hereandthere

Not down your local suburb no. It's as absurd as someone saying I'm not moving to Canada because of the bears. Which by the way kill loads more people every year than spiders, snakes and sharks put together in Aus.

G77

Mate of mine lives in a Sydney suburb, he's found redbacks and funnel webs in his garden so far....

Not seen many bears in my garden yet - though others on here have.

hereandthere

Natch, one expects such a response, and now I reply with how I saw a bear walking through a Canadian suburb on TV once.

The bottom line you are not going to come into contact with these things unless you're on their turf, or very unlucky. Bears kill more people in Canada than sharks do in Australia, yet the shark holds more fear for people because it is scary whereas bears also come made of polyster and live in the ends of beds all round the world.

None of these prejudices (death by spider, pom-bashing, savaged by bear) should be used as a reason not to move to Aus or Can - that's all I'm saying, yet people really do say it.

G77

Those things wouldn't put me off - the main thing for me now is the Ozzies I've dealt with at work or run into here have been the most self righteous, pompous, pedantic, irritating idiots I've ever had the misfortune to deal with.

Not to say that all are like that of course, but has been enough to put me off!

Edo

You people have started comparing the weather and animals in Canada/Aus, but I'm not sure if those two are even of any concern to the OP in deciding where to emigrate to!

R I C H

H&T, I think you must mix in very polite society - Aussies enjoy ribbing Poms, and expect some level of defence of your home land. Stand up for yourself and the ribbing stops. It's just their competitive nature and maybe a degree of wanting to prove their independence and success without needing the support of the Commonwealth mother-ship. It's not necessarily vindictive or nasty, just a little test of character.

Conversely, as G77 indicates, ethnicity, background, race or whatever appears to be far less of an issue or discussion point here that invokes much degree of banter or ribbing. Perhaps it's the comparative lack of direct sporting rivalries between the UK and Canada, compared to Australia.

Budgie1

Given pretty much all of Australian 'ribbing' of others (including themselves) revolves around sporting results I'd have thought anyone from the UK would be pretty safe just at the moment given this year's Ashes results!

hereandthere

I don't kow how you can make the statement that ethnicity is less of an issue in Canada. You are happy to say that it's fine in middle class Australia but probably a problem in terms of the lower orders, so to speak, but are unable to make this generalisation with Canada, which I find odd. In my street alone there are British, NZs, two Canadian families, Filippinos and Greeks and everyone gets along just fine. No one has had "defend" anything outside of the most consciously harmless jokes about the appaling British weather and the cricket (whihc I happen to agree with).

I have said it so many times, and here it goes again. There is no such thing as an Australian or Greek or Black or White person. There are just people - and they come in two kinds - decent and arseholes - wherever you are on the planet.

iaink

I think you are willfully missing the point that the sporting clashes between Aus and England at cricket, rugby, footy etc fuel the more bombastic element.

Canada rarely if ever plays british teams at anything (Curling?), so there is no fuel for the fire.

Yes, we get the occasional mild comment about accents, weather, etc, but there is never anything to focus the comments, unlike say the ashes or a series of rugby tests.

hereandthere

I think maybe those that do not live in Australia have a rather prejudiced view of what goes on, I guess. I watched a lot of the coverage of the recent Ashes and there was mututal respect and a lot of the kind of light-hearted jokes you get between brothers. Like I said, I can't speak for the trash element of society, but my own view is that this level is a nasty inward-looking racist nightmare wherever you are in the world.

Upon hearing my accent all I ever get is interest in where I am from, usually followed by lots of information about how they went to Northampton once and have an Aunt in Kent. There will be people who have been given a very nasty time for being English, but this wasn't done by Australians, it was done by racists.

I have noticed that many English people have a real prejudiced view of Australians, and I believe they are deeply insecure when it comes to Australians for some bizarre reason - may sporting prowess, etc. Actually spend time here and yourealise it's all nonsense.

brizzle

I concur. For example look how many young ozzies go to the UK for the OE/working holiday. I don't have exact figures to hand, but it's way more proportionally than Canada. Also, I would imagine that more ozzies have UK ancestry than Canadian's, as a lot of people here are descended from E. Europe i.e. Ukrainians.

Alan2005

Aussies (and Kiwi's for that matter) are just more fun than Canadians. Though this maybe because my experience is based on ex-pat aussies and stay-at-home canadians, so it may have nothing to do with their nationality.

dollface

would that be ex-pat stay at home Canadians or just plain old stay at home Canadians?

Alan2005

I mean maybe ex-pats have a different outlook to non-ex-pats. non-ex-pats is what I meant... honest.

dollface

Yes, I have to agree with you..........damn it!