence when people go to these extremes.

  47. Ralph, I’d be embarassed to say I was from Toronto too. šŸ˜‰
    I remember when I was a wee lad growing up. There was always some Can/US rivalry there “Our gallon is bigger than yours”, but then “Hey, they got more than one TV channel and neat chocolate bars” was also said. The trip 60 miles to the US border was far enough to be an adventure but familiar enough not to be scared. Working with Americans while in the Canadian military was no different than working with a Cape Bretoner although everyone laughed at the southern folks and their parkas on in summer.
    So where did the hate yanks come from anyhow? Following Canada’s leaders example (except for Irish Eyes Mulroony)is a good possibility.
    I do find it funny though, for all the Auntie American venom being spit out, there still seems to be something that drives Canadians to want NFL teams, NBA teams, more baseball, and to suck up every bit of fluff that Hollywood has to offer…

  48. “Keep working, keep drinking – and take your television’s advice.”
    — Firesign Theatre
    There’s a reason it’s called the “boob tube”.

  49. From what I’ve seen most Americans aren’t too bright. Watch the preachers on cable 16 (Miracle network). They actually tell people they will get money from buying their holy water.Duh!! And when I see Bush on TV and I wonder what is wrong with America?? Wrestlers as govenors,Actors,weight trainers. As far as I can see TV is there to brainwash us Canadians into thinking America is a great democracy. All I see are Actors and Atheletes. I watch PBS once in a while for the nature shows and music specials. I think the only good thing America has given the world is music. Their political system stinks. The British model we follow is fairer. The President has veto power so that makes him a dictator. You connot have a minority gov’t in the states. They have 2 major political parties that to me are like our liberal and tories. They are much the same. They swap ideas back and forth. The people don’t have a lot of choices. That is done on purpose. I’m glad we have the NDP to keep Ottawa honest. What would Canada be like without them?? I know the Liberals and Tories would like them to fade away. America stands for big buisness. Their money says it all. “In God We trust all others pay cash”

  50. Thinking Out Loud,
    The Live And Let Live attitude is something I share with many of my American friends. But unfortunately this attitude has not been held by a majority of those that I have met in my own experience I’m sad to say. Yet that’s offset by the fact that many of my very best friends are Americans.
    “They tend not to have an inner monologue, it’s true.”
    TOL, Americans are talkative people with tons of opinions that they love expressing. There nothing wrong with it and I think Americans are the better for it.
    “You just wrote that most Americans are not good people.” What the hell kind of inner monologue allows you to think of that as not ragging much?
    * This comes off as ragging but it’s an observation that many Americans made to me while I was down there. Many Americans are very open and friendly. Many of my best friends are Americans. But many of them also tell me that they think their society is too suspicious and clannish towards each other which leads them to treat each other badly.
    Admittely, it’s something I’ve never heard from friends in any other country. And it’s a virtue that so many Americans are willing to say about their own country. Heck, it’s a sentiment that many of my thoughtful conservative and liberal American friends agree with.
    Frankly, I keep great company thank you very much.
    “Aussie’s are brawlers who despise smugness. And most Aussie’s think most Americans are just great.
    I’ll bet that puzzles you.”
    *Not really. They live half a world away from the Americans just like we live half a world away from Australians. My memories of Aussies are colored by the fact 1/3 of my relatives are down there and my own fond backpacking experiences in Europe.

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