Canada's anti-American reflex

[Loc']

I've had this discussion many times in Ontario, Alberta, BC and I've always had people say things like "I love Canada, I hate the States", yet when I've asked that same person what their top 10 TV shows, movies, books, bands etc. are, guess what country 90% of their favourites emanate from? Then they invite me to their Super Bowl party, grab a Starbucks, pick up a case of Budweiser, stop at Wal Mart, Blockbuster, and order a pizza from Dominos just in time to watch the NCAA game between Duke and Gonzaga, all while explaining how much the U.S. "sucks" and how lucky they are to be so "different" from them!

J'avais exactement la même impression quand je vivais à Ottawa. Mes colocs Ontariens avaient un mode de vie que je qualifierais d'américain, pourtant ils disaient les détester. Je n'en revenais pas à chaque fois.

[elketeigen]

I'm not sure Ontario is necessarily more anti-American. After all it's ties to the U.S. are huge and most people from that region have at least one relative in the U.S. and vice versa. If anything it may seem so because it's home to the largest number of American expats in Canada and thus there's probably a larger number of reportable anti-American experience. If anything it's probably more of a generational thing as Ontario moves its focus more south and less east west. Most of my Ontario friends admit they feel closer to the U.S. than the rest of the country.

 

But I will also say, a lot of Americans don't always speak about Canada in the most generous of terms either. Just as the Australians and New Zealanders have their own issues as well.

 

Anyway I'd take anything written by that weasel Robert Fulford with a grain of salt. Canada certainly doesn't have a monopoly on "knee jerk" anti-Americanism as anyone who's ever spent time with the Brits or Europeans knows.

[Malek]

Welcome to the forums

[Cataclaw]

If you ask me, it's incredibly stupid to make generalizations about a country with 1 third of a billion people.

 

Things such as "Americans are all fat" or "Americans are all dumb".. absolutely ridiculous.

[Unwind]

les États-unis dominent tellement de champs d'activités.

 

ils sont à la fois les plus gros producteurs de cochonneries que de qualité.

[Habfanman]

The same here. I agree with you and undersnad fully what you are saying. There is a big difference beetwen being Anti US foreign policies, anti-Mcdonald, anti-Walmart, anti-savage capitalism etc, and being anti-american.

 

Unfortunately too often when one expresses his critism over some american corporate companies or way of life then he is pointed as being an anti-american.

 

But also, the one reason why the US gets much more criticised here and around the world is simply because it is the US that have it"s feet all over the place. It's not Greece, it's not Tibet and it's not Chili.

 

As far as how canadians are reacting towards the US i wouldn't be able to answer that because i don't know enough canadian outside of Quebec althought i remember when in Vancouver one person that i was discussing with didn't like it when i was referring to the americans as...americans !!! She wanted me to refer to them as United Statians because she didnt like them to completely absorb the ''name'' americans.

 

By curiosity, where did you move from ?

 

steve, I moved here from Halifax but I only lived there for 2 years. I grew up in Ontario; London, Sarnia, Toronto. I also lived back and forth between Vancouver/Banff/Calgary, spent a couple of years in the U.S.; Texas and Tennessee, and a year each in Australia and Scotland. I've pretty much done the English-speaking world, I guess I got tired of eating too much bad cheese!

 

I love Americans, they're some of the friendliest, most open and generous people I've ever met. I have many friends in the U.S. and I always feel bad for them when they travel because they always take a lot of unecessary criticism for some of the dubious activities of their government, yet they never get any thanks for the far more numerous, great things that the U.S. has given to the world. The U.S. is often put in an impossible position: if something bad happens in the world, they are criticised if they don't get involved, yet if they do get involved, they get criticised for... getting involved! They can't win!

 

My problem is not with Americans, but with the mega-corporations (Canadian, American, whatever) that are turning every city into the same fast-food, big-box, chain store infested copy of every other city. It doesn't matter where you go; you can be in Cleveland, Toronto, Houston, Calgary.. you could be dropped into any of those places and see the same fucking stores, same fucking shitty restaurants, same architecture. Everyone's dressed the same, has the same tunes on their iPod, they're talking about the same TV show, drinking the same Starbucks, buying the same beer, eating the same food, shopping at the same MegaMart, living in the same blue-glass condo.. ugh! It's like a Borg invasion!

 

The same forces are at work here in Québec, but at least there seems to be an awareness of and a resistance to the process, and there aren't nearly as many of those franchise hellholes here as in places like Toronto or Vancouver. (for an example, go to any website like Starbucks, check the 'store locator' and see the results you get for different cities. In the case of Starbucks, there are 36 in metro Montréal, 232 in metro Toronto, 283 in metro Vancouver) Language is a huge factor, but there is also a genuine lack of interest in 'getting' another Best Buy, Taco Bell, Burberry's, Jack Astor's etc. People seem to be more interested in creating their own styles like Kanuk, Première Moisson, Simon's, Schwartz, St. Viateur etc. etc. It's much more interesting here and there's never any mistaking that you're in a truly unique place (at least in the city, suburbs are the same everywhere!).

 

Oh, and I've also had that stupid 'American/United Statesian' conversation with a couple of dipshits. There was even a thread about it on SSC. When Americans hear stupidity like that, they must think that we're all boderline retarded up here!