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

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Really? I think Mr. Ford is a fool; I also accept the electorate gets the politicians it deserves.

I do find the amount of coverage this episode is getting without any real evidence bizarre. I can't see how he can prove a negative; I can see how his accusers could prove the positive. One wonders what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot; actually, we all know the answer to that, it's just easier to ignore it.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

Great post, OP.

I think as JonBoy said, their is a bias going on, and that many of topics Brits may find as important or interesting are not the same as those Canadians find Interesting, and vice versa! It's a difference in cultural emphasis. Perhaps a parallel can be drawn with France, where Brits (not all of us) generally find the French to philosophical and the French find Brits not philosophical enough.

With respect to history, there's a big question about what and how much needs to be learned in a new country. History contains a lot of baggage, if you're in Europe you need to be informed on that baggage, but if you're in North America much of it is irrelevant. It may even be a hindrance (look at the recent Swedish riots issue). While plenty of people on here bang on about European history, how much do they know about Asian history which is arguably as important in this century.

However, there is something to the charge that Canadians are reluctant to debate opinions. There generally seems to be far fewer people into debate than in Europe (generally being the key word) but they do exist. Especially if the topic is of interest. IME First Nations topics usually elicit some interest!

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

I'm quite thrilled to see someone told to watch their mouth. It's my first time.:o

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

OK, let's try this another way. (And let's put the quality of the journalism aside for the moment - this is just an example.)

The newspapers in Britain report cricket results. They don't report baseball.

The newspapers in Canada report baseball results. They don't report cricket.

For a Brit who has just arrived in Canada, and who loves cricket, the English newspaper will be the best newspaper as it gives him the news he wants to read. However, being a sports fan, he will gradually start to take an interest in North American sports - if for no other reason than that is all there is to watch. After a while he will see that baseball is a bit more than grown men playing rounders. Maybe he will go and see a few games. After all, it is a great excuse to sit in the sun for a few hours drinking beer. Maybe he will start to follow some local players, even follow a team. Before long, he will need to read a Canadian paper to check on his team’s statistics and the results of rivals.

He might still enjoy reading the cricket reports in a British newspaper every now and again. He has probably never seen the current players hit a ball in anger so is less involved, but it still conjures up wistful memories of Boycott grinding out a dour century under a forbidding Headingly sky. However, he needs the baseball results so he buys a Canadian newspaper. It is the best one for him now.

To labour the point to death, the British paper was best, now the Canadian one is. The papers haven’t changed – just his perspective. stuabroad's comments seemed to me like a Canadian in Glasgow telling other Canadians that the Scots are dumb because they don’t understand baseball.

I wasn’t intending to have a go at stuabroad in particular – it was just that his post came straight after mine. He is not alone – in fact his way of thinking is very common on here. But, I think it is useful in the immigration process to understand that it is impossible to make objective value judgements. Any judgement you make will be from your own perspective, and that perspective comes with all sorts of biases based on your life experience to date (mostly in the UK.) You can’t say X or Y is good or bad in Canada (or anywhere). All you can say is that X or Y is good or bad in Canada from your perspective. And, with time and more knowledge that perspective will change.

Re: Canada - What has happened?
 

In 5 years, its the first time i felt like saying it.