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CANEHJAN,
EH?
Version
française, cliquez ici
This article
will be a brief (but, in deference to Canadian principles,
bilingual) rehashing of a Forum thread from last April: the
"Who Are We?" questionnaire. By the time fifty participants
had responded, I was curious about the declared nationalities
and went through the thread. Results:
27.5
Americans
7.5 Canadians
3 others (1 Brazilian, 1 German, 1 Italian)
12 undetermined
(the halves
are because one respondent moved from the States to Canada,
so I relentlessly divided him)
That makes,
out of a total of 35 North Americans,
78.6%
US
21.4% CDN
Well,
since the population of Canada is about 11% of that of the
US, I was amazed by the large proportion of Canadians. "Dammit!
Why amazed?" our Canadian participants may ask. "We’re a kewl,
with-it bunch, eh? It’s no surprise we show good taste, eh?"
That could be it. Or maybe when it comes to declaring themselves,
Canadians just don’t have cold feet (which is an accomplishment
in itself up there).
OK, Northern
friends, don’t get into a kerfuffle! A recent disgraceful
event in the Users’ Gallery has spurred me to try to restore
good feelings by saying some nice things about Canada. It’s
not hard to find some. A recent study by an international
organization found that Canadian was the best nationality
to be, in that Canadians live longer and enjoy better health
than their neighbors to the south, and indeed, than the rest
of the world, except Japan. Canada, having less economic and
military clout, has never felt the urge to be the world’s
policeman, and has thus avoided the epithet of bully that
is often applied to the US.*
Canada
is, of course, not a problem-free utopia. One of her particular
problems, for example, is the bilingual conflict. But I want
to be positive here. And what could be more positive that
a picture of Canada’s greatest gift to big-breast fans?
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Canadian
welcome, Anglo style
Cliquez-moi pour la
version française
*This
is not to say that Canadians won’t fight: in both world wars
they were in from the beginning. Canadian troops were the
first to be gassed (Ypres,1915). (Canadians still often get
gassed, but with a substance of their own choosing.)
btw
my title is based on a book by Mark Orkin,Canajan,
Eh?
I have respelled it to make it phonetically more obvious,
especially to us More Cans -- the guys living down below --
no, not Down Under, not that far, down in the Nighted States
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