Every time I gaze across the St. Lawrence from Morrisburg, I realize we share a river with the folks in Waddington, New York, USA, but they are so very different from us.
For example, what comes next after ‘Chipmunk, Beaver, Otter, Caribou and Buffalo? If you’re a real Canadian and an aviation buff, ‘Dash-7’ comes next. (That probably went ‘over your head’, right? Think de Havilland of Canada’s aircraft product line.)
Most Canadians know what happened at Kittyhawk, but Americans don’t have theslightest idea what first took place at Baddeck. By the way, male American tourists are quite disappointed when they get to Bras d’Or. In hope, they drive to see the real ‘Bras d’Or’ at the L’ Islet-sur-Mer museum on the St. Lawrence River, below Quebec.
The Inuit and Yupik and many Canadians know that ‘Sorel’ is not just a city on the St.Lawrence R., but also Canadian autumn-to-spring semi-formal footwear, created by the peoples of the Arctic areas of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia.
Especially in Quebec, in a theatre or cinema, the response to playing of “God Save theKing” is half of the audience stand, the other sits in protest. When “O Canada!” comes on, the opposites take their turns to sit and stand.
In Vancouver and Toronto, the American term ‘dinner’ is used to describe the evening meal. But outside of the two city centres, residents in B.C. and Southern Ontario sway back and forth between the two options, while the rest of Canada prefers the British ‘supper‘.unanimously.
The majority of Western Canada uses ‘cutlery‘ is applied to a set of forks, knives and spoons. Residents of Northern Ontario and Quebec prefer ‘utensils‘, the English version of the French ‘ustensiles‘. This is likely due to the region’s heavy French influence. In much of Canada, the British ‘silverware still reigns supreme.
‘Pop‘ is the dominant Canadian term for the fizzy soda stuff, carbonated soft drinks. Quebecers prefer the term ‘liqueur‘, or ‘liqueur douce‘. Some Manitobans use ‘jugs soda‘ and ‘soft drink’ interchangeably. In Quebec the most frequent term used is ‘soft drink’, but ‘pop’ is understood. For English speakers ‘soft drink’ is the more common and natural-sounding term. Francophone area Quebeckers far prefer the brand name Pepsi to Coke.
When Canadians buy milk, it’s ‘three in one’, a bag of three bags. Americans get theirs in jugs. They don’t have to use bag holders.
We believe we won the War of 1812. The Americans just ignore that fact. In WW I,because of the late arrival of the American Expeditionary Forces in the battlefields of Europe, (June 1917), American soldiers were known as ‘Doughboys’: slow to rise and puffy. DuringWorld War Two, Canucks were on the scene to help almost immediately. It took December 6, 1941 to convince America’s G.I.s to become direct participants.
Until ‘The Donald’ came on the scene, Canadians and Americans were as close as brothers. The 49th parallel was little more than being imaginary, not much of a barrier. But now, we have to explain that Canada is not for sale! We are definitely not interested in becoming number fifty-one.
Crown rule of what is now ‘the United States’ ended on July 4, 1776. Trump’s second term ends on Jan. 20, 2029 – unless he somehow manages to get a crown on his head.
