What's the difference between a Canadian and an American?

[robkelk]

Q: What's the difference between a Canadian and an American?
A: A Canadian knows the difference between a Canadian and an American.

Yes, that sounds like a joke, but it's serious: Canadians know far more about Americans than Americans know about Canadians.

Here are some things that Canadians believe. We might not always practice them, but we believe them:

• Immigration is a net benefit to society.
  
• A person's biological sex makes no difference to that person's ability to do any job.
  
• A person's biological sex makes no difference to who that person can fall in love with, or marry.
  
• A person's skin colour makes no difference to that person's ability to do any job.
  
• A person's skin colour makes no difference to who that person can fall in love with, or marry.
  
• Religion has no place in politics.
  
• Religion has no place in criminal law.
  
• Historical injustices should be rectified.
  
• What whites did to indigenous peoples is a series of historical injustices.
  
• Since people contribute more to society when they are healthy than when they are sick, health care should be paid for by society.
  
• Socialism is not communism.
  
• "Socialism" is not a dirty word.
  
• Prisons exist for rehabilitation, not for punishment.
  
• Firearms are for hunting, not for self-defence.
  
• Concealed carry of a firearm is something that only criminals do.
  
• People need to be trained and licensed before being allowed to operate a car unsupervised, just like they need to be trained and licensed before being allowed to operate a firearm unsupervised.
  
• Alcohol is no worse to society than marijuana is.
  
• Political cartoonists shouldn't take sides, they're supposed to skewer everybody equally.
  
• The word "colour" has six letters, and the second-last letter is a "u".
  

Got any more differences?

[robkelk]

The third Monday in February is Family Day, not Presidents' Day.

[Jinx999]

Canadians don't throw a hissy fit if someone in their country doesn't speak English.

[Norgarth]

We can get election results totaled within a week or two.

[robkelk]

Funny how they stopped airing this hugely-popular ad when they were bought out by a US company... but, yeah, it mentions some more differences in the stereotype-busting.

[Norgarth]

similarly, the Royal Canadian Air Farce version of the Rant

[robkelk]

Funny how they stopped airing this hugely-popular ad when they were bought out by a US company... but, yeah, it mentions some more differences in the stereotype-busting.

It's been updated

[robkelk]

Canadians... okay, some Canadians... think that this is funny.

[robkelk]

Expanding the scope slightly... Apparently, there isn't a French phrase like "As American as apple pie", "As English as a game of cricket on the village green", or "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances". The closest they seem to have is "Impossible n’est pas français".

[robkelk]

Canadians have post-secondary education of some sort, to the point where it's seen to be normal to have it.

Only Canada, Japan, Ireland, and South Korea send more than 51% of the population to university, college, or trade school.

(Interestingly, where gender-based data is available, India is the only country where more males than females have some level of post-secondary education. In most countries that keep track, more females than males have some level of post-secondary education.)

[robkelk]

Canadians have post-secondary education of some sort, to the point where it's seen to be normal to have it.

A probably-related point: Canadian freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors are university students, or maybe college students, but never high-school students.