How does Canada see the US?

Fire when ready.

Really?

Like a big brother. Family, but don't always agree on everything.

Our military is good but not real large -- kinda like our population, so castandblast is right about the big brother -- one with lots of guns and planes and ships, and usually not shy about pullin' the trigger.

A smarter fella than me once coined this phrase:

"Canadians may not know who they are, but they sure know who they are NOT. They are not Americans."

Our government is different. Our beginnings were different. Our rules are a little different, bust mostly not. Our people mostly came from the same countries.

But y'all got baseball and basketball, and we got hockey and lacrosse.

I've always said how much I love our northern neighbors. It's been my experience (living 50 miles from the border) that a kinder or more polite bunch would be impossible to find.

Just don't get in their way when they are headed south to the outlet mall for a shopping spree. They'll run your as s over...

Originally Posted by the_shootist

A smarter fella than me once coined this phrase:

"Canadians may not know who they are, but they sure know who they are NOT. They are not Americans."

Our government is different. Our beginnings were different. Our rules are a little different, bust mostly not. Our people mostly came from the same countries.

Very true and by the design of the Brits, who didn't want Canada and the US forming a North American super power.

I spent a lot of time in the USA trucking when I was in my early 20's and can honestly say that all the people I came into contact with were very very nice and I didn't at all feel like a foreigner other than the accents. All of the American folks who I have dealt with in the classifieds have also been extremely decent people and I am happy to have had the honour of dealing with such pleasant people.

My wife's side of the family are all Mare Cans. They're good folks -- for southerners -- South of us, anyway.

I love 'em, but some of 'em are a little weird . . . . . . . . . . and I am not.

BTW, my wife who can prove that she was born in the CONUS (unlike some politicians

) said that when I die, she will stay in Canada . . . . she became a Canadian citizen back a bunch of years.

We are blessed to have her. Her Mom is 93.5 years old . . . and when my birth mother died in 1998, I asked her if I could adpot her as my mother. Poor woman said yes.

So, if I read this correctly, you are now technically married to your sister?

Well, since we are both born again Christians, she IS my sister. (in the Lord)

Reading Seafire's post on how Americans view Canada reminds me of an adventure I had down in Seattle thirty some years.

I was down for a Seahawks game and to socialize with the fairer sex if possible. First time in Seattle. Anyway my friend and I met some girls and we were following them to a nightclub. As we approached a stale green, the gals went through, it turned yellow as I entered the intersection, so I goosed the ole Firebird and got through the intersection before it turned red.

As I pass the opposing corner I notice a police car at the curb with the officers looking at me. They pull me over and the gals keep on going - crap - now I'm going to get a ticket and I've lost the girls.

As always, I always get out to talk with the police - this was the normal thing to do, in my experience, in small town BC; you know, friendly. I should mention though that I am a large, powerful man and at that time a very fit one. Anyway I start ambling toward the police as they get out of their car to say hi.

The police dive behind the doors of their car. One pulls his handgun and aims it at me. The other one grabs a pump action shotgun that was in the middle of the front seat of the police car, jacks a shell in it and aims it at me. I freeze, somewhat shocked, and somewhat afraid. Up to that point I had never looked down the barrel of a loaded firearm.

They tell me to raise my hands, walk back to the car, and lean over the roof and put my hands on the roof. Moving slowly I do so. They frisk me, check my ID, and then ask me why I got out of the car.

I told them that in my little town in BC we all knew each other and it was considered polite to get out and talk to the officer. I told them about following the girls and that being my first time in Seattle I didn't want to lose them as I did not know where I currently was.

At this point they put the guns away and tell me that I should never get out of a car to talk to police - ever. And that I should keep my hands on the steering wheel where they can see them until they get up to the car. Then they start giving me heck about running a late light. I'm not sure they believed when I told them about the girls.

Just then the girls pulled up, double parked in the middle of the street and jumped out to plead our case with the police. At this point the first police officer gives me a look as if to say, "This is your lucky day." and lets me off with a warning.

To this day I don't move if I am pulled over by the police for any reason until they instruct me to.

My reflections on the incident... I thought those officers were pretty decent about everything, probably helped that I was polite and respectful, and probably helped that the girls circled back. And it cemented in my mind that most of our southern cousins are pretty decent folks.

Fast forward thirty some years, I have now travelled extensively on business across the states and I still have that view that Americans are good folks.