Replies

As a still-thawing ex-Canadian in Arizona I’ve seen both sides. One faction of my Dad’s family thinks Americans are evil incarnate. The entrepreneurial side of his family loves Americans as their best customers and would line up well with Sarah Palin on conservatism. My Mom wants me to come back to Canada before the SHTF down here.

One faction of my Dad’s family thinks Americans are evil incarnate.

Kinda like our family when it comes to the Brits.We're Boston Irish and one of my Dad's older brothers and one of his older sisters hated the Brits with a passion.My Dad,OTOH, (who was much younger than both of them) liked and admired the Brits.Hating Americans is very chic and very safe.Some folks,I guess,have nothing better to do.

Funny story on the subject...when I was younger I did a lot of overseas traveling,including in other English speaking parts of the world.People in Australia,for example,would always me if I was Canadian when,in fact,I sound more New York than anything.One day I asked a guy who asked me that why he thought I was a Canadian after having told him I was American.He said "well,we have trouble telling the difference down here and it's safer to ask that way because when an American is mistaken for a Canadian he's not at all insulted whereas when some Canadians are mistaken for an American they get rather snippy.

As for thawing out in AZ I can easily understand why half the license plates I see in Florida in January are Canadian but isn't Arizona too big a leap? ;-)

"My Mom wants me to come back to Canada before the SHTF down here."

I'm a US citizen closely related to some Canadians and am watching the economic situation. Sadly, the US is Canada's main customer for Canadian exports and even some of the services.

As you probably know, Canada has also become more service-based during the past few decades. It's a nation that stands to do very well with more of a return to harvesting and exporting resources (oil, metals, lumber, grain products, others) as well as products manufactured from those resources.

Our US economic decline will probably affect Canada terribly, as the last one did. I avoid trying to tell these things to relatives up north, though, because they would probably reject the information (much as many Americans deny it). It's all about getting more into debt and entertainment, eh.