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#2291892 - 07/04/08 09:51 AM

Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts

BCBrian
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Registered: 12/26/03
Posts: 3957
Loc: Vernon BC Canada

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I just finished reading one of the most informative set of articles I've read in a long time. It's a statistical look at the differences between Americans and Canadians.

One of the things that facinates me when I'm either hosting Americans, or visiting them is how close we are as countries and as people. You have to almost look to find the differences - but the differences are there and they are interesting.

We often finish sentences with "Eh?" - while Americans often finish theirs with "Huh?". That kind of thing.

I'm posting this fascinating set of articles for interest -nothing more. I hope we can learn and laugh about the differences. Two great countries so similar - but a bit different at the same time.

No need to mud-sling, I hope we can just learn more about each other and enjoy the differences. It's interesting reading from this Social Studies teacher's perspective.

http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20080625_50113_50113

http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20080625_31050_31050

http://www.macleans.ca/science/health/article.jsp?content=20080625_19351_19351

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/lifestyle/article.jsp?content=20080625_78542_78542

http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20080625_52009_52009

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Brian

Vernon BC Canada

"Dance like nobody's watching. Love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening. Live like it's heaven on earth." Mark Twain

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#2291938 - 07/04/08 10:16 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: BCBrian]

ShaunRyan
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Registered: 02/26/05
Posts: 1107
Loc: Wisconsin

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I thought the biggest difference was that Canadians wear wet-suits when they go swimming and Americans don't!

I used to haul Western Star cabs and frame rails from Norwalk, OH to the Kelowna, BC plant before they changed the design and started manufacturing their own. I picked up a lot of lumber in Vernon and Armstrong. I saw a lot of bikinis on the shores of Okanogan Lake, but never any in the water.

That's some beautiful country you live in. If I could live anywhere in the world, many spots in B(ring) C(ash) make the short list.

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#2291957 - 07/04/08 10:21 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: BCBrian]

denton
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Registered: 06/27/04
Posts: 2551
Loc: Utah

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Spent a good chunk of time in BC during the 60s.

In general, I think Canadians are a bit more mellow than we are, and more respectful of people in their military than we were at the time.

It took me a while to adapt to sitting on a Chesterfield and eating tarts off a serviette, but I adapted! $\:\)$ Oh... and making sure you never used the words "bloody" or "bugger"... very different meaning in Canada, but inoffensive here.

Sometimes we don't appreciate the fact that if we could have chosen any country in the world to be our neighbor, we could not have gotten better than we did.

Edited by denton (07/04/08 10:24 AM)

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#2291982 - 07/04/08 10:36 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: denton]

Bill Poole
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Registered: 03/24/06
Posts: 180
Loc: Arizona

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"Sometimes we don't appreciate the fact that if we could have chosen any country in the world to be our neighbor, we could not have gotten better than we did. "

we have another equally close neighbor to the south too you know. And they love us so much that at any given time 10% of their population is right here with us.

Poole

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#2292025 - 07/04/08 11:00 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: BCBrian]

4_S_ter
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Registered: 05/08/08
Posts: 205
Loc: North MN

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One of the big differences is Americans have a constitutional individual right to keep and bear arms. Canadians seem trouble hanging on to theirs.

Craig

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#2292042 - 07/04/08 11:12 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: BCBrian]

tjm10025
Campfire Ranger

Registered: 06/28/05
Posts: 1505
Loc: Carmel, IN

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Originally Posted By: BCBrian

We often finish sentences with "Eh?" - while Americans often finish theirs with "Huh?".

BC:

You're close, but you haven't quite got it.

We Americans say "huh?" at the end of YOUR sentences, forcing you to repeat whatever it was you just said.

"Huh?" is interchangeable with "what?" and "unnhh?"

As in this example (a true one):

Neighbor #1: "Do you want to take the fishing poles?"
Neighbor #2: "What?"
#1: "Do you want to take the fishing poles?"
#2: "Yeah."
#1: "What?"
"2: "Yeah."
#1: "Where are they?"
#2: "What?"
#1: "Where are they?"
#2: "In the garage."
#1: "What?"
#2: "In the garage."

- Tom

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#2292046 - 07/04/08 11:18 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: BCBrian]

The_Real_Hawkeye
Campfire 'Bwana

Registered: 06/12/02
Posts: 11927
Loc: Northern Florida

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Originally Posted By: BCBrian

But it turns out that while they've [Americans have] been out conquering the world, here in Canada we've been quietly working away at building better lives. While they've been pursuing happiness, we've been achieving it.

Before WWI, it was the other way around. You guys jumped into the War to End All Wars long before we did, because back then we Americans believed in minding our own business, so the Lusitania incident had to be arranged to persuade the US population to allow their representatives to declare war. Of course that problem's been solved since then. They've arranged things now such that they not only don't have to ask our permission to commit our entire nation to endless wars over seas; they don't even care what we think about it. No Congressional Declaration of War needed anymore. Did they amend the Constitution to do this? Nope. They just decided to ignore it.

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#2292054 - 07/04/08 11:24 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: The_Real_Hawkeye]

Steve_NO
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Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 18214
Loc: New Orleans

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Oh, Christ, Hawk is a Lusitania troofer!

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#2292066 - 07/04/08 11:29 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: Steve_NO]

The_Real_Hawkeye
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Registered: 06/12/02
Posts: 11927
Loc: Northern Florida

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Originally Posted By: Steve_NO

Oh, Christ, Hawk is a Lusitania troofer!

Hell, I was up on the Lusitania incident decades before there was any such organization (and I only know there is such an organization because of your incessant references to it). My college professor (History of US Foreign Policy) lectured us on it, and we had to know about it to pass his exam.

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#2292073 - 07/04/08 11:31 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: The_Real_Hawkeye]

Steve_NO
Campfire Kahuna

Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 18214
Loc: New Orleans

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Please, please, give us a link to a Lusitania troofer site.....

They probably share a URL with the Pearl Harbor troofers $;\)$

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Proudly representing oil companies, defense contractors, and firearms manufacturers since 1980. Because merchants of death need lawyers, too.

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#2292094 - 07/04/08 11:43 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: BCBrian]

Bristoe
Campfire 'Bwana

Registered: 10/12/05
Posts: 14479

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I've spent quite a bit of time among Canadians. Generally speaking, there's not so much of a cultural difference betweem them and Americans, although it doesn't seem as if Canada's propaganda machine is nearly as developed as in the U.S.A. (yet).

It does however, seem that Canada may have their very own Tony Blair in training. He wavers quite a bit, but the potential is there.

http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~dastow/harper.html

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#2292108 - 07/04/08 11:50 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: Steve_NO]

The_Real_Hawkeye
Campfire 'Bwana

Registered: 06/12/02
Posts: 11927
Loc: Northern Florida

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Originally Posted By: Steve_NO

Please, please, give us a link to a Lusitania troofer site.....

They probably share a URL with the Pearl Harbor troofers $;\)$

You'd actually have to send such a link to me. I've literally only heard reference to them in, and thus only know of their existence through, your posts. Here's something I can provide, though:

According to Commander Joseph Kenworthy, then in British Navel Intelligence:

Quote:

"The Lusitania was deliberately sent at considerably reduced speed into an area where a U-boat was known to be waiting and with her escorts withdrawn." - Colin Simpson, The Lusitania (Boston: Little, Brown, 1972), p. 157.

The Brits had broken the German code, and knew where all the U-boats were. Previously Churchill had commissioned a study on whether such an incident would bring America into the war on their side. Part of that study was a conversation between British Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey and Colonel House (Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand):

Quote:

Grey: What will Americans do if the Germans sink an ocean liner with Americans on board?

House: I believe that a flame of indignation would sweep the United States and that by itself would be sufficient to carry us into the war. - Ibid

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"Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms should be a convenience store, not a government agency." T-Shirt

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#2292115 - 07/04/08 11:55 AM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: The_Real_Hawkeye]

denton
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Registered: 06/27/04
Posts: 2551
Loc: Utah

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... and I forgot to mention: Their politics are a bit more... what is the right word??... brash or... burlesque than ours.

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Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.

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#2292141 - 07/04/08 12:09 PM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: denton]

Dave_Skinner
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Registered: 05/26/03
Posts: 1017
Loc: The Treasure State

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One of my bosses was just up fishing at Williams and Kelowna. I think McCleans gets it wrong inasmuch as the AB tar sands have been a huge foreign exchange boom. But Canadian manufacturing is starting to feel a real pinch as the US shoots itself in the @$$. So enjoy it while it lasts, BCB. Won't be long.

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#2292351 - 07/04/08 02:22 PM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: Steve_NO]

The_Real_Hawkeye
Campfire 'Bwana

Registered: 06/12/02
Posts: 11927
Loc: Northern Florida

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I assume, Steve, that you'll be back to respond after you've had your fill of what's on the barbi.

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"Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms should be a convenience store, not a government agency." T-Shirt

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#2292554 - 07/04/08 05:21 PM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: The_Real_Hawkeye]

Steve_NO
Campfire Kahuna

Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 18214
Loc: New Orleans

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the Lusitania has been a fertile field for conspiracists....but then what hasn't....the idea that the admiralty deliberately put the ship at risk is bunk....as is the notion they knew where every U boat was.

Being able to read some radio traffic is not the same as real time knowledge of the locations of dozens of U-boats. The ship sailed at a lower than max speed the entire war because they disabled boiler room no.4 and ran at lower speed to save fuel. Still was ten knots faster than any U boat.

The US didn't come into the war until two years later anyway.

Now tell me one about the Titanic......how DID the neocons get that iceberg right in her path? $;\)$ And what happened to the pictures of Dick Cheney boring holes in all the life boats?

BTW....BBQ was a rainout. Watched the Hitchcock marathon on TCM instead....my daughter will never look at Birds the same again.

And I didn't realize until we watched Rear Window that she's never seen or even heard of that ancient device called a "flash bulb".

_________________________
Proudly representing oil companies, defense contractors, and firearms manufacturers since 1980. Because merchants of death need lawyers, too.

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#2292579 - 07/04/08 05:39 PM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: The_Real_Hawkeye]

derby_dude
Campfire Guide

Registered: 11/21/06
Posts: 4328
Loc: Montana, Lewis and Clark Count...

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Here's something for you Hawk.

National Geographic "Last Voyage of the Lusitania". I have the DVD and have watched a number of times. I won't say anymore other than get the DVD as you'll find it interesting.

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Tim

“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” General George S. Patton Jr.

"Self-reliance, free thinking, and capitalism is anathema to both the power of government and the Church." Derby Dude

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#2292626 - 07/04/08 06:24 PM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: derby_dude]

Steve_NO
Campfire Kahuna

Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 18214
Loc: New Orleans

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hawk, here's a point by point on the Lusitania controversies----http://www.gwpda.org/naval/lusika05.htm----, whose conclusion on Kenworthy is:

Colin Simpson's one shred of positive evidence, the "eyewitness account" of Lieutenant Commander Kenworthy, is beyond reasonable doubt an invention, and only the most egregious of the numerous distortions in this inexpressibly dishonest book.

_________________________
Proudly representing oil companies, defense contractors, and firearms manufacturers since 1980. Because merchants of death need lawyers, too.

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#2292703 - 07/04/08 07:30 PM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: Steve_NO]

Blackbird
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Registered: 04/25/08
Posts: 73

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Just got back from a 2 week trip to Halifax and Moncton. People are nice but the country is way to socialized for me...

Nova Scotia is BEAUTIFUL---even saw a moose driving to Moncton on the TCH from Halifax.

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#2292724 - 07/04/08 07:44 PM

Re: Canadians vs. Americans - The Startling Facts [Re: Blackbird]

EvilTwin
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Registered: 11/01/04
Posts: 5733
Loc: Upstate NY

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I LOVED Newfoundland and the Newfies are the absolute coolest characters I have ever met. They sure do talk funny though. Half the time I wonder if they understand each other??

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