h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ok, so we are overly polite and we have too small of a military force for some people's liking. And we have an odd accent according to some. And we like hockey altogether too much. Other that that what's wrong with us? Is it the *Frozen North* thing? The whole *Hoser* incident? The fact that now and then we can be unbearably proud of ourselves? Tell me people!!

look, Zoomer, the spectators are gathering.

hi zoomer,

I think it's more correct to say that we are too nice (it's the English who are overly polite).

Saying stuff like 'eh?' and 'that's so neat'. Hmmm, shall have to think a bit more about this . . .



az

Aha! Just as I suspected. We are victims of media generalizations. I have only said *, eh* as a joke (as far as I know....although perhaps I say it without thinking) and the last time I found something *neat* was when I was 14 if I recall.



What about our obnoxious way of finding no fault in ourselves?

Oh, and if you want to be the more polite nationality, far be it from any of us to refuse you your request.

I've made the same comment about "eh?" around here a few times. I do have an old friend who often ended her sentences with "hey?".

Okay, now I'll put in the one I promised:

"Just because they have an inferiority complex they think they're better than everybody else."

And, of course, the wrongest thing of all about Canadians: "They have raisin flavoured pop!"

Just popped it into an online Thesaurus-

Canadian (Ka-nai-dee-an);Synonyms SUBSERVIENT 2, menial, obeisant, servile, slavish
Related Word deferential; parasitic, sycophantic, toadying
Contrasted Words self-assertive

zoomer,

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I'm not English!

Absolutely *everybody* in my family (except me) says 'eh' *constantly* and they don't even realise it. And they also find tons of thing really neat.

Maybe it's a Winnipeg thing?

az

ehzahar:

I've heard that it's a Burlington thing, too.

Haven't we had this discussion before?

Azahar, sorry, misread. I guess it was wishful thinking. Are we going to sit around and put ourselves down without a word from the rest of the community?

Hey, wait a minute, does that mean no one else can find fault in us?

Neato, eh?

As an American, I think our attitude towards Canada is mostly indifference (barring any news-making events such as drug legalization or gay marriage) or occasional sly little jokes at your expense.

I think that makes you guys very defensive, resulting in trying to make yourselves look as different from Americans as possible. I hear American bashing here and elsewhere all the time, so I'm almost used to it by now. But from Canadians, it's more personal.

Hearing "your country stinks because..." from someone in Europe is nothing new. But I think I hear "our country is better because..." from Canadians a lot more.

That's not to say you're all at fault, or that all Canadians feel this way. I know I don't like being lumped in with other Americans all the time. But you asked, so there's one opinion.

Thank you, well put.

I think *sleeping next to the elephant* has made us very defensive. Trying to establish something unique as far as *culture* goes is pretty difficult when you are constantly yelled at by the neighbours. That and the fact that we decided a long time ago to go another route when it comes to government and other things. The *hewers of wood, bearers of water* mentality we have only recently shaken off certainly doesn't help. We are defensive I guess, but then you would be too in the same situation.

True, I would. Though, I'm also defensive in my own way for another reason. As I said in another thread...

"It's not defensiveness because of statements like, 'I don't like the current President or American foreign policy.' It's statements like 'Americans are fat, lazy, and hate the poor.'

The first statement revolves around people currently in power who make decisions about the ditrection the USA is going. I sometimes feel the same way, so I wouldn't be overly defensive. The second paints 280,000,000 people with the same brush, and strikes me as desperately unfair.

There is a difference, but I've seen both kinds of statements bouncing around. It's not easy to agree with someone that the current tax cut plan is stupid when they then go on to say that we're all dumb and/or overweight."

We should try to foster better USA/Canada relations right here. Let's start out by agreeing, you make no American football jokes, and I'll lay off the hockey jokes.

"trying to make yourselves look as different from Americans as possible. "

Hey, Eagle 1, good to see you (metaphorically) again.

I've made this comment before. I've never found that I had to make myself look different from Americans. In my travels (I never wore a mapleleaf when travelling) I've been mistaken for French by Americans (and French) and German by Italians (once I think I was mistaken for an Englishman by a Scotsman). And I've never felt as far from home in a totally foreign country as I've felt in the United States. This isn't a statement of "we're better than you"; it's just a simple statement that we really are very different and we really don't have to make an effort to look different.

And, if you'll let me, I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with you and wack anybody that makes such an asinine statement as "all Americans are dumb, lazy and hate the poor." In fact, I'll be happy to wack anybody that says all of anybody is dumb, lazy and hates the poor (except if they say that dumb, lazy, poor-haters are dumb, lazy, and hate the poor, but that would just be silly) I want to say that I can't believe that anybody would seriously make such a statement, but I sadly can believe it.

"and we have too small of a military force for some people's liking" - how small? just curious?

Generally we have one tenth of everything the US has as far as population, but the military is muchm much smaller than that. I quote from the FAQs of the Canadian Forces website:

How many CF members and DND employees are there?
The CF has about 60,000 members in the Regular Force and about 20,000 in the Primary Reserve Force. DND employs about 20,000 Public Servants.

That comes from http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/home_e.asp if you are interested.

As we mainly have a role as a peacekeeping force we generally don't need a lot of personel, but our gear and technical stuff is sadly out of date in lots of cases. It is a constant battle with the federal government by ordinary citizens to upgrade, but unfortunately the 20,000 Public Servants listed above seem to get the most money.

Here's a quite long answer with a different slant, ApparÏtÏon:

http://www.ploughshares.ca/content/WORKING%20PAPERS/wp031.pdf

"What this "community" needs is for researchers to show each other a little common courtesy. Stop ranting and trolling, start discussing like civilized adults. Consider ideas, not nationality." (direct quote from my journal, in response to Yank bashing)

I couldn't care less where someone is from, or what color their skin is. I come to hootoo to talk to interesting people, with different ideas. This site is chock full of them!

No probs with Canadians here, Zoomer!