America and Canada

I live in Canada. I've lived there my entire life, and will most likely remain here the rest of my life. It is a great place to live. It has its flaws, like every other country, sure. But its flaws are greatly outweighed by its virtues, and it's great.

However, there are a few things that really stall my car, if you know what I mean, and I will steer clear from politics and whatnot to keep this article brief.

The typical Canadian is just a biiiiit of a hypocrite. Now, nine times out of ten, I am proud to be a Canadian. I literally bleed red and white (blood cells. Zing!) However, whenever I, say, go to a webpage to read about something Canadian or where something Canadian is mentioned, this is what I see:

LOVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Not-so-subtle and not-so-refined Canadian pride. Which is ironic, because one of the things we pride ourselves on is our unmatched politeness.

Now, this goes to a whole new level whenever someone makes a comparison between Canadians and Americans. And when that happens, brace yourself. You will hear nothing but the War of 1812 (the North American one, not the European one), burning down the White House, superior hockey teams, differences in health care, and blatant name calling. And surprisingly, a LOT of this comes from the "nice" Canadians. There are so many things wrong with this that I don't even know where to start!

The war of 1812 happened two hundred years ago. Canada wasn't even technically a country, and has gone through MANY changes since then, so bringing it up is a little bit redundant.

We have different forms of health care, both with their own advantages and disadvantages. One system prides itself on speed and quality, the other prides itself mainly on being free. 

And really? Name calling? I thought we were above that.

I won't make any mention of Canadian hockey teams, because that is actually one thing that doesn't bother me to see. Go Canada! (Although we've had many close shaves and upsets [I'm looking at you, World Juniors!])

Personally, I was brought up to be polite and considerate. When my family went out for dinner, we kids weren't allowed to have dessert if we didn't say the magic words to the waiter or waitress after placing our order. When people came over and visited, everyone played host, not just Mom and Dad. And when the guests left, we waved from the window until their cars was out of sight. Little things like that. And Heaven forbid if we were ever rude to anyone! We got "the look", which looked a bit like this:

So it's upsetting and confusing to me when I see rude comments over the Internet and in person. Weren't they taught to be polite? I thought it was an inherent thing to be polite if you were Canadian. 

Long story short, we need to regain some of that old Canadian attitude back. I want to be able to see, "yeah, Canadians are so nice and polite!" and actually believe it and see evidence of it. Now I don't want to send the impression that I think all Canadians in general are, well, hypocritical. I'm just stating what I've noticed lately.

Anyway, proud to be Canadian! True North, strong and free!