Differences

On my frequent trips to and from Lexington I have a lot of time to ponder various subjects. One that gets a lot of attention in particular is what exactly is it that makes Canada different that the US. Cynics here will say that we are just USA-lite. The US with a smaller population and a smaller economy. I don't think so. I like some things about the US, I like Lexington an awful lot, but it still feels just a little alien.

Our countries do share an awful lot. The language is almost identical (Though the US seems to have misplace an awful lot of "U"s from their words). We watch their TV and movies, read their books, eat their fast food and overall share just an awful lot of their culture. Of course, arguably, culture is the USA's main export. It's one of the reasons why every nation in the world is so aware of all things American and invading US culture is also one of the reasons why so many groups feel such antipathy and even sheer hatred of the US. But I digress.

Immediately after crossing the border I have a definite feel that I am in a different place. Of course, living in Windsor means that when I cross the border I'm in Detroit, and Detroit is not a nice place. But even once I've left Michigan entirely, I know I'm not at home.

There are a number of subtle and less than subtle reasons for this.

One of them is the way Americans wear their religion on their sleeves. Religion is pervasive in the US. It's much more subtle in Canada. In the US I can always find several religious stations when I scan the radio dial. These are few and far between here, at least in Southern and Central Ontario. Religion in the US everywhere and very public. There's a plastics company on I-75 in Ohio with a religious slogan (which escapes me at the moment) all lit up in huge letters on the front of their building, there seem to be a lot more churches, and even the money says "In God We Trust". Canada just isn't like this.

Religion plays a major role in politics in the US. The fundamentalist Christian vote was a major factor in putting GW Bush in power, and is a major influence in the Republican party. In Canada most politicians will attend church of some sort, but it's not a big deal. The religious groups make a lot of noise about abortion, gay marriage and a lot of the same things they make noise in the States about, but they don't often get their way. In the US the "young Earth" theory (which, basically, adds up the timeline of all the events in the Bible and thus concludes the Earth is really about 6000 years old) is a common belief. Here a politician once mentioned he believed it and he was mocked (Well, Stockwell Day was mocked for a lot of reasons).

Guns are another big difference. I listened to a segment on the radio this morning about a debate in Utah surrounding the question of whether concealed weapons should be allowed on the campus of the state university. A senior state Republican politician spoke in favour of allowing them. His rational basically boiled down to a "Wild West" mentality. The gun lobby both in the US and here seem to think that having a shoot out in public is a reasonable solution and/or deterrent to crime. The big difference tends to be that in the US these people have influence and people listen to them. We have a gun lobby here too. A few years ago the governing Liberal party passed a law requiring all guns to be registered. The gun lobby despised this law and vowed that it would be the downfall of the Liberals in the next election, then lobbied as hard as they could to that end. The next election the Liberal party won a huge majority. There were many reasons for this, but my point is that the gunners had a negligible effect.

I went to the bank in Lexington with SouthernKitten a while ago. On the door, next to the "No Smoking" logo was a similar "No Guns" logo. I found it terribly odd and went on a while about it at the time. It just seemed so obvious to me, don't run with scissors, don't eat yellow snow, don't bring your gun to the bank. I told this story to the man handling my student loan at my bank in Orillia. He was flabbergasted.

There are guns in Canada. The people that own them are very attached to them, but they are generally used for hunting, target shooting and the like. They are not carried in public (I don't actually remember it ever even being debated), and they are not part of home security.

There are exceptions to all of that. It's entirely possible that your roommate's brother's bestfriend's sister is a Canadian and sleeps with a loaded gun under her pillow. My point is that it's less common here and vastly so. (at least in this region of Canada, I really shouldn't speak for any other region. Canada is a vast and diverse country.)

This is an interesting topic to me and there are plenty of other ways Canada and the US differ, but that's enough for today. I'll likely come back to this topic now and then.

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While I don't care that much about hockey, I'm still pleased that Canada won the World Cup of Hockey today. Mostly, I just like it when Canada wins things.