As a Canadian living in the US, I have to take exception to his remark that Canadian and American cultures are the same. The differences might appear subtle, but I'd say the differences are huge. They just run deeper beneath the superficial similarity. I'm speaking of English Canadians BTW.
I'm an American who has never been to Canada, but I think I get what the author meant. He compared the difference between American and Canadian culture to the differences between states or regions. There is a huge difference between Northern US culture and Southern US culture, East Coast and West Coast, etc. But there are a lot of similarities and those similarities make up "American Culture."
As another former Canada / U.S. transplant I agree there is a difference, but it's less extreme. It's almost intra-national, really.
The 'culture shock' between Toronto, Ontario -> Montgomery, Alabama won't be much different than if you were moving from Los Angeles instead. In contrast, the culture difference between Toronto, Canada -> Cairo, Egypt or Bangkok, Thailand will be pretty danged huge.
Canadians are proud to be Canadian. Traveling around has shown me that people often don't know much about Canada, but they recognize the people are nice. That alone is enough to be proud of.
The whole 'Canada identity crisis' is because Canadians are too concerned with their international appearance and place. We need to just embrace the core identity we already have instead of looking for a new one.
The Olympics was an example of Canada trying too hard on the international scene. The closing ceremonies had this horrid 'comedy' portion designed to show that we don't take ourselves too seriously. That in itself was just trying too hard - you don't need an intentionally lame comedy sketch to show that.
Anyways Daniel - I recommend you travel more. The further I get from Canada the more I realize it is only a few Canadians and Americans that see it as a US vs Canada issue - we already have our own distinct identity.
it is only a few Canadians and Americans that see it as a US vs Canada issue
No Americans see "it" as a "US vs Canada issue" because "it" is an exclusively Canadian concern. What Americans think of Canada is (a) nothing and (b) (when pressed) that big cold-but-friendly blank space at the top of the map. That doesn't stop them from being warm and fuzzy when they find out you're Canadian.
I would amend your statement to say that ignorant Americans believe their country is supreme, because the TV tells them so. Ignorant Canadians receive the same messages, but don't have much to counter them, and thus default to such spite and envy.
I'm a Canadian and I've lived in the USA for years. This has made me acutely aware of how different our cultures really are, and how they both have different virtues.
To someone in Tanzania or Laos do you think they know what that subtle difference is? Face it, you get lumped in with Americans because the overall culture is similar.
I'm an Australian living in a town with a pretty high level of immigrants, including a lot of Americans and Canadians, and I can't tell the difference between an American and a Canadian at all. I'm not entirely convinced the difference between a Canadian and an American would be any bigger than the difference between Texans and Californians, for example.
The difference between a Canadian and an American is about the same as the difference between a Kiwi and an Aussie. Likewise, the difference between a Texan and a Californian is similar to the difference between someone from Geelong and someone from Sydney.
What got me is that his only justification for this (#13) is that our accents are the same. And based on #10 (culture matters) I thought he actually understood what 'culture' meant.
Vive la difference!