Ask a Canuck

[gsdx]

Do you secretly listen to Snowbird by Anne Murray on your earbuds?

Secretly? Hell, no! We're loud and proud when it comes to our Anne! You know how rap music blasting from car stereos can rattle your eardrums? We don't use rap. We use Anne!

By the way, this song came very close to becoming our National Anthem (note that even Anne doesn't know the lyrics):

 

[luckynumbah7]

Does Canada really laugh at Newfoundland?

 

[Mitchymo]

since we live in North America, we are also Americans.

In order to remove confusion, and if the opportunity were given, what would you rename North America?

 

[JohnnyAnger]

How much interest is there in the Rugby World Cup? Right now Canada are holding their own against (losing 24-15 44th min) a decent French side.

 

[Cormac135]

I have the utmost respect for any man who is brave enough to wire into this mammoth.

 

[gsdx]

In order to remove confusion, and if the opportunity were given, what would you rename North America?

There really isn't any confusion. Americans seem to be the only people to consider us Americans as well.

How much interest is there in the Rugby World Cup? Right now Canada are holding their own against (losing 24-15 44th min) a decent French side.

Let's just say more than cricket as evidenced by the broadcasting schedule at TSN (The Sports Network):

 

[Mitchymo]

Oh god, you mean Canadians call football 'soccer' too???

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

There really isn't any confusion. Americans seem to be the only people to consider us Americans as well.

I would imagine that number is very small, considering as I am an American I have never heard Canadians being referred to as American very much, if at all.

 

[gsdx]

Oh god, you mean Canadians call football 'soccer' too???

Yes. Our 'football' has been around for a very long time and your 'football' has been around a lot longer. Until the 1820s, we used to play your football until one of the players (probably in an effort to score a much-needed goal) picked up the ball and headed for the goal. The other team took off in pursuit to bring him down before he reached it.

This morphed into rugby, but different Ivy League colleges in the United States played by different rules: one with rugby rules and the other with rules more resembling our football. The rules were refined until the game of American football was born. If Canada wanted to play in the leagues, we had to follow along. So, that left 2 completely different football games, so the old game fell victim to the name change and became 'soccer'.

(I had to Google this.)

 

[gsdx]

I would imagine that number is very small, considering as I am an American I have never heard Canadians being referred to as American very much, if at all.

I've never heard it outside of this forum. I have no idea if the general population of the US considers us Americans as well or if it's a sentiment held here by a number of members.

 

[DarkHelios]

Thanks gsdx for catching most of the responses

Do you like Emmental?

But of course.

My cousin lives in the middle of Canada someplace and the snow during winter buries everything at least a storey deep. How do you cope with so much white stuff?

By not living in the prairies where most of it falls.

How's Quebec? Has the separatist movement truly subsided?

It's still there, but probably not strong enough to get as close to winning a referendum as it did in 1995. I think the movement is far weaker with younger generations. (I say this as someone who doesn't live in Quebec)

You plagiarist!!!

You'll never take me alive!!!

Oh, and how offended do you guys get when mistaken for Americans?

It's kind of annoying, but usually if it isn't an American who made the mistake, they apologize when they learn I'm Canadian

Oh god, you mean Canadians call football 'soccer' too???

Officially yes. A fair number of people don't. Toronto's team is actually called Toronto FC.

 

[Vannie]

Secretly? Hell, no! We're loud and proud when it comes to our Anne! You know how rap music blasting from car stereos can rattle your eardrums? We don't use rap. We use Anne!

By the way, this song came very close to becoming our National Anthem (note that even Anne doesn't know the lyrics):

In the video with Elvis singing "My Way" he didn't remember the title,and he had a cheat sheet as well for the lyrics.Although with Elvis,it was maybe a sedative fog.I wasn't crazy about that "Maple Leaf Forever"song.I'm happy they went with "O Canada"Very nice,and more fitting IMHO.I had a very straight(womanizing Uncle)who recently passed,that loved Anne Murray,and in particular the song Snow Bird.I can remember that song bringing him to tears on more than one occasion.I certainly would prefer hearing Anne on car stereos these days.Lets give it back to those damn kids!

 

[Essex Boy]

Who is big in Canadian literature currently? The only living Canadian writer I can think of is Margaret Atwood. The only dead ones I know of are Stephen Leacock, L.M. Montgomery and Robertson Davies.

 

[Mitchymo]

You'll never take me alive!!!

Well, i'm no necrophilliac, so i'll let you off. >D

 

[bankside]

In order to remove confusion, and if the opportunity were given, what would you rename North America?

No Canadian would object to being called a North American. But being called American is another thing entirely. I gather that Spanish-speakers use American as an adjective for anyone from North or South America, but we're English and French, not Spanish, and that term doesn't work here for anything other than someone from the United States.

 

[bankside]

Does Canada really laugh at Newfoundland?

Well...

They're our newest province, having been separate, and a British colony, until 1949. Sort of a quaint, poor, badly-managed, rural backwater until maybe 2005 or so. They spent most of the 80's and 90's demanding the right to fish cod that didn't exist any more, not unlike the British coal miners demanding the right to mine coal that no one needed any more.

This was more likely to lead to mockery than a sense of solidarity or a willingness to help them improve conditions.

AND YET, that same era produced a trove of Canadian comedians that still define a national sense of humour that we revel in. Codco, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Rick Mercer Report, all of that is gold.

 

[rocabar]

Who is big in Canadian literature currently? The only living Canadian writer I can think of is Margaret Atwood. The only dead ones I know of are Stephen Leacock, L.M. Montgomery and Robertson Davies.

Hmmm. . . Alice Munro won the Nobel prize in 2013; Carol Shields, Michael Ondaatje, Yann Martel, and Lawrence Hill have had success internationally.

Although writers such as, Margaret Lawrence, Mordecai Richler, Farley Mowat, Timothy Findley, and W O Mitchell, are no longer with us, their works are still widely read.

 

[gsdx]

Who is big in Canadian literature currently? The only living Canadian writer I can think of is Margaret Atwood. The only dead ones I know of are Stephen Leacock, L.M. Montgomery and Robertson Davies.

You've named the biggies, but I would like to add Margaret Laurence. She had quite an esteemed career. Pierre Berton was also a major author, writing a number of historical books. And Farley Mowat passed away just last year.

 

[DarkHelios]

Well, i'm no necrophilliac, so i'll let you off. >D

I saw you on cam4 a few years ago. Based on that, you could probably take me alive.

 

[Taz]

Is poutine good?