Intersting poll released this morning..

almost a third -30%- of americans think Canada is a state

over half - 56%- of americans pick UK as closest friend and ally, 18% pick Canada..guess we're already in the family...

a few of the results...


Maybe we can join Florida!! I think half of Canada is there this time of year now anyway...

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 07-May-02 AT 10:27 AM (EST)]Hey i don't mind i just wish ya'll could drop some snow down here sometime
























https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/displaythumbnail.php?&photoid=4481&.jpg

 

hey..I think Alberta got some yesterday that they want to get rid of...

and strangely enough..a few shipping containers of snow went out of here this year to somewhere in the south..for some beer party thing I think..

 

>almost a third -30%- of americans think Canada is a state

That's understandable: Canada IS a state (Just not one of the 50 states compising the US of A. Think of the State of Israel; the states of Africa; and in our own hemisphere, the OAS (Organization of American States) the membership of which are the countries in North, Central and South America. A small percentage of the respondents were probably thinking of the word "state" in this manner; a small percentage think it IS one of the 50 States; and the remainder --- well, they think professional wrestling is real! Ooops.

The terms nation, country, state, are thrown around rather loosely.

>over half - 56%- of americans pick UK as closest friend and ally, 18% pick Canada..guess we're already in the family...

That's understandable too. It is generally held that countries (states) do not have friends, they have INTERESTS. Those interests result in allies. When you think of allies, you think of military action. Well, listen to the news from the war fronts: "American and British warplanes attached Iraqi gun positions today" ... "the 'No-fly' zone is patrolled by American and British warplanes" ... "American and British aircraft pounded Taliban positions..." The countries that patrolled the North American skies, like Canada and some of our European allies, get little or no mention. Maybe Canada is our best friend, and UK is our most visible ally. And yes, some thought it is one of the 50 states, and didn't vote for it.

>Maybe we can join Florida!! I think half of Canada is there this time of year now anyway...

Let's do it. I'll have my people call your people.

Raul

 

Hmmm... where is this poll?

 

Good point Raul.I should have said one of the 50 United States

hmmm..Canada is a state..at least I think so..more or less..

...Geez, I'm sounding like a typical Canadian...

 

Ken..you asked.....

WARNING..THIS IS LONG..BUT it has warm fuzzy ending..

and we scored higher than Mexico!!!

and I'm not sure why they used the term "....just another state like Michigan or Oregon" hmmm...why those 2 states..what's unique (or not unique) about them?

..here's the story..straight from today's Globe and MAil.

Americans care little about Canada, poll shows


By GRAEME SMITH
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Almost a third of Americans consider Canada just another state, many mistakenly think Japan and China are their biggest
trading partners and most say Britain is their country's best ally, a new poll shows.

But like hopelessly infatuated teenagers, Canadians remain stubbornly loyal to the Americans who ignore them: 60 per cent of the Canadians surveyed described the United States as Canada's closest friend and ally, while only 18 per cent of U.S.respondents said the same.

Ipsos-Reid conducted the surveys last week on behalf of the Canada Institute of theWoodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

"We've believed for generations that we had a certain romance or closeness, only to find it isn't the case," said John Wright, a senior vice-president at Ipsos-Reid. "This will shock Canadians."

Interviews with 1,000 adult Canadians and 791 adult Americans yielded results that are considered representative of the entire population plus or minus 3.1 percentage points and 3.5 points respectively, 19 times out of 20.

Among the results: When asked whether Canada is a country "like Britain or Japan" or "just another state like Michigan or Oregon," 30 per cent of Americans — particularly those in the south — classified Canada as a 51st state.

While discouraging, that figure is actually better than Canadians expected: 35 percent of people north of the border believed Americans consider Canada a state.

Most Americans failed to correctly name Canada as their country's largest trading partner, with 27 per cent selecting Japan and 25 per cent picking China. Conversely,82 per cent of Canadians identified the United States as Canada's largest trading partner.

Asked to pick their country's "closest friend and ally," 56 per cent of Americans named Britain. Only 18 per cent chose Canada.

Canadians ranked the United States first among their country's allies, along with Britain (21 per cent) and France (4 per cent).

The numbers were released as the Woodrow Wilson Center prepares to honour Peter Munk, chairman of the Barrick Gold Corporation, and Allan Gotlieb, a former Canadian ambassador to the United States, at an awards night this evening in Toronto, the first time the event has been held outside of the United States.

The results also come after a series of recent events — the fatal, friendly-fire bombing of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, U.S. hockey fans booing the Canadian national anthem, and punishing tariffs imposed on Canadian softwood-lumber exports, among others — have inspired soul-searching among Canadians about their relationship with the United States.

One way of reading the numbers would be to conclude that Canada can't take its prominence in Washington for granted, Mr. Wright said, and must start lobbying harder for the attention of the world's only superpower.

"We have high-profile political and trade missions to different parts of the world including Africa, Europe, Russia, China, and maybe we should be going to the United States," Mr. Wright said. "We have to make sure we have the platforms in Washington to get the attention of the leaders."

But David Biette, director of the Canada Institute in Washington, said the fact that Canada is often overlooked in the United States is more likely a symptom of the two countries' good relations rather than a publicity problem.

"The squeaky wheel gets the news," Mr. Biette said. "The relationship works really well so it's paid no attention."

Americans may be poorly informed about Canada, Mr. Biette said, but they're also told very little about what's happening in other states. And while they may not know much about Canadians, he added, most Americans have warm feelings about their northern neighbours.

When the news broke about the four Canadians who died in the friendly-fire incident, for instance, people on the streets of Washington were talking about it.

"Americans were really touched by that," Mr. Biette said.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 07-May-02 AT 01:27 PM (EST)]>hey..I think Alberta got some yesterday that they want to
>get rid of...
>
>and strangely enough..a few shipping containers of snow went
>out of here this year to somewhere in the south..for some
>beer party thing I think..

Got the crates but no BEER:-X23 we want some of that good stuff you guys got up there

Also let me say this about that! Living in fla you get to meet alot of vacationers from all over and out of all of them i must say canadians are the nicest of all and i've gotten to know quite a few in fact several come to visit every time they are in town.There are a lot of americans that are narrow minded or just plain ignorant but to this american you all are just part of the family.

I hope this does not offend anyone i try not to get to political

 

This is quite long but I found it to be quite interesting as well.

The country the world forgot - again By Kevin Myers (Filed:21/04/2002)London Daily Telegraph



"UNTIL the deaths last week of four Canadian soldiers accidentally killed by a US warplane in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops were deployed in the region.

And as always, Canada will now bury its dead, just as the rest of the world as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does. It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its ! friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.

Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance.

A fire breaks out; she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price which Canada pays for sharing the North American Continent with the US, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts.

For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: it seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10 per cent of Canada's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops,

perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.

Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular memory as somehow or other the work of the "British".

The Second World War provided a re-run.

The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack.

More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third largest navy and the fourth largest air force in the world. The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign which the US had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity. So it is a general rule that actors and film-makers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian.

Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer British. It is as if in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.

Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1 per cent of the world's population has provided 10 percent of the world's peace-keeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peace-keepers on earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peace-keeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.

Yet the only foreign engagement which has entered the popular non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the US knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in

Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.

It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost.

This weekend four shrouds, red with blood and maple leaf, head homewards; and four more grieving Canadian families know that cost all too tragically well."

 

http://www.flags.net/elements/small_gifs/CANA001.GIF

 

>http://www.flags.net/elements/small_gifs/CANA001.GIF

All that I can say is that I am sorry for our ignorance.



dj

 

Americans treat Canadians as part of the "family," along with Britain, New Zealand, and Australia, unlike countries like Mexico and France which tries to suck us dry at every opportunity and will never be trusted. When the crap hits the fan, these four countries join in fighting whatever threatens us, even though they are not obligated to help us. Americans may not run around clamoring, "We love Canada," but most of us silently appreciate what Canadians do, and stand for. We do not look down on you, rather we see you as our equal, except for you've got too damn much snow.

 

Hey thewall i like that article and i think everyone here, and everyone all over the world, where i live (on the U.S./Canada border, i'm Canadian) needs to read that do to all of the troubles with the farmers around here.(its really starting to **** me off). More people need to realize what Canadians really do for the world and how much we really contribute to wars and the world market.

BTW if you guys down in Florida or around there if you want any snow come and get some, we've got 6 inches since this morning.


82' Flareside with plenty of go and show to.

2/4 Drop
Soon to have 325hp 351 Clevo
(maybe more,in a 3600lb truck)
Backed by a C6 with a 2000 rpm stall and a 3.50 9 incher
American Racing AR-23 (series 23) wheels
Upgraded interior
Soon to have a kick @$$ stereo

 

And people wonder why I reply with
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA

and I should say after that, NOT a state of the United States of America although proud to be a neighbor.

Jim
CYWG