20 replies to this topic

[I miss Reagan]

Oh Canadians love to exalt themselves above Americans for their lack of knowledge about Canada. Yet Canadians are equally ignorant and arrogant about even their own country. Surprisingly even the CBC seems to agree on this one.

"It's not the first time I've encountered this kind of ignorance. When I arrived at Carleton University in Ottawa to study journalism, some of my classmates wondered if I was there because there were no universities in Alberta. I am not making this up! Others found it curious that my parents would choose such a province to live in. They never spelled it out but it was always, "Oh, you're from Alberta? Really? I thought only cowboys lived there." Then the ha-ha."


Call me a Redneck

[maplesyrup]

It's hard to battle prejudices, especially when the only people from Alberta Canadians get to see are the likes of Ralph Klein, members of the Alliance party and someone in a cowboy hat getting interviewed for whatever TV program is on.

Maybe it is our private media in Canada that is causing the problem here, creating these stereotypes. Maybe it's time educators had a lot more say in what our media reports on, and how they report it.

[kimmy]

Her experience agrees with my own experience living in Ottawa.

-kimmy

[maplesyrup]

It is not healthy to generalise about any group of people.

A lot of the problems we encounter in life we bring on ourselves by our own "POOR ME" attitudes.

[Cartman]

Aww..c'mon IMR. You gotta admit that it is really fun to tell Easterners myths about the West. My brother from Ontario is coming out here this month and he is gonna be looking for accents, cowboy hats (and perhaps the odd horse drawn cart).

[Black Dog]

Albertans love to whine about being stereotyped as rednecks in the RoC. So what do they do? Exalt redneck culture with events like the Stampeded and Big Valley and vote Conservative in droves. Talk about undermining your own cause. Hell, even the columnist admits as much:

It's hard to battle prejudices, especially when the only people from Alberta Canadians get to see are the likes of Ralph Klein, members of the Alliance party and someone in a cowboy hat getting interviewed for whatever TV program is on.

[Alliance Fanatic]

Albertans love to whine about being stereotyped as rednecks in the RoC. So what do they do? Exalt redneck culture with events like the Stampeded and Big Valley and vote Conservative in droves. Talk about undermining your own cause. Hell, even the columnist admits as much:

Whats wrong with the Stampede and Big Valley Jamboree, have you ever heard of Stage 13.

So let me get this straight in order to stop bigotry every single Albertan must vote for either the NDP and Liberals. We must also start to wear all grey suits, and everybody must act the same, and nobody shall disagree with the current political system that comrade Trudeau erected for us.

Black Dog get off the pot, and your an idiot hippie.

[Black Dog]

Whats wrong with the Stampede and Big Valley Jamboree, have you ever heard of Stage 13.

Yeah: it sucks.

Black Dog get off the pot, and your an idiot hippie.

I've already reported you once today. I'd be only too hapy to do it again. Keep it up.

[RB]

hey my kid is enroute to Alberta over the next couple a days and she was told to have her cow gears ready and also brushes? so maybe dinosaurs revealed

Alberta is a fun place, and the next best province to live in

[takeanumber]

As though the world should spend less time on Math and their OWN history to study the all important, all mighty United States.

You know, if the advice was comming from anybody but an American, I'd take it half seriously.

Enjoy your 27th ranked status in education.

[Slavik44]

CTV did a scientific poll around the time the election started and in the end, only 76% of canadians knew who the PM was, that is not particularly great. I woudl wager that canadians knwo more about America then American's know about canada, however How much do Canadians know about Canada, i mean how many people know who our first PM is? this would be soemthing you would expect everyone to know, however i have a fealing that if you went out to a shopping mall and asked you would find a good portion of people wouldn't know. Ask the same about Samuel De champlain, and I think you would get an even worse result. I think this underlies people's lack of desire to learn not only about their history but perhaps their country in general, which coudl lead to these misconceptions. That being said i realise that some people do have great knowledge about are countries history, and most people on this site do aswell, but I think it would be un-realistic to use this site as a demographic for the country.

[kimmy]

A lot of the problems we encounter in life we bring on ourselves by our own "POOR ME" attitudes.

I suppose this is a very good observation, but somehow I think it might mean a little more if it wasn't coming from a guy who was crying to the heavens about the injustice of not having French highway signs in BC just a couple of weeks ago

This topic was discussed a bit in the "Western Alienation" thread, where some people were saying "Oh no, we in Ontario don't have negative stereotypes about westerners!" I posted that in my experience, many do. Ms. Chua makes the same observation.

While it might not be an issue of earth-shaking national importants, I do find the irony of some Toronto resident sitting on his couch watching Rick Mercer saying "haw haw, those Americans shore are iggernunt" amusing.

As for the Calgary Stampede... well, if combating the stereotype means axing one of the longest-running and most popular annual events in Canada, not to mention a major international tourist draw, then I guess we'll just have to live with what the rest of Canada thinks.

-kimmy

[kimmy]

As though the world should spend less time on Math and their OWN history to study the all important, all mighty United States.

You know, if the advice was comming from anybody but an American, I'd take it half seriously.

Enjoy your 27th ranked status in education.

What advice? Who's an American? What's going on? Did this wind up in the wrong thread by mistake?

-kimmy

[maplesyrup]

Kimmy----it all depends on attitude.

I was an Anglo growing up in Quebec and I could have let the French Nationalism of the Quiet Revolution get to me, or I could have celebrated Quebec's progress, with other Quebeckers. I chose the latter.

Quite frankly I am tired of both Quebec separation, and Western alienation. They all sound like a bunch of crybabies to me. Time to get over it.

If some people from Ontario don't appreciate the West be thankful. Can you imagine what traffic would be like if they all liked the West so much they decided to move out here?

[maplesyrup]

BTW, I forgot to mention that my favourite event at the Stampede is the piglet races.

Do they still have those piglets racing for that Oreo cookie as the prize?
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