I found this following article to be an interesting look at Canadians in the eyes of Americans. Maybe we are cool

IT'* NOT JUST THE WEATHER THAT'* COOLER IN CANADA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 30, 2003
2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.

You live next door to a clean-cut, quiet guy. He never plays loud music or throws raucous parties. He doesn't gossip over the fence, just smiles politely and offers you some tomatoes.

His lawn is cared-for, his house is neat as a pin and you get
the feeling he doesn't always lock his front door. He wears
Dockers. You hardly know he'* there. And then one day you
discover that he has pot in his basement, spends his weekends at peace marches and that guy you've seen mowing the yard is his spouse.

Allow me to introduce Canada.

The Canadians are so quiet that you may have forgotten they're up there, but they've been busy doing some surprising things. It'* like discovering that the mice you are dimly aware of inyour attic have been building an espresso machine.

Did you realize, for example, that our reliable little tag-along brother never joined the Coalition of the Willing? Canada wasn't willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in
Iraq. I can only assume American diner menus weren't angrily changed to include "freedom bacon," because nobody here eats the stuff anyway.

And then there'* the wild drug situation: Canadian doctors are authorized to dispense medical marijuana. Parliament is considering legislation that would not exactly legalize
marijuana possession, as you may have heard, but would reduce the penalty for possession of under 15 grams to a fine, like a speeding ticket. This is to allow law enforcement to concentrate resources on traffickers; if your garden is full of
wasps, it'* smarter to go for the nest rather than trying to
swat every individual bug. Or, in the United States, bong.

Now, here'* the part that I, as an American, can't understand.
These poor benighted pinkos are doing everything wrong. They have a drug problem: Marijuana offenses have doubled since 1991. And Canada has strict gun control laws, which means that the criminals must all be heavily armed, the law-abiding
civilians helpless and the government on the verge of a massive confiscation campaign. (The laws have been in place since the '70s, but I'm sure the government will get around to the confiscation eventually.) They don't even have a death penalty!

And yet ... nationally, overall crime in Canada has been
declining since 1991. Violent crimes fell 13 percent in 2002. Of course, there are still crimes committed with guns --brought in from the United States, which has become the major illegal weapons supplier for all of North America -- but my theory is that the surge in pot-smoking has rendered most criminals too relaxed to commit violent crimes. They're
probably more focused on shoplifting boxes of Ho-Hos from convenience stores.

And then there'* the most reckless move of all: Just last month, Canada decided to allow and recognize same-sex marriages. Merciful moose, what can they be thinking? Will
there be married Mounties (they always get their man!)? Dudley Do-Right was sweet on Nell, not Mel! We must be the only ones who really care about families. Not enough to make sure they all have health insurance, of course, but more than those libertines up north.

This sort of behavior is a clear and present danger to all our stereotypes about Canada. It'* supposed to be a cold, wholesome country of polite, beer-drinking hockey players, not founded by freedom-fighters in a bloody revolution but quietly assembled by loyalists and royalists more interested in order and good government than liberty and independence.

But if we are the rugged individualists, why do we spend so much of our time trying to get everyone to march in lockstep? And if Canadians are so reserved and moderate, why are they so progressive about letting people do what they want to?

Canadians are, as a nation, less religious than we are, according to polls. As a result, Canada'* government isn't influenced by large, well-organized religious groups and thus has more in common with those of Scandinavia than those of the United States, or, say, Iran. Canada signed the Kyoto global warming treaty, lets 19-year-olds drink, has more of its population living in urban areas and accepts more immigrants per capita than the United States.

These are all things we've been told will wreck our society. But I guess Canadians are different, because theirs seems oddly sound.

Like teenagers, we fiercely idolize individual freedom but really demand that everyone be the same. But the Canadians seem more adult - - more secure. They aren't afraid of foreigners. They aren't afraid of homosexuality. Most of all, they're not afraid of each other.

I wonder if America will ever be that cool.


Now that for me as a beer lovin, hockey stick swingin, snow shovlin CDN...that was really cool to read

I could never see that happening.

Seth you think that is a good thing or a bad thing?

For America a good thing. The people here are just too stupid to change or accept changes.
It'* a very bad thing for the rest of the world.

So basically Americans have an inability to socially evolve? Not to diss Americans at all, gotta love em, but according to that article its like comparing apples and oranges. CDN vs US social structure is so different.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Canadians are wierd!

Crime rate down? Semi-legal marijuana? Chasing drug dealers instead of casual users not causing any problems? What kind of foolishness is that?

But I do want bitch about that damned metric system!! Why should I have 2 sets of wrenches to work on my American car? Bastards! It'* all your fault!

we need two different sets of wrenches too!
Canadian! represent! --lol
Now i have to go rebuild my skidoo and go back to my iglu

Yeah, i'd like to see a canadian car, let alone one that compares to a certain sport touring sedan made by pontiac for almost 50 years....

Canadians are funny as a **** (JIm Carey, Tom Green others......) I think U just live life day by day, like Mista

http://cdnclassics.chevelles.net
I dont know if this is quiet what you mean (i mean GM makes cars every where) but the chevelles where made in Oshawa Ontario