Why canadians dont like americans

Bush presidency , a large number of Americans emigrated to Canada because they themselves disliked some element of their home country.

When the weather gets cold, a lot of Canadians travel down to warm American states like Florida, California, and Arizona to holiday. This is particularly popular among retired Canadians, who may even own a second home in the U.

These people are known as "Snowbirds," and form a significant lobby group in both the U. To many, the phrase may even be an oxymoron. A great struggle of Canadian existence is how to make peace with these two conflicting realities.

How does one appreciate the reality of being very similar to an American while also holding a sense of pride in being something distinct and separate? Canada and the United States only have one formal land dispute, a tiny island known as Machias Seal Island located on the part of the U.

Though this ambiguity causes some mild tension for lobster fishermen in the area, the island is ultimately so small and useless it contains nothing but a lighthouse there has been no pressure for the two governments to resolve it.

During the 19th century, editorial cartoons in Canada and Britain often portrayed Canada as a delicate young woman in danger of being wooed by a lecherous Uncle Sam. Seen here, a cartoon by the British cartoonist Tom Merry depicting England's "John Bull" ignoring the dangerous seduction of one of his colonies.

Upset over this, in a protester gained access to the national archives and dumped red paint on the Canadian constitution, permanently staining the country's most important document. Next Chapter. Bennett Louis St. Anti-Americanism in Canada. Anti-Americanism in Canadian Politics As two very similar countries, Canada and America obviously can learn a lot from studying one another.

Image Comics. Anti-Americanism in Canadian Pop Culture A running trope in Canadian pop culture is comparing Americans to Canadians — a comparison that rarely has the Americans coming out well. A PR person at the hospital where I work, who has been eager to talk to me about a book I've published, puts down her pen when she learns that I'm American and that the book is nearly devoid of 'Canadian content. Many of my non-Canadianist friends refer to Canada as "the European version of America.

The Dutch are attracted to the down-to-earth Canadian spirit. In Amsterdam, many locals will play dumb if an American asks for the way. But state you're Canadian, and doors will open instantly. Nowadays, my friends remark, with surprise, "Canada has an American president, only interested in the economy and ignorant of anything else, and America has a Canadian president.

Irene Salverda is the president of the Association for Canada Studies in the Netherlands and a strategic communications adviser at Wageningen University and Research centre in the Netherlands. Slovaks hardly ever hear about Canada in the news, so they know next to nothing about the country, let alone its role in current international affairs. Slovak students are no exception. This, however, seems to be in Canada's favour, as the country's positive image, built and promoted by its previous political leadership, still persists in this part of Europe.

Canada is still viewed as "a better United States," as a country which enjoys a level of prosperity similar to its neighbour to the south, but doesn't interfere in matters that don't concern it. With anti-American sentiments rising throughout Slovakia, and the U. Periodic surveys continue to show that Americans like Canadians more than anyone else in the world.

However, Americans know very little about their closest neighbours to the north. In addition, far more Canadians visit the U. Canada has also become an afterthought in the corridors of power in Washington, D. The days of a "special relationship" are long gone. Americans can learn so much from Canada, especially in terms of public schools, health care, federalism, livable cities, relatively low violent crime, and other important areas.

From a "country to the North of the USA" Canada developed its own identity in the academic world and hundreds of scholars and many thousands of students began to study and research Canadian society, geography, law, literature and language. Thanks to what was probably the most cost-effective program of Canadian government through its Understanding Canada program, Canada became of prime interest and importance in the scholarly and academic world.

Suddenly, three years ago, the Canadian Government "abolished" its language! Understanding Canada and since then Canada is in clear regression in the academic world. Canada is at a clear disadvantage versus the USA and other Western democracies and cannot afford to be "penny wise" and short-sighted in its struggle to be recognized for what it is in fact: a wonderful free and democratic country with a strong economy and a wonderful people.

He was born in Winnipeg. In one of the courses that I teach, Comparative Politics, Canada was omitted from the syllabus for a long period of time mainly because it was believed that Canada is a country without a particularly influential political system or foreign policy in the world arena. Recently, it became obvious that national interest is a top priority for Canada's foreign policy strategy.

It was not surprising that when Prime Minister Stephen Harper made his second visit to China in , he signed a number of economic agreements with China's government, despite previous criticisms made by the Canadian government on China's human rights issues. We welcome the change in Canada's foreign policy towards China, but we also hope that Canada can further engage herself in defending fundamental rights, such as freedom, justice and democracy in the world.

Lihua Yang teaches political science at Shandong University, China. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Waterloo in Historians here often refer to America in the century and a half after the Revolutionary War as the "great experiment in liberty," echoing the words of late 18th-century politicians who held their country up as a model of republican virtue.

Today, nobody speaks of the U. Oddly, Canadians have hardly ever in their century and half of existence referred to their country as an "experiment" — something that might succeed, or might fail. And yet, in so many ways, Canada is and maybe always has been the more experimental nation, one that bears watching by the rest of the world, and by Americans.

A country that has had two near-death experiences in the Quebec referendums of and , Canada has also undergone its own rights revolution since the birth of the Charter in Most recently, the resurgence of aboriginal rights, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the mercurial Idle No More movement all attract the interest of American students of Canada.

You can't be sure of people in Ontario. They have less exuberance and, compared to the people in B. It made us feel like first-class heels. We like it better here. Arc Canadians Really? This enchants visiting Americans. It gives them an opportunity to exercise their highschool French without having to take a trip abroad.

It also gives the Frenchspeaking C anadians a chance to be amused. He first moved to Montreal and regretted a later transfer to Toronto. Besides, if you're living there and you're Protestant, they know you'll move on if you can when you get school-age children. American kids have great difficulty adjusting to the French curriculum. In Ontario, many Americans claim they brush up against a hypersensitive group of people, conscious of their social status and religion and their very small part in international affairs.

Local politics interest and occupy the westerners and the people in Quebec, but Americans get the impression that in Ontario, Canadians are finding it painful to emerge from the Victorian age. And the cab driver, he said, puts up with pompous passengers who condescend begrudgingly to tip ten cents.

Americans notice that Jews live in ghettos in fortythousand-dollar houses and Protestants have an unnatural fear of letting too many Catholics into a badly unpopulated country. They also point out that property-proud parents let their children chant. Don't touch my property. On the other hand, the Americans I talked to think Canadians have a high standard of education for elementary and high school students and generally they're glad to let their children take advantage of the educational system.

One Ontario mother, though, objected to the final, senior matriculation year. You sap all the joy of learning out of them. Americans here, however, do believe that Canadian universities they particularly point to McGill. Toronto and the University of Saskatchewan have a vitality that may be missing from American colleges. Some of our museums, and our artists and patrons have the same kind of vitality they admire. There seems to be more "involvement. With such notable exceptions, most of the Americans 1 talked to worry that Canadians are becoming carbon copies of much that's mundane and common in their own American lives.

They complained about the deluge of U. They say Canadians judge the U. And yet the U. No writers in Canada compare with it.

Oh, Canada has its freakish writers like Marshall McLuhan, but for pure intellect his ilk doesn't approach the regular contributors to Commentary magazine or the Columbia University press.

Americans admire much in the Canadian character. We trust you and we respect you, more I think sometimes than you respect yourselves. For instance, we know that when it's important you'll support us. No one is as honest as a Canadian. The individual Canadians are the same way. They II walk around a foreigner for months sizing him up. If they like him, they invite him to dinner. We invite strangers to dinner and then see if we like them.

Canadians have the better system. My first Canadian host is still my friend. Back home I'd be rushed for three months and never hear from the people again.