J
jimbunting
Guest
Gentelmen:
In one of my many sojurns in the USA, I had occasion to be speaking with a number of adult, educated, and apparently serious Americans.
The topic swerved into a rather strange area, about what Canadians "looked like". The impression seemed to be that we Canucks are " just like Americans " but with some funny ways of speaking, and expressing ourselves. Other than that, the Americans coudn‘t see any difference.
Of course, I‘m a white anglo guy, and so where the Yanks I was seated with in this bar, so i tried to explain that Canadaians are all colours and from all ethnic backgrounds, but to no avail, as the Americans firmly stated that "those others are not Canadians, they‘re immigrants".
Hard to argue with that, right? I tried to point out that we have had Sikhs in BC for over a hundred years, as well as Chinese there, and a large number of black Canadians trace their ancestry to escaped slaves who came up the "Underground Railway" and that the first black newspaper, in North America was in Dresden, Ontario. Didn‘t make any difference to them, cause to them Canadians are white, except of course for those bad French Canadians, who want to secede.......their term, not mine!
I was sorry that I wasn‘t able to change their minds, but it‘s their loss, not mine.
So, my question to all of you?
What does a Canadian look like, in your opinion?
Jim Bunting. Toronto.
In one of my many sojurns in the USA, I had occasion to be speaking with a number of adult, educated, and apparently serious Americans.
The topic swerved into a rather strange area, about what Canadians "looked like". The impression seemed to be that we Canucks are " just like Americans " but with some funny ways of speaking, and expressing ourselves. Other than that, the Americans coudn‘t see any difference.
Of course, I‘m a white anglo guy, and so where the Yanks I was seated with in this bar, so i tried to explain that Canadaians are all colours and from all ethnic backgrounds, but to no avail, as the Americans firmly stated that "those others are not Canadians, they‘re immigrants".
Hard to argue with that, right? I tried to point out that we have had Sikhs in BC for over a hundred years, as well as Chinese there, and a large number of black Canadians trace their ancestry to escaped slaves who came up the "Underground Railway" and that the first black newspaper, in North America was in Dresden, Ontario. Didn‘t make any difference to them, cause to them Canadians are white, except of course for those bad French Canadians, who want to secede.......their term, not mine!
I was sorry that I wasn‘t able to change their minds, but it‘s their loss, not mine.
So, my question to all of you?
What does a Canadian look like, in your opinion?
Jim Bunting. Toronto.