Americans, do you really think about Canada as a real country, or just cold America?

I think of it as a better country than America and I would move there in a heartbeat.

As a military veteran I can say that Canada is sure thought of as foreign soil when people went AWOL to avoid the draft or war or whatever. I’d say that in many cases people from Texas would like to think of Canada as an extension of American soil so that they can rape and pillage it for oil and free health care. Americans are all too often so American centric/narcissistic that they think of everything as something that belongs to them or that they have the right to take and control when they see fit.

I know only a few things about Canadians.
Their soldiers are well trained, brave, and committed to their mission and I would trust them implicitly.

They are doing their best, as are Americans, to deal with questions of “social justice”

Curiously, they use metal coins as units of exchange for one and two dollar values, which creates a lot of weight in the pocket, plus they publish a national paper, the Globe and Mail, which I think is sort of a left wing rag.

Those short comings aside, I am a devoted Canada-phile.

When I think of Canada, I think of it as a real country. I just don’t think of it very often.

To me it’s like a magic wonderland or something but I’ve never actually been there. It just feels like that, y’ know?

So yea I think it’s a real country, that’s what makes it feel like that.

I never think about Canada!

Actually, I am joking. I spent many a cold period on Ellesmere Island in academic pursuit of Canis lupus artos.

Not the only thing Ellesmere Island is famous for though I doubt many have even heard of this island.

Make that arctos!!

When will I ever learn to hunt and peck properly?

As a North American, of course I have heard of Ellesmere Island, the world’s tenth largest (and least populated, I believe). I even think of Canada as a nation apart from the United States (and held well apart by a certain national pride on both sides).

I even speak a little Canadian, eh.

@CWOTUS

Then you must know what it is recently famous for, the island that is.

I think of Canada as a real and separate country from the US. When I lived in MI it seemed like they didn’t feel that way at all. I remember when I was in college in MI the stores didn’t care if you used Canadian coins, and the Canadian dollar was worth only around 75¢. Made no sense to me. Literally a bank once gave me three Canadian quarters in a roll. I tried to return them and they wouldn’t take them, WTH?

My family loves Canada, the cities are really nice. Food tends to be delicious. People are friendly. Most of the country is too cold in the winter for me though.

I definitely don’t feel like it is Canada, America, and the rest of the world.

My daughter, a US citizen from the NE, has been living in Squamish, BC.for several years and in Vancouver before that.

Her adventures and challenges with life in BC have been interesting and certainly delineated in ways that show the differences between her life here and there.

When she had been ill, she learned about the health care system; when she tried to get a job, she learned about how difficult that is for a non-citizen; when she wanted to take graduate-level courses, she was also surprised to discover that the local college never heard of Brown University and wasn’t very interested in learning much about it.

She did comment that, by and large, everyone speaks the same language, sort of.

Canada does have great strip-clubs. I went to Vancouver for my 19th b-day.

It’s America’s hat :)

When I went there, I didn’t really feel like I was in that different of a country, aside from the signs in kilometers and the weird money. Other than that, it’s a good place, but the weather’s not really my favorite :)

People fantasize about Canada because we’ve portrayed it as the promised land of healthcare and marijuana, and nice people.

I don’t know if its completely true, but if it is why wouldn’t be jealous?

Why wouldn’t anyone think of it as a separate country? I guess when I was younger I kind of thought of it as an extension of England with French and Canadian natives all mixed in.
Alaska, however, always felt like a Canadian and American love child.

A cold America? like Australia is a hot England?

I view Canada as a totally and absolutely separate country from the U.S.A.

I’m proud to be a citizen of the U.S.A. and I love it here. Canada is an OK place for brief visits but I always am glad to leave it. I’ve been treated rudely more than just a couple of times by Canadians and who needs that. I prefer to not be associated with Canadians in any way,

Also:
People who live in any country in South America are Americans. People who live in North American countries are also Americans. People who live in the U.S.A should not have a claim on the term “Americans” but somehow we do.

I so wish I were Canadian so I could apologize for something.

It’s a separate country.

I think of it as a separate country, yeah. It’s kind of weird how few people they have for it’s size, though. I really envy that. My part of the US is way overpopulated.

I really think people usually say Canada isn’t “foreign soil” because there isn’t a body of water to cross. Latin America is different because since they speak another language it feels “foreign.” Except for Belize of course. Also, back in the day you used to be able to cross with just your driver’s license, so not needing a passport made it feel like not really a different country. A few years ago when I crossed the border by bus from QC into VT it was one of the strictist immigrations I have ever been through. We only had about 15 people on the bus and 3 were pulled in for further questioning. I have never seen such a thing. They were all allowed back on the bus.

@gondwanalon An old Q of mine that you might want to add your two cents if you aren’t on it already. It asks about people from the US using the term Americans and what about everyone else from the Americas. My SIL married an Italian and they called her the American and she is Mexican.

I’ve always thought of “foreign soil” meaning another continent, which Canada of course is certainly not, but I do think of it as a separate though closely allied country to the U.S.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room So, by your definition is Mexico foreign soil? What about the rest of Latin America? I assume you don’t consider a Canadian to be a foreigner?

More like “Sane America”

@JLeslie, thanks for your question. Actually, I was focused on how I feel about Canada (whose residents I merely think of as Canadians) rather than on Mexico or Latin America.

While the word “foreigner” literally means “a person born in or coming from a country other than one’s own,” I feel it has come to have a negative connotation and I avoid using it.

No point in looking for logic in my comment on this question. Rather than logical definitions or labels, I’m simply expressing feelings I’ve gown up.

I’m pretty sure Santa is Canadian and that he hangs out in Montreal in the off-season to get some good weather.

Seriously, yes I think Canada is a separate country. One which the US could learn a lot from. I’m glad we don’t get their winters though. That sounds like pure misery to me. I visited Cleveland once during a cold blast (below 0F) and had the snot freezing inside my sinus cavity every time I inhaled. Fuck that!

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room So, is Mexico foreign soil? I don’t really understand your answer. I accept that you are using terms you grew up with, and it doesn’t have to be logical, but you said same continent, and Mexico is the same continent. My only point is, really I don’t think the reason is just the continent, it’s the same continent and the people look similar and speak the same language (with the exception of QC) and maybe also that Canada and the US were industrialized and “South of the Border” was the third world. But, it also makes sense to me that the specific term “foreign soil” might mean a different continent, I never thought of it that way so I found it interesting, I wasn’t trying to challenge your answer. We won’t even get into that some countries count North, Central, and South America as one Continent, since America doesn’t.

Great question. Would comment more, but I have a busted up shoulder, making it difficult to type.

^^^. (Ask your buddies (eight paws in total) to take over, if you can rouse them.)

Canada is a beautiful, distinct country populated by some very nice people. I’d move there, in a heartbeat, if it weren’t so darn cold.

Canada is what the U.S. might become if it every grows up and stops behaving like such a spoiled brat.

I definitely think of it as a separate country, but think it wouldn’t feel ‘foreign’ because of the similarities. It’s the country at the top of my list, should I ever move out of the US.

Seperate for sure. We have moved across the Canada border with our people, same here so we’re friendly neighbors.

It’s definitely a different country, but under Harper has been getting more similar to the U.S. all the time, in all the worst ways. ...Especially the corporatist leanings and support for the rapacious tar sands operations, and more recently suggestions to privatize portions of their very successful health-care system.