First thoughts of Canada.

I'm pretty much aiming this thread towards an audience of non-Canadians (Mostly Americans LOL), but Canadians can join in and I want to know the very first things you think of when Canada in mentioned (Canada won't count as the first thing LOL smartass...)

I think of...... Accepting people, moose, French, Northern Lights (dunno if that's actually in Canada, sorry if I'm wrong), shimmycocopuffsss, different spelling of certain words (and it goes both ways), cool people, and a lot of snow.



So, what do you guys think of when Canada is mentioned?

 

The Stupid Topics in Parliament sometimes.... really,I watch parliament live for hours,it is really entretaining

 

Hockey, Snow, Tim Hortons!

 

Basically Australia's big brother, and our colder, more intellectual, and more socially advanced version. I wouldn't mind being Canadian. :lol:

 

I just think of home when I hear Canada, as well as of our higher taxes than the US except we get things such as health care and subsidized post-secondary education from that. I like Canada =)

 

Well I lived most of my life in Minnesota which is basically the American version of Canada. So naturally I think it's a great place and I've never met anyone I didn't like from there. However, I do like to tease them for being part of the Commonwealth. We fought a war to not have a queen, why couldn't they do the same? :lol:

 

Here we let queens marry...

And yes, we do get the Northern Lights, saw them in Montreal once, but nothing compared to what I saw up north in Great Whale River...

 

Hockey. That's first, but there's also Degrassi.

 

Probably a bigger, colder version of my state? idk ;-; oh and eric lives there

 

Free healthcare, and no real enemies in the world. Got to love you Canada

 

Maybe Canada wanted to be part of the British Empire. Being the largest conglomerate of nations at the time it wasn't the worst idea. Having countries like England, New Zealand and Australia on your side guaranteed is awesome. It's like being in a country that is part of a family of nations. Though I feel at home when in the U.S.A I think I would feel relatively comfortable in New Zealand, Australia and definitely England.

When I think of Canada I just think of lakes, and trees for the most part. And of home of course.

Politically though it is sort of a schizophrenic as it is almost now impossible to tell what parties have the most power. The Bloc Quebecois wants to separate, NDP want extreme socialization, Conversatives and Liberals are the same basically and want to change little
Newfoundland is like a completely different country, the West is extremely different from the East.

It is weird living in a country that wants to tear itself apart.

 

It's stunning. I would look through encyclopedias as a kid and decided I needed to visit it as an adult. It's amazing that a population less than that of California occupies this vast country, with coasts on both the Pacific and the Atlantic. I have been to the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. Everything I saw was beautiful.

 

Maple syrup

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Dudley Do-Right)

Beavers

Oil shale

Hockey

eh

Lobsters (Nova Scotia)

 

Iraq and Afghanistan nationals aren't too happy with Canada's partial occupation of these two countries.

Canada is the largest mining nation on earth, the Toronto Stock Exchange is the place to go if you want to buy minerals and precious metals like gold and silver. This means we are the main exploiter of other nation's resources, and our multinational mining countries don't treat mining like they would in Canada. They often poison water sources and treat employees horrible. Canada's name is dirt in Guyana, El Salvador and Guatemala.

I know it's hard to believe but the U.S isn't the only country that exploits third world nations, and Canada is just as guilty, therefore we have many countries that "hate" us in the sense.

Some Chinese have problems with Canada because of the way some immigrants are treated in this country, as well many immigrants come here to realize life isn't as easy as advertised.

The western world is fond of us, but there are many poorer nations not to admired.

Russia, and Denmark don't recognize our Arctic sovereignty and assume The Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut are up for grabs. They have been caught planting a Russian flag on our land and sea bed, and also have been caught with military personnel on our northern islands. They want the rights to the north west passage.

A Canadian clothing manufacturer factory recently collapsed in Bangledesh killing hundreds.

Canadians committed terrorist attacks in Libya this year.

There are a lot of other countries that have problems with us that I can't think of right now. I am sure many African countries exploited by our mining companies aren't too happy with us either.

Spain and France constantly fight with us over fishing zones, France owning two islands just off the coast of eastern Canada which allows them to fish in our water basically and bring it back to Europe; ridiculous.

We aren't as great as you think, we just have a decent relationship with the U.S. Even then the U.S doesn't agree with a lot of our policies, and has accused us as being a terrorist breeding ground. I'm sure a lot of American's weren't fond of us when we legalized gay marriage about 10 freakin years ago.

On top of that, we have Quebec that thinks it's another country, with it's youth constantly ripping on Canada, despite the word Canadian originating from Quebec(they were the first people to call themselves Canadian, a quebecois is relatively new and really doesn't denote anything historically significant unlike a Habitant or Canadienne does)

 

Ok, if we want to talk people, there are some differences I've noted. For one thing, there is their spelling of words like harbour, centre, and others, accompanied by a Canadian accent which can be easy to detect, often with a lilt at the end of a sentence. They are more polite, yet more reserved than most Americans. Only in Quebec did I find them less reserved and more animated. And they will tell you that their perception of Americans is that they are more brash and forward. Comparatively speaking, this is probably so. The only strange event I saw was in a coffeehouse in Quebec when it was really busy one evening. A group of bilingual locals was in there and I sat at a table next to them. They learned I was American and started toying with me in a put on twang. Whatever. I speak standard broadcast English. Maybe they had had a few beers prior to going for coffee. But they were just yucking it up, even before I sat down.

 

i have a cousin in Minnesota. gets cold there too

 

A better version of the US.

 

It is a very beautiful country, and I enjoy whenever I get to go up there but I wish they operated in MPH, not KPH.

 

Essentially this. I also think of the stereotypes such as hockey and maple leaves/syrup. And of course free healthcare.

Funny, though, my girlfriend's family is from Quebec, and they're French-Canadian almost 100%. Bilingual (French and English), and they carry the culture with them though they've been in Australia for about six years now. I learned from them that Quebec is really paranoid about French preservation, so they have super strict laws about their signs. If you have a bilingual sign, the English can only be 75% the size of the French [Such as on a stop sign.. or should I say, arrêt sign.]

Oh, yeah! Crystal Castles, Arcade Fire, and Grimes. I always think of them whenever someone mentions Canada.

 

Whenever they do those quality of life rankings, they always come in ahead of the U.S. I've had Canadians point it out to me, and I've seen the rankings a few times when they put them out.

---------- Post added 10th Jul 2013 at 09:12 PM ----------

Ha. Yes. If you're in an American car with a MPH speedometer, you have to keep dividing by 1.6, in your head, to avoid getting a traffic ticket.