“”The Canadians are a people of the extreme centre. They have not been averse to the quiet life...nor keen to spend more money on defence or effort abroad.
|—Margaret Thatcher's diplomatic team, actually believing this to be an insult|
“”Canadians are weirdos, though. They are so nice — overbearing nice, like grandmother nice. Toronto is like a city of grandmas.
Canada, or Soviet Canuckistan, or Candanavia, or the
United States of Liberty and Education (invalid until 2015) is the second largest country in the world by total area (after Russia) and fourth by land area, eh. It is a parliamentary monarchy located directly north of the United States, with whom it enjoys a complex and contradictory relationship. While the two countries are very close allies and major trading partners, Canadians have a smug and superior attitude towards Americans (primarily because Canada is awesome), and tend to define themselves by how they differ from their neighbours in the Great Republic to the South (since there's not much else to go by, eh?). As the comedian Rick Mercer famously put it, "Remember, Canada is bigger and it's on top. If this were prison, the USA would be Canada's bitch." (Everyone seems to forget that Greenland — Canada's backpack — is on top of Canada, though.)
Canadiacs speak Canadian English and/or Canadian French (or Quebecois), a dialect of French that native speakers of European French find quaint and rather amusing. Canadian spelling uses lots of extra U's and E's for no reason, but uses the letter Z about as much as American English (i.e. -ize instead of -ise). Despite being loyal to the British Crown, Quebecians hate non-French speaking slime as much as their brethren across the Big Pond.
You will also be stoned to death if you pronounce Z as "zee." But since it's Canada, at least you'll be stoned to death politely.
 Health care/Assurance maladie
Canada has a complex system of universal health care that is free, eh. Over 70% is provided by government tax revenue, while around 27% is paid through the private sector (for prescription drugs, dental care, etc.) Richer Canadians tend to flock to the Dirty South for health care because, while it is uncommon for Canadians to die while waiting for specific medical operations, they do sometimes prefer the slightly faster (for people with cash) American system. However, they also do not have people dying from treatable illnesses and conditions because they could not afford to pay for their treatment, as happens constantly in the States.
Anyways, no matter the massive pandering by Americans over the state of Canadian "socialized" medicine, a good majority of Canadians are satisfied with their coverage, eh. This has been evident in almost every study released. Essentially, if a high-ranking politician ever planned to privatize it, there'd be mass protests in the streets. Don't think it would happen in friendly, peace-loving Canada? Nobody expected this either.
 Gay marriage/Mariage gay
 Firearms/Armes à feu
Although firearms are more regulated there than they are in the United States, in terms of the number of citizens who own guns and the number of guns owned total, the Canadian populace is every bit as armed to the teeth as the US. Interestingly, despite this, Canadians refuse to shoot each other at anything approaching the same rate.
To the shock of Islamophobes and Quebec separatists, Canuckistan, having some of the most lenient LGBT rights and abortion laws available, has had very little problems integrating Arabs into secular society compared to Europe. The only significant terrorist plot[wp] was halted due to the efforts of Muslim CSIS (Canada's CIA) agents, Sharia was banned in Ontario after liberal and feminist Muslim groups lobbied against it, and the electoral riding with the largest Muslim population in Canada continues to elect openly gay politicians. YouTube commenters also went crazy when they saw a Sikh RCMP officer repping the flag at a Stanley Cup game.
 Baseball/Le baseball
Canada is also the only country outside the United States to have a Major League baseball team, eh. Currently The Toronto Blue Jays are the only Canadian team that is part of the MLB, however at one point there also was the Montreal Expos (which moved to Washington, D.C. in 2004 and became the Nationals.) The Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993, despite having a Canadian on the team. Rob Butler is the only Canadian to win a World Series with a Canadian baseball squad.
Canadian beer drinkers are especially proud of their beer. It has a higher alcohol content than America beer so you can get drunker faster, eh. In fact, beer commercials account for roughly half of all displays of Canadian patriotism. They say American beer, on the other hand, is like making love in a canoe — fucking close to water. This sense of superiority is confusing to many who have tried Labatt's Blue or Kokanee products. To be fair, both are Canada's version of Miller Light and are only consumed by wusses, eh.
 How Canada got its name/Comment le Canada a trouvé son nom
Way back when Canada became a nation, a group of citizens met at a
Tim Horton's Country Style to decide what the new country would be called. Somebody just happened to have a game of Scrabble and they decided to take turns drawing letters, and thus would the country be named. The first person drew the letter C and called out, "C, eh?" The second person drew an N and called out, "N, eh?" The third person drew a D ("eh?").
Just to be clear, Canada has nothing to do with Kannada, a Dravidian language spoken in southern India.
 Science fiction/Science-fiction
One of Canada's main exports is science fiction shows, such as Sanctuary, Stargate, Stargate SG-1, and Stargate Atlantis. Also, science fiction novels by Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Charles Wilson, Spider Robinson, and other dudes with the syllable "Rob" in their names. And Cory Doctorow. And William Gibson.
...and Margaret Atwood, though, she would deny it.
Canada comes in for a lot of mockery, mostly from Canadians and Americans, eh. Despite that, dozens of ostensibly funny sources, including Stephen Colbert, The Simpsons, South Park and others, return to the same tired subjects. Research shows there are only
5 7 jokes aboot Canada, eh (no doot aboot it):
- Celine Dion/Bryan Adams/Nickelback/Justin Bieber are terrible
- It's really cold/there's lots of snow/they live in igloos
- Canadians say "eh?" and "aboot" (But in reality, they never do. Sarah Palin, however, does.)
- Canadians apologize (for being Canadian, presumably)
- They drink lots of beer
- They play hockey
- They don't use real "dollars" (except in 2007 and 2011 when the Canadian dollar was worth more than the U.S. dollar and the joke suddenly reversed itself)
 Blame Canada!/Blâmons le Canada!
Canada is featured in the song "Blame Canada" in the South Park movie. The humorously derogatory lyrics include:
 See also/Voir aussi
 Sexy Canadian videos (SFW)/Les vidéos canadiennes sexy (SFW)
- Canadian, Please
- Molson's famous "I am Canadian" ad
- Rick Mercer explains Canada
- Canadian Beavers
- Canadian Mass
- Want Canadian citizenship? Waking up Canadian
- Canadians mock Fox News.
- Sam Roberts - The Canadian Dream (and the dreaded s-word, OMG!)
- I'm Glad I Live in Canada
- In Canada
- ↑ Declassified documents reveal British views of 'inordinately sensitive' Canadians, The Globe and Mail
- ↑ But if Russia keeps on shrinking, soon they will be first! As long as they keep Québec.
- ↑ Assholes to each other in normality, best friends in crisis.
- ↑ There is also a rural Quebecois dialect called "Joual." No, really, don't bother trying. Native Quebecois speakers can't make any sense of it either.
- ↑ At least 10% of the population.
- ↑ Canada’s Health Care System: Fact and Fiction, University of Toronto
- ↑ Never mind the anecdotes: Do Canadians like their health-care system?, Chicago Tribune
- ↑ Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore et al.
- ↑ See for yourself.
- ↑ Voila. The reason why this went through relatively easily was because it gave the finger to all religious arbitration courts (as true secularism would expect).
- ↑ Conclusions on a Stunning Ontario General Election, TVO
- ↑ OMG a Sikh!
- ↑ How Canada Got Its Name
- ↑ Don't worry, we love him all the same.
- ↑ Homer: "Marge, anyone can miss Canada. All tucked away down there."
- ↑ "Blame Canada" lyrics
- ↑ For the YouTube version of the entire song, see here