Canadian-US Differences & Relations
 

I know in the past I had a thread covering information about Canada… mainly to try and educate people about my country :D or at least to provide a forum to promote a better understanding of the differences between Canada and the United States of America (yes they do exist).

Anyways I decided to do some surfing through wikipedia looking for relevant articles covering differences in politics, attitudes, laws, and policies… mainly again to provide a source of education – and yes I know that wikipedia isn’t exactly an academic source, but it is great for an introduction to the pertinent issues. Now from my perspective I did gain some insights into the differences from an American point of view: specifically dealing with political structure and constitutional issues…

Canada and the 2004 United States presidential election:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_...ntial_election

Religion in Canada:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Canada

Canadian Parliament:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Parliament

Political Culture of Canada:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politic...ture_of_Canada

US-Canada Relations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-Canada_relations

Canada and the Iraq War:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_and_the_Iraq_War

US-Canada Politics Compared:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-Cana...itics_compared

Just thought I'd update with one major difference right now...

Currently I'm watching the live coverage on CBC (you know that evil "liberal", "socialist", or even "communist" government agency according to FOXNews) of the repatriation ceremony of the latest Canadian casualities in Afghanistan.

So, since the family okayed it, the entire nation can watch the coffins being unloaded from the aircraft to be recieved by an Honour Guard from the dead soldier's regiment, accompanied by bagpipes and the padre - to see the regiment and the families pay their first respects to the deceased, and to see the sorrow expressed at the loss.

The new Conservative government tried to ban any coverage of these events, and tried to have the coffins come home at night without a "production", ala the current US policy. The public, media, family, veteran's, and military outrage at the decision forced an over turning of this policy... and led to a serious loss of respect for the Minister of Defense (a retired General) - so much so that soldiers refused to salute him, or some even turned their backs on him on parade in Afghanistan... a very serious sign of disrespect from the military (for those who are familiar with Canadian or British military culture). I know that the government was worried that the grief could errode the support for the Afghanistan mission.... and I do know that some of the more hard-line conservatives felt the open displays of grief by some soldiers wasn't "respectful" - but to be honest f*ck Harper and O'Connor's views on this - I for one have no problem watching a soldier weep for a fallen comrade; and in many cases watch a soldier weep for a family member or spouse... as has been the case recently.


PS> I am touched by the class and respect shown by the US Air Force, who sent a senior officer as a representative to today's repatriation ceremony, to express their condoloences and regret for the friendly-fire incident that claimed one life. It takes a brave man and a gentleman to be their to express sorrow and regret to soldiers, the regiment, and the family...

These are the differences between Canada and USA:

neighbour / neighbor
colour / color
cheques / checks
Girl Guides / Girl Scouts
Girl Guide cookies: Canada has 2 kinds- the gross Chocolate Mint Kind in November, and the "one row chocolate, one row vanilla kind" in April
Girl Scout cookies: apparently the American Girl Scout cookie..there is "multiple" kinds that you can buy? I've never eaten an American Girl Scout cookie. SOMEONE SEND ME SOME, LOL!!

Canadians go to university, Americans go to "college".
In Canada, you are in Grade 4, in USA you are in the 4th grade.

Canada: you can pay with USD$ and no one bats an eyelash
USA: Canadian money will be looked at with suspicion, as though it was monopoly money, due to it being of different colours. (some places close to "the line" on the US side might accept Canadian money, but those are few and far between).

"Thank you"
Canada - "You're welcome"
USA - "Uh huh" (as observed by me in Seattle)

And USA has way wider a range of repertoire of candy bars selection (chocolate bars in Canada)

And in Canada, we say "pop" and in the USA, depending where you live (i.e. region), it's "soda / pop / Coke" (see other old GC threads...this soft drink topic has been covered before, at least once).

Canada: runners
USA: sneakers

Retail in Canada is in, general, pretty crappy compared to the American cousins.
USA has Victoria's Secret shops, we have to deal with crappy a$$ La Senza and La Vie en Rose.
USA has "Bed, Bath and Beyond", we have crappy "Linens and Things".


If I think of anything else, I'll come back.

CP2K, when Girl Scout cookie time rolls around, I promise I will do my part to bolster US/Canada relations and buy a couple of boxes to send to you! Do you like peanut butter? They make peanut butter cookies called Tagalongs which are a cookie spread with peanut butter and dipped in chocolate. I keep them in the refrigerator. Yummmm! But, yeah, I'll e mail when it's cookie time!

********************

On an unrelated subject, though, I think many Canadians may have gotten pissed off about Wayne Gretzky up and marrying an American and leaving Edmonton for LA. I don't think relations have been the same since.

ME LOVE PEANUT BUTTER!

I would love to help bolster Canada-US relations and would be pleased to receive American Girl Scout cookies!
And I would send you some Canadian Girl Guide cookies. And actually, the chocolate mint kind is not really 'gross' but people either love 'em or they hate 'em. There is no grey area.
And some people are not big on the mint.

And you can have fun reading the French side of the box label! :)
Oui, oui, bonjour! ;)

Another diff I've noticed:

In the US: Elementary School to refer to the lower grades

Canada: Seems to be a split between elementary and "public" school (official gov't term is elementary and secondary)...being from the separate system (govt funded Catholic schools), I prefer "elementary"

US: THE Prom

Canada: Prom (no "the")/Formal/Grad (didn't know this term was used until I was in university. Maybe it's regional?)

Same here... it was "Grad" for me - but I missed it 'cause I was off at Basic Training. I do know that my sister's school called it "Prom" for the first time back in 2000... she was on the planning committee and opposed the change.

Were Grade 11s allowed to go?

At my school, the formal was not only for OACs (Grade 12s now, of course), but also open to the 11s and 12s. Prom/Formal makes it more "equal" I guess. Lower grades were allowed to go to the dance only. Dinner was open only to the graduating class

At my school "grad(uation)" dance=post-commencement dinner reception/dance for the class and parents.


ETA: Always thought "grad" was weird. I was confused for a long time when floormates were talking about their "grad". It was either "formal" or "prom" for me.

That's a very BC thing, I believe (at least according to a girl I did my study abroad program with). Over here (at least at my school and at my friends' schools), parents didn't get to go to the formal. Parents did host a pre-party for the graduating class, their dates and faculty chaperones.

I was born and raised in Canada and lived here for my entire life and I have NEVER heard the term public school in place of non-private school for grades K-7. It was always elementary school.

It's only used if you are talking about, 'Hey did you go to private school?'
'No, I went to public school.'

Only if your invited date was a Grade 11'er.

At my grad dinner, it was you, your date and your parents. And then the after-grad was woo hoo, get down!
But we had parents there at the party to chaperone and yes, booze was served out in the open (this was a non-religious private school grad, by the way)

I've heard "I went to public school in ABC City and middle and high school in DEF City" a few times in my life.


That's what I thought. I guess that's why ours was called "The Formal" (or maybe the full name used to be the VI Form Formal (VI Form would have included Grade 12s AND 13s. My school stopped using "forms" in the early 70s)

Sounded like our post-commencement dinner/dance, except we didn't bring dates to that.

Almost always the term "public" refered to a non-Catholic school; be it Elementary or Highschool... when it came to private schools for the most part the people just said that either they went to a "private school" or a "private Catholic school".

Of course there is bound to be some serious differences between our experience and Taualumna's; the world of BSS, Royal St. George, St. Andrew's, and UCC is a very different one indeed.

I went to "public HS" for Grade 8 and 9 (and that public HS was hardly slumming it), and my Grade 10-12 years were spent at a private school, in the "same league" as Ridley, Branksome Hall, Bishop Strachan, Havergal (Have-a Girl....LOL is what my Havergal alumnae friends called it)...
We offered the 3 R's: Rugby, Rowing and 'Rithmatic

I think BC and Quebec (and parts of Ontario--Kingston and York Region elementary schools are K-8) are the only provinces where junior highs are rare. I know that in Alberta and in the east, elementary is K-6, Middle (or junior high) is 7-9 and high school is 10-12. My cousins from Alberta thought it was weird that Ontarians are in high school for 4 years (9-12).

What she said.

And even though "Grade 13" in now extinct in Ontario, I still don't get it. Like, why did it even exist? Were people in Ontario not smart enough, that they needed that extra year to learn in 14 years (i.e. K-13) what the rest of us could learn in 13? (K-12). I don't get it. And it is/was called OAC or some random thing. Bizarre.

It used to be that you could matric into university after Grade 12, but will need to take 5 years to get your honours. If you took Grade 13, it's a regular 4 year program. Back in the day, many only took a regular 3 year BA (especially women, who went to university for their MRS)

Oh, and I just remembered, Quebec has this thing called "cegep". It's something that you go to after Grade 12. I think it's kinda like a community college but not really. Or maybe just Quebec's version of Grade 13? So confusing...LOL

I just remembered another thing about Canada and USA.
In Canada, we don't use those terms of: freshman, sophomore, junior & senior.

For High School, we just say: Grade 9, Grade 10, Grade 11, Grade 12

For university, we just say: 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year.

Actually, it's after Grade 11. The Quebec high school system is, believe it or not, similar to the UK system (or at least the UK system that my parents went through in Hong Kong). High school is Grade 7 to 11, and then you take sixth form/A levels (Grade 12 and 13) if you want to go to university.

Oh and first year university students/frosh are used interchangably at some schools.

And don't forget... :D

Royal Canadian Air Cadets / Civil Air Patrol Cadets (Had a few of 'em (plus some from Austrailia and Sweden) for the International Air Cadet Exchange this summer.)

We also have the Royal Canadian Air Farce, which is a comedian show/troupe.

Oh, and we have the Snowbirds, you guys have the California Blue Angels.

We have the loonie ($1 coin that have a loon on it), you guys have the $1 coin with Sacajawea on it, that hardly any Americans like to use (as told to me by my friend who is a Princess Cruises ship-board employee.

and we have a $2 coin (the two-nee or toonie) with a polar bear on it. Apparently there is such a thing as a $2 bill in the USA, but they are few and far between.

And then there is lieutenant: is it LOO-tenant or LEF-tant? I think the LEF-tenant is the Canadian pronunciation, but to me, that's just dumb. There is no "F" in lieutenant.

As far as I know the entire English-speaking world pronounces with the 'F' sound in it.... except of course for the Americans and I think the Australian Navy or Airfore (can't remember which). It's werid yes, but tradition...

Yea... we've got a couple of CAP members (from another local squadron) who are Canadian and pronounce the grade 'lef-tenant'. I oughta know... I am a CAP 'Loo-tenant' (soon to be Captain in less than a year). :D

An American dude that I know who works for some politician at the legislature in Olympia told me that the USA doesn't carry this kind of toffee:
http://www.londondrugs.com/msib20/Pr...6190_large.jpg
Is that true? That kind of surprises me, since USA is "The Land of Awesome Candy Selection".

Don't forget bathroom/washroom.

Also, keeping up with the military ranks, how do Canadians pronounce Colonel. In the states its kernel.

Pretty much the same (as well as the Brits) except it's closer to: ker-enel... just a slight sound of the e in there.

Other minor pronouncation differences include of course the Sarge... we say it with more of a French inflection.. well that and the fact we'd never use the term "sarge" ;)

Like we do. On the French-speaking side, it's 'co-lo-nel'.

However, their Brigadiers don't add the title 'General'. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Coop, I may be thinking of the British grades.)

I pronounce it 'kernel'.

In practice no... it's just Brigadier - like the old Dr. Who dude... although there are the exceptions that do :rolleyes: but all of the ones that I've ever encountered that toss on the General, well they are more of the "Pentagon Politicians" type if you get my drift...

Okay... almost all do... but I just thought of a better way of explaining it - Canadians tend to pronounce it without a gap, almost as a single syllable... sort of blending it together like folks from Toronto do with "Toronto". The exceptions of course being those from the Maritimes and French Canadians... with them the "ker-e-nel" becomes more pronounced.

I use bathroom/washroom interchangably...with a preference for "bathroom"

Junior high used to exist in parts of Greater Vancouver until the early 90's, and highschool was just grade 11/12. Then they merger junior high and high, so now all high schools are grades 8-12.

In the BC private school system, we refered to primary/elementary school as Junior School and high school as Senior School. Not sure if that is the same for the rest of the country.

Some Ontario private schools do the same. Others have "lower school" for the elementary grades and "upper school" for the senior grades. Many also have a "middle school" which is a division of the senior/upper school (usually grades 7 and 8, though some schools, especially those that start at the higher elementary grades, have middle schools that start as young as Grade 5)

It can vary by county or by state, but here we had elemetary K-5, Middle 6-8 and high school was 9-12