Canadian stereotype? Canadian identity?

I'm an American and I have to say from what I've heard, there's quite a difference between Canada & America - and thus Canadians & Americans. I'm from Minnesota, though, and often people assume that any "Canada stereotypes" also apply to us for some reason. . Not that stereotypes hold very much truth to begin with, though. I know that some of the common stereotypes are that you all say "eh" a lot and have a VERY Minnesota-n accent, but other than that.. There aren't any other major stereotypes that I can think of.

My perception is very.. limited. I've never been to Canada (well I once drove to the border, and crossed it, and then came back LOL) and we didn't really learn about anything that has to do with Canada in high school (OR college). From my very small perspective on things, I see Canada as a much more .. stable place to live, actually. It seems nice. Much more peaceful than America, which is crime-ridden and just plain annoying if you ask me! LOL. Also, perhaps I see Canada as a more passive country; practically opposite of America - we seem overly aggressive in terms of war and politics. Canada is also perceived as VERY liberal (universal health-care?), and slightly blue-collar.

Have you seen the movie Bowling for Columbine? (By Michael Moore?) If you haven't, you definitely should watch it. For some reason, for a long duration in the movie, he seems to talk a lot about American perceptions of Canada, and the differences between the countries in terms of crime and violence, especially.

Not to come off as offensive or anything but Canadians ARE NOT just like Americans! We're more accepting, friendly, laid back, openminded and the list goes on....and my American hubby and friends who've lived in Canada for any length of time or just visited even AND my Canadian friends who've lived here in the U.S all agree...There is a HUGE difference...

I am Canadian but am now living in the United States. I am proud of where I come from and I love to tell people I meet that I am Canadian. I cuurently live in South Carolina and I find it funny how alot of people know almost nothing about us except what they have heard or seen on tv or the movies. Correct me if I'm wrong because in all honesty I really don't know, but would it be safe to assume that most of the people who say that Canada is just a clone of the United States just ignorant Americans? I would have to disagree with that statement. One would only have to research our politcal, social and historical differences.
I will say this, one thing I have noticed is that people are people. It doesn't matter where you go, people are all the same. Doesn't matter if you are Canadian, American, Afghan, religious, atheist, murderer or theif we are all the same.

You are a student and you are still very young. I am so glad you are exploring the idea of a Canadian Identity. While it is true that the US is our closest neighbour and biggest trading partner and that our economies are closely entwined it is so important to realize that we do have a separate identity. I am a proud Canadian myself and while I have no issues with our American neighbours I see many differences. For one, in Canada we have the dual English-French fact. While this is not obvious in the most of the West it is certainly a presence in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario and of course Quebec. I must say it is music to my ears when I return by plane from somewhere and board a Canadian plane to hear the announcements in English and in French. I also appreciated the opportunity to send my kids to French immersion school. Not that they need the French for their day to day work now or that they are totally fluent in it, but they have travelled widely in Europe, used it there in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland (there is a German, French and Italian part of Switzerland) They have also travelled to Quebec and New Brunswick and were even able to follow a play in French. Right now there is an event coming up in Toronto called "Nuit Blanche" I don't have to explain to my kids what the translation of this is. So how do we define our identity? I would say we are definitely North Americans, but not Americans. We do not have a "melting pot" but rather we support multiculturalism so we get a lot of hyphenated Canadians as well. Irish-Canadian, Ukrainian-Canadian, French-Canadian etc. etc.
How do you define yourself as a Canadian?

I am an American and I have visited Vancouver and also Montreal. I am not sure I could define Canadians by those two trips though. Both experiences were completely different and offered no sweeping views of Canadians as a whole.

There is however one thing that I have encountered unanimously with Canadians when traveling abroad: Canadians are so proud to be Canadians and they want to make sure that everyone knows they are Canadians and NOT Americans. In fact whenever I have met Canadians abroad they find it incredibly important to define themselves based on how they are different from Americans, and so far, this has always happened to be why they feel they are better than Americans. I also know Americans who wear the Canadian flag on their backpacks when traveling so that they don't get greif for being an American.

When I think of the American stereotype and I see the know-nothing, god-fearing, walmart shopping, drive-thru lunch and microwave dinner eating, bigot, I remember this stereotype has fallen on all of us. So I think as Americans it is extra important not to hide our nationality when we travel, we have to change this identity one person at a time and then maybe Canadians wouldn't be so ashamed to be mistaken for American.