Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp
Retail and entertainment do not define the values and attitude of a region. People around the world watch Heroes and eat at McDonald's. Canadian and American attitudes on things like health care, gun control, and religion are wildly divergent and getting more divergent as time goes on.
If you want to really understand how different Canada and the US are, read Fire and Ice by Michael Adams.
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Granted, retail does not define people - any more than politics do. I used to be one of those who bought in to the whole argument that Canadians are different from Americans, read the books and accepted the arguments. I even spent time in the states, and those differences were brought forward, and I made note of them, and agreed - for awhile.
Then I spent some time in a different part of the states, and noticed that what I had assumed was our "differences" really wasn't specific to Canada/US. Spent some more time in different parts of Canada, and noticed that the level of differences was right up there with the different parts of the States. Spent some time in NZ, and in Denmark and Germany, where I noticed things were both the same, and yet very, very different. I even lived in Germany for 3 months, spent 1 month in NZ. What I noticed? The intellectual arguments about what makes us different are true - but those arguments can be extended to many other places, and between the different portions of the States and Canada as well. Want to read another book that makes a different argument? ‘The Nine Nations of North America’ byJoel Garreau. I don't agree with everything he has to say, but he's on the right track. Add to this the fact that Canada as a nation is so uncohesive as to frequently have separatist leanings in various portions of the Country, you can't say we're different and that's that. Sure we're different, but we're just as different as they are.