by Gayle Mackenzie

Created on: October 29, 2008

Hands down, Canadian's know more about American's and the United States than in the reverse.

I have to admit I am sometimes offended by some of the myths American's have about Canada. As a Canadian it is probably engrained in me to be polite and not to offend, so I hope I don't, but I just can't stay silent any longer.

What do I know about the United States? A lot. Amercians have a president, not a prime minister. I know where every state is including Hawii and Alaska, criminal laws are different in every state, Thanksgiving is on a Thursday in November, the drinking age is 21 in most states, you need a passport to get into the United States, Spanish is a widely spoken language but English is the official language, the eagle is the nations symbol, there was a Civil War to abolish slavery, Martin Luther King helped paved the way for equlity, and so much more. I love the fact that Americans don't have to leave the country to go somewhere tropical.

Yes, we do get a lot of snow during the Winter months in Canada, but we also get Spring and Summer in which there is no snow and if your from the east coast, as I am, we get to enjoy many warm beautiful months on the sandy beaches where the water is warmer than that of the Carolina's.

The most recent misconception about Canada I'd witnessed was on 'The Real Housewives of Orange County', a reality show comprised of wealthy California wives and their families. The son of one of these wealthy wives had invited a young Canadian lady to his home for a vist. He had met her on the internet and as the father and the and a friend were checking out this young lady's photo on the internet the father commented, in all seriousness, that the she couldn't really be from Canada because she had good teeth and in Canada they don't put floride in the water that's why all of the woman in Canada have bad teeth. This was bad enough but when the young lady actually arrived and was getting to meet the family another family member asked the young lady if she could speak Canadian. Are you kidding me? Canada is a bilingual country, English is our first language and French second, not Canadian.

Other misconceptions that I'd like to clear up are: We do not have accessable electricity for a lot of Canadians - untrue, in fact, from my side of the country we export a lot of our electricity to the eastern seaboard of United States. We have full and complete medical care - maybe once upon a time, but now we are lucky if we can get a doctor, since we have a huge shortage of doctors. Not many people in Canada have access to the internet - of course we do or I woun't be able to write this article.

To be fair there are many things that are true about Canadians, at least us living on the east coast: most mothers know how to dress a kid for hockey from the skates up, we all how to drive in a snow storm, we will stop to help a stranger-risky but true, we love lobster and beer, we spell some words differently (colour/color, centre/center),we use summer savory to make the dressing for the turkey at Thanksgiving(which is in October), we do say Aye and we are polite, but don't back us in a corner because we also stand up for what we believ in.

In short we all North Americans with a lot of the same ideas and beliefs and I'd rather think of us as one big family who is able to pass the salt at the dinner table to who ever needs it.

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