Canada - What has happened?
 

On a recent trip to Canada me and my family re-connected with old friends and family. Maybe it's just my friends who live in Canada but I noticed a definite lack of interest in world affairs, an inability to engage in political dialogue (are all Canadians so uninformed about the world around them?)

Is there too much flouride in the water? Are Canadians loathe to express their personal opinions for fear of treading on the 'opinions' of others? Has the liberalism of Canada been accompanied with the fascism of political correctness? to a point where no one actually says anything?

I was disappointed to find that very few Canadians I met were able to engage in conversations that dealt with more than their day to day lives.

obviously this is probably an unfair tarnishing with the same brush, but it was my experience. Has 'tolerance' and 'acceptance' created a population who actually say nothing for fear of offending others? Are canadians that thin skinned?

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

some are very uncomfortable with what they view as confrontation. They are so keen to not offend that you actually dont know what point they are trying to make at times. This can be especially difficult in the workplace. Others are not so like this..... I have met some very direct Canadians too

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

A sweeping generalisation as you point out, but pretty much, yes.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I have always found Canada to to be a bit parochial......you can have world turmoil a boiling and the headline of the local paper will read "cyclist chased by bear" ....I was in Calgary when that happened! Canadians really don't like to upset you in general, so will shie away from topics that might get heated.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Pity they didn't think about that before they elected their last PM. More discussion and debate was required. 'S**t don't stink does not in any apply to Canada and its often up to its neck in corruption.

Your point about the media deflecting the public interest towards base and irrelevant stories is much the same here. We have way more tabloid press than Canada could dream of.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Canadians know about America. Ask them about Disney parks or outlet malls and they'll be able to chat all day.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

You left out Cuba, Mexico and the DR. Other than that, you are very close to the mark. I do know folk who take an interest in the world but they are generally immigrants, mining execs or military. Most cradles have little interest in anything beyond their own community/street/kitchen table. The same is probably true of many parts of the world.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

...including vast tracts of the UK I suspect.

Canada is just like America. There is interest in local news, North American sports and *insert name of vapid reality tv show here*. Understanding or appreciation of the wider world? Not so much.

Received wisdom on this here board is that Canadian politics is boring and not worth concerning onself with. That's true to an extent but recent events with alledgedly crackhead mayors, crooked senators, government denials and general malfeasance have made things a little more interesting of late.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

That hasn't been my experience. While it is true that their configurations of education-influence are mainly focused on local and national concerns, I find that ordinary people while ignorant about other countries are very willing and open to learn. In Canada there seems to be a pathological resistance to anything outside the immediate.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Would it be fairer then to say that Canada is just like rural Nebraska?

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Even in rural areas, I find the yanks far more secure and open people. Here, there seems to be a fear of anything that's not from their immediate family. And, this concept is even more pronounced at a broader cultural level. imo of course. :)

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

The mayor smokes crack. Summer still has not arrived and the Leafs crashed out of the Play Offs spectacularly.

What else is going on in the world?

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

*sticks head in and groans*

Not gonna enjoy it :)

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

One thing I found liberating when we emigrated was the fact that I didn't feel the need to follow UK politics as I didn't live there anymore and as I was a new immigrant to Canada I didn't feel the need to follow Canadian politics either. Maybe your friends are focusing on what really matters - living their lives to the full rather than wasting it talking about boring politics? We spend so much time doing activities as a family out here that I don't have the time or inclination to take an interest in what any politicians have to say. They are all much the same anyway :p My understanding is that the percentage of people that vote in Canada sits at around 60% compared to the UK where less than 20% turn out so maybe it's more of an Expat thing than a Canadian thing as the Canadians I know seem to be more politically astute than the Brits I know.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

How do you know that the Canadians are politically astute if you don't waste your time talking about politics with them?

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Your understanding is skewed.

http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx...t=index&lang=e

http://www.ukpolitical.info/Turnout45.htm

60+% in both countries for general elections.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

My bad :o So there aint a whole lot of difference between the two countries so the Canadians arent politically stunted as implied by some of the posters on here after all then?

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I found your figures for voter turn out disturbing, so I googled. Where did you get your 20%?

UK figures
http://www.ukpolitical.info/Turnout45.htm

Canada

http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx...t=index&lang=e
They look pretty similar to me.

What a shame you don't care enough about your future "as a family" :sick: to be interested in how politics will affect it.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

We hang out with a group of 10 families, 8 of which are Canadian so I hear them talking at times to each other about politics and they seem fairly passionate about it. Just not as passionate as they are about life :D

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

What a shame you care about it enough to think all of your interest in it will make any difference to your life :rofl:

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

If recent political debate in Canada is anything to go by it would appear that, in the centre of the universe, one can allege all one wishes to about some politicians without producing the evidence at the centre of the "debate", or without naming sources, while laughing when those, against whom the allegations are made, state that the media has a vendetta against them.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

That was worthy of Sir Humphrey.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I chuckled at the Globe today, it described an aide to the Mayor as having been a partner in a hashish dealing business. An enterprise that included the Mayor and was headed by his brother. The suggestion was that the aide's career at city hall had advanced unfairly quickly due to this business connection. No mention that drug dealing is technically illegal in Canada and so participation in such a business necessarily implies tax evasion. They're being kind to the Fords, perhaps balancing the Star's crack allegations.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

One of the big reasons we are thinking of moving...

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I've met quite a few Canadians interested in politics here, though many are quite disenfranchised with the system and as such "don't care", which I've seen in the UK also.

As for inward looking, for people that really varies, I think as immigrants we do have a natural advantage in that respect, being able to see things from different perspectives. However, I do think the News here is often very good at comparing things in Canada to other countries in Europe as well as the US - I've seen quite a few reports where they talk about how things are done elsewhere in the world.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Patio season!

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I find Canadians very opinionated. Just takes a little bit of skill to work an angle that draws it out.

Generally if you talk about the french language, immigration or trades unions you'll get no end of experts on the matter.

Talk about the "lack" of Canadian culture (whether you believe it or not) and you'll not be waiting long for a nationalist diatribe, often focused around what isn't American about Canada.

Something as simple as "Why do you spell civilised like an American?" can set people off.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I sort of agree, but there is an inbuilt bias amongst immigrants that what we know and care about is important, and what we don't know or care about isn't.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I couldn't be bothered researching you, have you ever lived in Canada or spent any time in North America?

This point is endlessly debated on BE. I'm married to a home-grown Canadian teacher who has two degrees and she's not even allowed to teach her kids about anything on WW2 (read Holocaust etc) unless she gets prior approval from her Principal. The school's focus here are all on North America, with passing reference to European history. Usually related with the same level of intellect as the designers of red telephone boxes found in the average north american theme pub.

There's no BBC and no Radio 4. No Broadsheets. If you grew up with CNN/Fox and to a lesser extent CBC, then your knowledge of the world is restricted to soundbites. The news here makes me vomit with it's lack of information.

So i go elsewhere to read my news. I make sure my world is informed.

But if you didn't know other things were going on in the world, you wouldn't know any better, would you? Hopefully you had educated parents and teachers to help relieve the lack of cultural input. I believe though that Playstations have filled much of this responsibility.

I do meet many educated Canadians every day, but if you're asking them to comment on anything remotely political or historical, then they simply don't have the prior exposure to hold up a conversation. Unless they've traveled extensively outside North America, which most haven't. Their viewpoint will be from a local standpoint nly, as the OP said.

In the workplace the lack of "getting to the point" infuriates me. But people will stick the knife in the back just as easily, make no mistake humans are humans wherever they go.

I lived in the Middle East, it's exactly the same there. You grow up knowing what you know, which is a direct result of what you're exposed to.

I don't think we can really disparage the Canadians for being culturally lacking, the fact that it comes across as ignorance is unfortunate. And after a while it's annoying which is why we all usually take a break back home every so often to check back in to the reality of where we grew up. Or spend time on BE answering posts like this :D.

But really if you had traveled in North America to any degree you would understand this is just how it is here. They'll spend 5 house at a time talking about fishing and BBQs here, if you'll only give them the chance. When i think of the size of land i just got with my new house and for the price i bought it compared to back home - i'm happy to tune into Radio 4 and iPlayer to get my political debate thanks.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I don't agree with this view, I think it is the other way around, Canadians always seem more laid back and at ease than Americans do generally speaking. Americans just seem to talk and talk because they're afraid of quietness. And when I talk to Americans there always seems to be more fear of whatever, crime, government, traffic even. I think they talk and talk to ease their nerves. There always has to be some big bad evil that has to be overcome, govt mismanagement, the Soviet Union, terrorism etc.

Americans are more sociable generally speaking, I will say that though.

Examples I can think of are going for a walk - Americans always say hello when they walk past you, Canadians generally don't. Go to the supermarket, you can strike up a conversation with an American, much harder with a Canadian. Being on an airplane - on an American flight I can barely think because everyone is yapping to each other, I've been on Canadian flights where you could hear a pin drop. I can always spot the Americans on Canadian flights because they're yapping on and on, when I get to customs I always look to see what passport they're holding to see if I was right and I always have been so far.

Canada does have a lower birthrate than the US. My theory is that being trapped in the basement all winter watching hockey kills social skills among Canadians.

As for the world view of Canadians, okay it can be quite poor but I've met plenty of people in plenty of countries who are like that, at least in Canada the CRTC mandates a lot of news coverage so Canadians seem to be better informed by and large than Americans.

I remember years ago an American saying to me that the security threads they'd started putting in the money were a way of the government monitoring his movements, I can't imagine ever hearing a Canadian say that. Although better access to healthcare is probably the reason.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

QED

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I don't agree with that one either, CBC Radio 1 is pretty informative imx. And if you have cable or satellite there is BBC World News on there.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I access BBC World News, it's on right now in front of me. It's a repeat cycle with HardTalk thrown in every 3 hours or so. I NEED it, but it's not the full BBC nor do i expect it.

As for CBC Radio1, never listened to it as i'm not much interested in anything they've said the few times i've listened, for the reasons already stated. May have been bad timing.

Point is you can get anything you want from the UK if you want it:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...on/media-hint/

But that wasn't the point of the thread, which was querying why people here can't hold a conversation. They simply haven't had the diversity we're used to. From sectarianism (from early school years), to football, to politics etc etc ...the UK is a mismash of thousands of years worth of history which Canadians or Americans will never be educated or understand on unless they have parents from Europe.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Which, according to the mores of British Expats, makes you ideally qualified to pontificate about its content.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

...not sure of the relevance of your comment. The answers i've given here and elsewhere are always based on only my experience and are backed up with objective commentary. This means you should try the same - i.e. watch your mouth - and provide something useful for the other person to learn from, which you haven't as yet. I've also been a member of this forum since 2007 and comment only where I might have something interesting to say - as opposed to spending my day on here bating other people with thousands of posts.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I don't agree. The topics are usually inane and then their accents gets so on your tits that's hard to listen.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Then I submit, you have missed the whole raison d'etre for BE's existence.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Indeed.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

You are rather missing the point. I made the comment earlier that, as immigrants, we have a bias towards thinking what we know is more important than what we don't know. You illustrated this perfectly with your subsequent post by complaining that Canadians are "culturally lacking" because the news channels that you watch and listen to don't report the news that you want to hear.

And fine, it is your opinion from your perspective. However, the fact is that CBC radio 1 does exist and does a Radio 4 (ish) type of job of providing intelligent comment and informed insight on domestic and foreign current affairs.

Everyone has opinions, and everyone is entitled to them. That said, to be informed and objective they have to be based on all the relevant facts - not just the ones you happen to know about.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

What on earth are you talking about. You're taking one single line out of my whole post about CBC radio and then insisting i'm being typically UK arrogant/ ignorant and not having done my homework.. If you actually understood my whole post, my point was that a balanced viewpoint of the offerings available is what is required to be successful in Canada (and understanding the differences). By picking me up on one line you are in fact going in completely the opposite direction. In fact your understanding of what I have said is so completely out of kilter, that i'm going to refer the OP person to my previous replies and apologize for those around me not paying attention.

#readbeforereplying