Where the hell does the "gentle" Canadian stereotype come from?

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sizzle949

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For anyone who watches King of the Hill, the new episode yesterday had a Canadian family come down to live in their neighbourhood for a while. For some reason, they were portrayed as gentle, if not passive-aggressive, who refused to talk in a tone (with their stereotypical accent) any higher than a mother would when talking reassuringly to their kid after they cut their knee while playing. I'm sure we have all seen one show or another in which Canadians are seen as these almost pansy-like figures As a Canadian who has lived all around Canada, I've yet to truly find a city in which the majority people there weren't either A) Quite rude, usually being the bigger cities or almost all of Quebec, or B) Rednecks who have drunken bonfires every other night or drunken bar fights over a hockey game for the rest. Even when we examine history, Canadians were seen as elite soldiers up until after World War 2 (the Americans have this tendency to make every other country in both World War's sound obsolete, so it's understandable to have no idea about Canada's involvement). The same can kind of be said towards Americans being seen as these selfish, egotistical dicks, but all the Americans I know are insanely nice and polite people (which is funny because I made a point earlier about Americans being egotistical). I can kind of understand how that stereotype comes from American Foreign Policy over the past 50 some years, but I can't wrap my head around this idea of Canadians as overly nice.
 

RebelRising

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Beyond the idea that Canada is much more diplomatically attuned than the U.S., and statistically seems like a safer, cleaner place to live, I can't help you out there.

Though if it's any consolation, I live in America, and there's fair number of unpleasant people. They're just misconceptions borne of a generality that may be based on fact or not.
 

ThrobbingEgo

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Are you kidding? When we bump into inanimate objects we apologize. I've seen it happen. I've done it. We're pathologically polite.

Anyway, there are unpleasant people everywhere - and they always leave the stronger impression.
 

SenorFuzzeh

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I thought all canadians were polite? maybe your just a defect. Ive never met a candian thats not friendly
 

CuddlyCombine

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ThrobbingEgo said:
Are you kidding? When we bump into inanimate objects we apologize. I've seen it happen. I've done it. We're pathologically polite.

Anyway, there are unpleasant people everywhere - and they always leave the stronger impression.
This.

I know what you mean, though. There are a lot of stupid, aggressive Canucks. However, we've got hordes of intelligent, polite ones to compensate for this. America, meanwhile, has FOX News as a mouthpiece. See?

SenorFuzzeh said:
I thought all canadians were polite? maybe your just a defect. Ive never met a candian thats not friendly
Drive to Alberta with Albertan plates. Now, drive in front of someone. Follow the speed limit.

Oh, and it would be a good idea to update your will before you do this.
 

Sporky111

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For about 50 years, Canada has made peacekeeping one of its national interests. The majority of people see peacekeepers as "hippies", for lack of a better word. It is understandable that people would judge us by our foreign policy, even if that view is misguided (similar to the American stereotype you mentioned). Apparently, old habits die hard, because the world's view of Canada has been relatively unaltered by Canada's role in Afghanistan.

CuddlyCombine said:
SenorFuzzeh said:
I thought all canadians were polite? maybe your just a defect. Ive never met a candian thats not friendly
Drive to Alberta with Albertan plates. Now, drive in front of someone. Follow the speed limit.

Oh, and it would be a good idea to update your will before you do this.
Hmm, Alberta may have some of the worst drivers in the country (I have lived in Alberta for 5 years, I've seen my share of bad driving), but I don't think the road rage is normal. You might have just seen a particularly bad (possibly intoxicated) individual.
 

Danman1

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Don't worry, I still think Canadians are evil, if that makes you feel better.
 

SenorFuzzeh

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SenorFuzzeh said:
I thought all canadians were polite? maybe your just a defect. Ive never met a candian thats not friendly
Drive to Alberta with Albertan plates. Now, drive in front of someone. Follow the speed limit.

Oh, and it would be a good idea to update your will before you do this.[/quote]

At the moment i have no car, nor do i have a will written yet. So I think i'll just take your word for it, rather than go get killed by a candian.

Id like for the frist time i met a not happy candian, to not be the day i die.
 

ThrobbingEgo

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SniperWolf427 said:
Hmm, he put the word hell in the title of this thread.

This guy must be the renegade Canadian.
"Sir, we located the renegade Canadian."
"Take him out."
 

Zildjin81

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Whenever I think I think about Canada I start to think to think about the country that borders its northern border and then I remember that that's not a real place.
 

ThrobbingEgo

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Glefistus said:
I like to think we Edmontonians are a little more civilized than the rest of North America... then I go to the north side...
Yeah, but Edmonton doesn't technically count as civilization.
odubya23 said:
I feel for this guy's thread. The only contact I've had with Canada is the purported Canadians on this site, an they seem to be some viscious, uptight folk indeed. Maybe they just say they're from Canada because they're more embarrased to be from somewhere else. I'm not sure where, but their venom has a distinctly United States flavor.
You say, "tomato," I say "tomato." We just pronounce it differently, eh?
 

CuddlyCombine

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SenorFuzzeh said:
At the moment i have no car, nor do i have a will written yet. So I think i'll just take your word for it, rather than go get killed by a candian.

Id like for the frist time i met a not happy candian, to not be the day i die.
Good decision. Alberta is Canada's Italy when it comes to driving.

Oh, and there are plenty of Canadians who aren't the stereotype of happy. I know that I for one am cynical to the marrow. I'm still happy, of course.

ThrobbingEgo said:
I'm from Toronto. What'd you expect? Toronto is the center of the world to us.
Well, get the Post or the Globe. Or Winnipeg Free Press, even. :D