Americans have strange ideas about Canadians

Many young Americans admit there are stereotypes when it comes to their perception of Canadian lifestyle.

Although Canada is adjacent the United States and is connected by a border which spans almost 8,900 kilometres, they say the Canadian lifestyle differs greatly from the typical American way of life.

Daneyale Feril, a student at California State University, Monterey Bay, said her idea of Canada involves a country consistently dealing with strong winter weather as well as heavy accents.

“Canadians would be described as someone dressed in winter attire such as a winter vest, beanie, etc.,” said Feril. “I picture Canada as snowy with several pine trees and pine cones littered throughout the ground along with plenty of moose,”

Jena Franco, is an electrical engineering major at San Jose State University, also in California. She said she believes many Canadian stereotypes are over exagerated.

“From what I’ve been hearing about the Canadian image in general, they don’t seem like they are much different than Americans,” said Franco. “There is the stereotype that they apologize for everything, that they don’t feel as cold as people do in America because of their constant cold weather.”

Franco spends her summers in British Columbia. She has visited many other provinces and said she thinks it is the lack of education about Canada which leads to such odd stereotypes.

San Benito, California high school student Alyssa Derheim, said she doesn’t know where the stereotypes come from, but believes her views are shared by many Americans.

“As an American, I would describe a Canadian as a person that says “ eh” a lot and also who eats maple syrup every day,” said Derheim.

Derheim has never been to Canada and admits she doesn’t have a clear understanding of Canadians despite having multiple family members there. She said she’s never felt the need to learn about Canada and believes it is not a major concern for her.

Edward Camangeg, an architecture major at the University of Illinois Chicago has visited Canada multiple times. He said the stereotypes associated with Canadians are not necessarily negative.

“One stereotype being that they end their sentences with ‘eh’. Another is that they are the nicest people in the world,” said Camangeg. “They’re humble people.”

“I envy Canada because they have free health care,” said Derheim.

According to all of the students, they say they would like to see America provide a free health care plan similar to Canadas. President Barack Obama attempted to establish a universal health care program in 2014,  known as Obamacare. However the program has faced considerable criticism and has, up to this point, been deemed by some Americans, as ineffective.

Americans are so well known for having misconceptions about Canadians, in 2001 Rick Mercer did a special in which he went to the United States and asked people about Canadians.