lgspoke

Joe_Sleepy

No, it doesn't..

Novocastrian

Perhaps that tells us more than you thought?

How many Canadians, or other folk who live here, worry about meeting "potential terrorists" on their travels abroad?

Except of course those Canadians traveling to America.

Alan2005

I think you'll find it does. If they didn't think that people hated them why would they want to hide their citizenship?

bobthedog

No, they do it because they are afraid of their own shadows. They believe everything the govt tells them.

Another difference is that here you have neighbours, in the US everyone outside family is a stranger.

Alan2005

You would seriously posit that as a difference between the US and Canada?

bobthedog

Yes. Canadians tend to question it more, while the US accept it at face value.

stealthninja

Actually it's not a myth, I got to know several Americans in London who had a maple leaf on their backpacks, back in the 80's and 90's. Likely because in general the Brits were not too fond of Americans, whereas Canadians were quite popular.

Alan2005

hahaha,

no really.

hahahaha

kimilseung

Now that is something I would expect an American to say.

Joe_Sleepy

I don't have any axe to grind & I certainly don't have "Let's bash the U.S. agenda"...

The vast majority of U.S. citizens do not travel abroad, or even own passports.. It stands to reason that the tiny percentage that do are likely to be less insular & more aware of the international mood with regards to the U.S....

I believed it was common knowledge that some U.S. travelers sewed (or at least used to sew) maple leaves onto their luggage.. I'll allow that working in Trafalgar Square for a number of years may have exposed me to more U.S. tourists that many..

Googling U.S Tourist + Maple Leaf, it seems the debate is still there. My examples are historic but they still happened nonetheless..

I care little enough as I am neither Canadian nor American.. I can't unknow these people for the sake of someone else's skewed world view..

As for the dig about "Arabic languages" I realise my comment would have been less likely to inflame the Interpedants had I initially written "In various languages employing the Arabic alphabet" but I thought my meaning was clear enough, if not as anal as some would prefer..
Well caught kimilseung, although "Now that is something I would expect an American to say." is an actual example of the very thing you are mistakenly accusing me of..

fledermaus

In the olden days before the USA worried about terrorists the Maple Leaf was worn on backpacks by Canadians who wanted people to know that they were Canadian and not American. If Americans wore it it was because they wanted people to think they were Canadian and so not offer the inflated prices usually offered to Amercians.

In my opinion and experience, no generalisation intended of course.

MarylandNed

I'm surprised you think that "extremely improbable." Those figures have been fairly common knowledge for years. The percentage of Americans with passports is relatively low for a developed country - although it used to be a lot lower.

Joe_Sleepy

http://www.theexpeditioner.com/2010/...-a-passport-2/

dgagitw

You need to be more specific since, as someone has already pointed out, life Vancouver is quite likely to be closer to life in Seattle than it is to, say, life in Halifax NS. The direct comparison I have is Toronto vs. New York and the things I'd pick out are:

1. healthcare - dealing with the US medical insurance industry is a nightmare. Seeing a doctor in Toronto is more or less the same experience as it is in the UK by comparison.
2. Toronto isn't quiet exactly but New York is busier by quite a margin.
3. It snows a lot more in Toronto than New York (although not more than in, say, Minneapolis, I expect).
4. Some, but not all, stuff is more expensive in Toronto.
5. Housing is way cheaper though (e.g. for the price of decent sized apartment in Manhattan you can buy a decent sized house in downtown Toronto). It's still not exactly cheap in an absolute sense though (and is lot pricier than many other American cities from what I can see).
6. There's much less rabid patriotism in Toronto - I suspect this is something that applies more generally across Canada.
7. On the whole there's less seggregation between different races, income groups and so on in Toronto than there is in New York. I'm not saying there isn't any (e.g. take a look at Rosedale) but it's nothing like as stark.
8. Employment conditions on the whole seem to be better in Canada. By that, there's a bit more employee protection, a bit more holiday and less insane working hours.