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What do you think about Canadian culture?
- Thread starter Beth
- Start date
I live in the southern part of Ontario, which is very close to the border.
Honestly, Canadian culture is basically American culture with a few add-ons. It's simply unavoidable, considering the size and proximity of the States.
Also, what with Prime Minister Harper now in power, Canada is becoming more and more Bush-era-like. Frankly, I find it scary, but that's my opinion. Mr. Harper his highly conservative in social issues, and the only reason he hasn't turned around and brought the country back is because he's afraid of losing support. Should he get a majority government, artists, LGBT people, the poor... all screwed. A majority of people don't actually vote Conservative, but in Canada, we have more than two main political parties. We have five major parties, which are the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP (further left than the Liberals), the Green Party (focused on environmental issues), and the Bloc, which supports the independence of Quebec.
As for Canadian culture itself, it's too multicultural to describe as having one culture. Toronto's downtown core is very different from a mid-sized Albertan town reliant on the oil sands, which is very different from Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, which is in the far North.
All of these are very, very different from the culture of Quebec, which is predominantly French, and tries very much to retain that heritage.
What I have noticed is that it's generally a lot less blatantly patriotic than the States. I'm always surprised by how many American flags there are absolutely everywhere. Most of Canada doesn't have nearly as many churches as the Bible Belt, though if you drive through Quebec, every other place name starts with "Saint" and practically every village has a Catholic church.
Canadians are generally very proud of our public healthcare. Tommy Douglas, its creator, is a national hero. Most people are very uncomfortable with the idea of letting somebody who needs medicine go without because he can't afford it.
Like the States, Canada has difficulty treating its Natives properly. Reserves are often extremely poor, and are lucky if they consistently have clean running water.
Canadians like to poke fun at people (read: mostly some Americans) who think we ride to school on dog sleds and use our hockey sticks to fend off polar bears. The only people you ever hear "aboot" from is visiting Americans.
We do say "eh" though. Except in Quebec, where it's more often "en", a French sound that doesn't really have a good English equivalent.
Canada doesn't have any one accent. I can hear how my accent differs from those of my British Columbian relatives, and those of my Quebecois relatives.
The three biggest cities, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, are traditionally Liberal strongholds. There is only one large city (1 000 000+) in Canada that is traditionally Conservative (Calgary).
Basically, this is a hugely broad question nearly impossible to answer well on Yahoo Answers.
Honestly, Canadian culture is basically American culture with a few add-ons. It's simply unavoidable, considering the size and proximity of the States.
Also, what with Prime Minister Harper now in power, Canada is becoming more and more Bush-era-like. Frankly, I find it scary, but that's my opinion. Mr. Harper his highly conservative in social issues, and the only reason he hasn't turned around and brought the country back is because he's afraid of losing support. Should he get a majority government, artists, LGBT people, the poor... all screwed. A majority of people don't actually vote Conservative, but in Canada, we have more than two main political parties. We have five major parties, which are the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP (further left than the Liberals), the Green Party (focused on environmental issues), and the Bloc, which supports the independence of Quebec.
As for Canadian culture itself, it's too multicultural to describe as having one culture. Toronto's downtown core is very different from a mid-sized Albertan town reliant on the oil sands, which is very different from Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, which is in the far North.
All of these are very, very different from the culture of Quebec, which is predominantly French, and tries very much to retain that heritage.
What I have noticed is that it's generally a lot less blatantly patriotic than the States. I'm always surprised by how many American flags there are absolutely everywhere. Most of Canada doesn't have nearly as many churches as the Bible Belt, though if you drive through Quebec, every other place name starts with "Saint" and practically every village has a Catholic church.
Canadians are generally very proud of our public healthcare. Tommy Douglas, its creator, is a national hero. Most people are very uncomfortable with the idea of letting somebody who needs medicine go without because he can't afford it.
Like the States, Canada has difficulty treating its Natives properly. Reserves are often extremely poor, and are lucky if they consistently have clean running water.
Canadians like to poke fun at people (read: mostly some Americans) who think we ride to school on dog sleds and use our hockey sticks to fend off polar bears. The only people you ever hear "aboot" from is visiting Americans.
We do say "eh" though. Except in Quebec, where it's more often "en", a French sound that doesn't really have a good English equivalent.
Canada doesn't have any one accent. I can hear how my accent differs from those of my British Columbian relatives, and those of my Quebecois relatives.
The three biggest cities, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, are traditionally Liberal strongholds. There is only one large city (1 000 000+) in Canada that is traditionally Conservative (Calgary).
Basically, this is a hugely broad question nearly impossible to answer well on Yahoo Answers.