Ask Me Anything about Canada, anything at all

[T'Chenka]

I clicked on a Youtube video where an American didn't know anything about bagged milk, and it got me thinking. Americans (and others) probably have small, unimportant questions about Canada from time to time, that aren't really important or worth looking into that much, but they're curious nonetheless.

ASK ME ANYTHING about Canada... how things work, bagged milk, taxes, mounties, speed limits, what products and comanies we DO share and which we don't, politics... ask me whatever you want to ask and I will try to answer.

[brucejoel99]

What's your favorite Canadian burger joint?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

how would you describe the overall middle class identity of the 905?

[T'Chenka]

What's your favorite Canadian burger joint?

Harvey's, if we're strictly talking about the actual burgers. HIGHLY recommended. One problem I have, and I imagine many Canadians have, is that we don't necessarily know which companies that we have here are also in America. I actually had to google Harvey's just now to see if it was Canadian or one of the many American companies that we also have here.

Within my city, there are approximately 5 McDonalds, 2 Burger Kings, 3 Wendy's, 1 Arby's, one Five Guys which is new, 3 A&Ws, two Harvey's, and a few local burger joints that don't have multiple locations.

[T'Chenka]

how would you describe the overall middle class identity of the 905?

Hmm. That's kind of hard I guess as I don't know which features are the same as a lot of American middle class identities and which features are different.

Could you do me a favour and write a description of the middle class identity where you live, OR write a description of how you imagine the 905 middle class identity is? If I have something to work with as a starting point, I can tell you what is 100% true/identical, somewhat true/identical or totally different.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

how would you describe the overall middle class identity of the 905?

Hmm. That's kind of hard I guess as I don't know which features are the same as a lot of American middle class identities and which features are different.

Could you do me a favour and write a description of the middle class identity where you live, OR write a description of how you imagine the 905 middle class identity is? If I have something to work with as a starting point, I can tell you what is 100% true/identical, somewhat true/identical or totally different.

I am a resident of Collin County in the DFW Metro. Basically we have a very "single family home" sort of culture, which is also really common in Canada too (where you have anti-apartment sentiments even codified vigorously in the law - you can't build apartments in most of Toronto's zoned residential land).
Like most people in the suburbs we live in a house on a lot and with a yard and driveway and that sort of thing. I guess the biggest difference between my section of suburbia and the 905 is that while both have a visible Asian presence, its much more significant in case of the 905, where some suburbs are dominated by Chinese people and Brampton is even nicknamed "Browntown". Meanwhile DFW Metro is essentially center-right suburbia, with class voting and all that. And most people are, by a massive margin, white.
The "keeping up with the Joneses" sort of culture, manicured lawns and desire to have good appearances are probably very similar in both. If you had to make parallels, I guess the Dallas County line is the closest thing you have to a 905-416 dividing line in my home metro.

[dead0man]

how do you pronounce Nunavut?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

how do you pronounce Nunavut?

I assume most Canadians would say Nun-a-vut (like what except you say a v instead of a W). But TCheka is welcome to correct me on this if this is incorrect.

[Del Tachi]

Is bagged milk really a Canadian thing or just a weird Ontario thing?  My friends in BC say there's no bagged milk to be found over there

Also:  what do you consider the main cultural differences (if any) between Canada and the U.S.?

[T'Chenka]

how do you pronounce Nunavut?

"Nun" - say "mundane", change the first letter to N so "nundane", then remove "dane". It sounds almost the same as the word "none", or exactly the same in some sort of UK accent.

"A" the word "A" said normally/soft version like the beginning of "assault"

"Vut" - rhymes with the words "foot" "soot" "and "put"


EDIT - some people (incorrectly?) say NOON a vut, but I never heard VOOT, it's always vut.

[T'Chenka]

how would you describe the overall middle class identity of the 905?

Hmm. That's kind of hard I guess as I don't know which features are the same as a lot of American middle class identities and which features are different.

Could you do me a favour and write a description of the middle class identity where you live, OR write a description of how you imagine the 905 middle class identity is? If I have something to work with as a starting point, I can tell you what is 100% true/identical, somewhat true/identical or totally different.

I am a resident of Collin County in the DFW Metro. Basically we have a very "single family home" sort of culture, which is also really common in Canada too (where you have anti-apartment sentiments even codified vigorously in the law - you can't build apartments in most of Toronto's zoned residential land).
Like most people in the suburbs we live in a house on a lot and with a yard and driveway and that sort of thing. I guess the biggest difference between my section of suburbia and the 905 is that while both have a visible Asian presence, its much more significant in case of the 905, where some suburbs are dominated by Chinese people and Brampton is even nicknamed "Browntown". Meanwhile DFW Metro is essentially center-right suburbia, with class voting and all that. And most people are, by a massive margin, white.
The "keeping up with the Joneses" sort of culture, manicured lawns and desire to have good appearances are probably very similar in both. If you had to make parallels, I guess the Dallas County line is the closest thing you have to a 905-416 dividing line in my home metro.

Hmmm...

We don't mind apartments spread out here and there in my locality, except when it's many apartments all in one area or if they block a great view from everybody else (Niagara Escaroment, Lake Ontario, etc etc)

Housing is EXTREMELY expensive now, so there are lots of small apartment buildings with only 3 or 5 floors scattered all over. When Dubya got re-elected, a modest house cost under $250K. They now go for $600K. People kind of understand that renters are part of the community, they just have to be in these housing markets.

The ethnic makeup here is around 50ish percent white, with lots of South Asians. You are more likely to encounter an East Asian / South East Asian / Filipino person than a black person. You are more likely to encounter a spanish person (Iberian, Central/South American, Cuban) than a black person. Black are everywhere urban and suburban like America, but in smaller numbers. Where I live, the Chinese presence is small but not invisible. The keeping up wirh the joneses thing is probably true, though I wouldn't know if it's equal or "milder" here as compared to there.

My friend lives in Etobicoke, which is south western Toronto, and I used to play in a metal band in eastern Mississauga near Etobicoke. There's a different atmosphere there but it's not radically different than the 905. Whites are a minority in the 416 I believe, or at least non-immigrant whites. There are definitely white Euro immigrants here but even more in the 416.

[T'Chenka]

Is bagged milk really a Canadian thing or just a weird Ontario thing?  My friends in BC say there's no bagged milk to be found over there

Also:  what do you consider the main cultural differences (if any) between Canada and the U.S.?

Bagged milk is prominent here but the culture is moving away from it very very slowly. It'll take decades to disappear. The way I understand it, BC and Alberta aren't into bagged milk, but everything east of that is. If I'm wrong about Saskatchewan and Manitoba, then it would be "bagged milk is a thing from ONTARIO eastwards".

I used to do bagged milk a lot when I was younger, but not so much anymore. If I had a family I would probably move back to bagged milk.


Our culture is hard to explain. My view is that most people aren't conservatives and we view conservatives as a minority group. The thing though is that of the non-conservative majority, MANY are economic centrists and not leftists. Most non-immigrants are center-left or left on social issues, at least compared to Americans. Most people like our laws on healthcare, guns and gay rights, and don't even view them in left/right contexts.

I think we are a lot more like England / Scotland / Ireland than we are like America actually in terms of politics in our culture, though perhaps a little to the left of them. Maybe California is a better comparison than England? I don't know. It's hard to desvribe I suppose.

Watch Trailer Park Boys if you can. (EDIT - short clip NSFW) It's a brilliant comefy show about the semi-rural lower class in Atlantic Canada. Amazing stuff.

I'd be glad to answer any very specific questions that you have that can give you a more precise feel for our culture.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Whats the best way for me, an American, to visualize bagged milk and the culture surrounding it?

[T'Chenka]

Whats the best way for me, an American, to visualize bagged milk and the culture surrounding it?

Watch the first 25 seconds of this
https://youtu.be/iCgoNwxHjUs

You buy one of those 4L (1 gallon) milk bags that beard guy was smiling at and you also buy a standard-size plastic milk pitcher, which are found in every grocery store for between $3 to $5. You'll see the plastic milk pitcher in a moment. Remove the seal / plastic tab from the 4L bag (which has the Best Before date on it) to open milk bag. Inside are three identical plain looking transparent plastic bags of milk that are each 1.333L (1/3 of a gallon).

This very short next video explains the rest.
https://youtu.be/MJC7ilyFsWY


The "culture"? Hmm. Nobody really talks about bagged milk, it's just "normal" for 25+ year olds. Younger people along with people that live alone tend to not buy the 4L bags of milk. They instead opt for smaller sized paper cartons or plastic jugs, the latter of which are less common up here.

[Illiniwek]

How annoying is it having to deal with all of the French both by French speakers and by the government’s official co-use?

[Del Tachi]

Our culture is hard to explain. My view is that most people aren't conservatives and we view conservatives as a minority group. The thing though is that of the non-conservative majority, MANY are economic centrists and not leftists. Most non-immigrants are center-left or left on social issues, at least compared to Americans. Most people like our laws on healthcare, guns and gay rights, and don't even view them in left/right contexts.

That may be true in Ontario, but folks in Western Canada would have no qualms calling themselves "conservatives" would they?

Also, most of what you describe would seem to be a political difference (i.e., differences in how issues are framed and discussed) rather than a true cultural difference between Canada and the United States.  IMO, the cultural heritage of the U.S. and Canada is the most similar of any two countries in the world.  What say you?

[T'Chenka]

Our culture is hard to explain. My view is that most people aren't conservatives and we view conservatives as a minority group. The thing though is that of the non-conservative majority, MANY are economic centrists and not leftists. Most non-immigrants are center-left or left on social issues, at least compared to Americans. Most people like our laws on healthcare, guns and gay rights, and don't even view them in left/right contexts.

That may be true in Ontario, but folks in Western Canada would have no qualms calling themselves "conservatives" would they?

Also, most of what you describe would seem to be a political difference (i.e., differences in how issues are framed and discussed) rather than a true cultural difference between Canada and the United States.  IMO, the cultural heritage of the U.S. and Canada is the most similar of any two countries in the world.  What say you?

About Western Canada, you're referring to Alberta I think, our second-most western province. Our west coast province British Columbia is much more liberal than Alberta.

This is far from precise, bit a quick overview eould be:

British Columbia = our California
Alberta = our Texas
Ontario = our New York
Montreal = our Europe

In Alberta, yes you are correct that they are more economically conservative, and that they are more comfortable using the label "conservative", but in many casee it's specifically about certain issues and not economic theories and strategies ("supply side" "free trade" etc etc ideologies aren't the driving force). Those mentioned issues are

- pro oil and gas industry
- jobs jobs jobs and keep unemployment low
- lower my taxes since Trudeau spends them out east
- lower my taxes since Trudeau wastes them with bad spending

Now, on the cultural differemces, you might be right but maybe not. I feel like maybe Germany/Austria or England/Scotland or Australia/New Zealand or 2 South American countries might br more identical. The reason I mention the politics so much is that it has a deep effect on the collective community psyche IMO. We literally think differently in our respective communities due to the political differences.

But yes I must begrudgingly confess that the cultures are quite sinilarn

[T'Chenka]

How annoying is it having to deal with all of the French both by French speakers and by the government’s official co-use?

Not very annoying, except for political speeches and debates. I'm a person that is very "pro" multicultural multilingual, so I actually like it and prefer it.

The french speakers are very localized to the Quebec province and are a small minority (below 1%) in the majority of other places. They're perhaps a 5% or 10% minority in a few certain specific non-Quebec areas, none of which are extremely close to Toronto.

[T'Chenka]

Just a few random thoughts I'm throwing out

Why do Americans call it a "candy bar"? It's not candy (sugar treat), it's chocolate. It's a "chocolate bar".

We say "pop" not "soda"

We call Smarties candies Rockets and we have our own things called Smarties which are similar to M&Ms.

Most of us only ever see guns on TV or on the belts of police officers / bank truck security.

[Blue3]

What’s the easiest way to immigrate there

[T'Chenka]

What’s the easiest way to immigrate there

Get a work VISA, come live here, work 30+ hours per week, get promoted into management (even at a low level), apply for permenant residency. From there it's easy to get citizenship if you don't get a criminal record and you are willing to wait a few years.

[T'Chenka]

Is antisemitism a big problem in Canada? Family anecdotes and an odd experience have led me to (probably unfairly) stereotype Canadians as more likely to be antisemitic. Is this just my bad luck?

I wouldn't say "big". It's a "fairly small" problem. 60%-70% of the racism I've seen and heard in Canada is casual joking offensive inappropriate racism, not "real" xenophobic distrust and hatred. I feel this is especially true for anti-semitism. Let me be clear though, I condemn both.

We don't have a lot of jews up here as compared to USA, but we're very multicultural in the Greater Toronto Area and I can't really imagine jews living here deciding that they want to leave due to anti-semetism or find a less anti-semetic country to live in. Your experience was probably a "small sample size" situation.

[RINO Tom]

Given that we were both nations largely founded by English Europeans who came to land already inhabited by Amerindian peoples and later became a home to several other European ethnic groups, do Canadians largely view themselves in a similar "ethnic category" as Americans?  In other words, does saying one is "ethnically Canadian" (rather than having English, German or Irish ancestry, for instance) sound weird and only something someone would say if their family had been there for hundreds of years?

[T'Chenka]

Given that we were both nations largely founded by English Europeans who came to land already inhabited by Amerindian peoples and later became a home to several other European ethnic groups, do Canadians largely view themselves in a similar "ethnic category" as Americans?  In other words, does saying one is "ethnically Canadian" (rather than having English, German or Irish ancestry, for instance) sound weird and only something someone would say if their family had been there for hundreds of years?

White people who go back more than 3 or 4 generations say they are "Canadian", but if you press them they'll say "European ancestry". Due to our multiculturalism and generally lower levels of racism, I feel that this would not be yhe case if we had a slightly bigger indigenous population and we saw them day to day. Many live seperately on reserves, out of sight, out of mind, so whites are emboldened to say they are "Canadian" ancestry in public.

[Frodo]

Do you think Greenland should belong to Canada, more specifically Nunavut Territory?