Are Canadians American

[birgitte]

I'm from Germany, please can you tell me if Canadians are American? Because they have the same accent and come from the same area. However, when my mother went there she said they were very friendly!

[Clanad]

Sometimes not so subtle... in most the western provinces, at least, Canadians end a lot of thier sentences in "Eh?" even when a question is not implied.  Joke goes that when it came time to name the large country, the government decided to hold a lottery.  The winner was allowed to pull alphabet letters out of a paper sack.  The winner pulled the first one out and announced "C..eh?", the next of course was "N..eh?" and so on and that, supposedly is how Canada was named.  All in good nature of course (ducks)...

[jno]

Strictly speaking Canada is on the continent of North America so it ought to be American. But the inhabitants of the USA have pretty much taken over the word 'American' for themselves; so it's best to call Canadians Canadians (and Mexicans Mexicans).

[daicoses]

I'm Canadian and no... they are most certainly two completely different countries. Though a lot of Canadians (british loyalists) came from America a few hundred years ago after the war of independence, the government and everything is different.

Also, though the accents may sound the same if you don't live here, it would be like saying everyone in Britain has the same accent. You can tell Eastern Canadian accents (specifically Newfie) apart from Central Canadian accents (and we mock them... they do the whole 'aboot' thing... it's more of a Scottish-sounding accent), just like there's Brooklyn accents and Southern accents. Generally, Americans put A's in where O's are (they say sorry like 'saw-rie' and we do 'sore-ie', 'b-ah-g' vs. 'b-ay-g')

And personally I (and many other people) do say 'eh', but it's usually only in situations like "I know, eh?" = ]

[Ouisch]

Canada is part of North America, but it is a different country from the USA.  Why do you sound surprised when you report that your mom found Canadians to be friendly?

[honuhuleia]

Hello I am actually american in the most literal sense and I must say that canadians are not americans. they are two seperate countries. i would like also like to state two things

1. I pronounce sorry with the "o"

and 2. I'm an a rather nice individual. we should all try to stay away from generalizations. A generalization is a huge assumption...you just end up offending someone and feel rather silly in the end.

[Romeo]

Canada is a dominion of the Commonwealth (formerly the British Empire), and the Head of State is Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain. The United States is a republic, the head of state is President George Bush.

The accents are fairly similar, both countries started out as British colonies, but the 13 Eastern Seaboard colonies fought for their independence and became the USA, whereas Canada remained loyal to the British Empire and remain in the Commonwealth. The two countries are very much separate political entities.

[lonzuk]

I always find it amazing how little some folk know about the rest of the world.  Some of my mates think Vietnam is just off the coast of Japan!

I remember talking to an American whilst over in Prague who was shocked that someone from Scotland could speak English "so good".

The other one was bizzarely a guy from Hull who asked if I would be travelling through Wales to get back to Scotland!

[landie]

Canadians are, in fact, American, as are people from the USA, Mexicans, Brazilians, Argentinians etc. They are all from the Continent of America.

However, common usage has it that the USA produces the only Americans on that continent.

[Clanad]

I would think it more accurate to refer to ones self in Canada as a North American, vs. say, someone from Brazil as a South American, or someone from Costa Rica as a Central American.  Whereas a citizen of The United States of America is an American. Interestingly enough, citizens of the USA are called estadounidense in Spanish... literally United States-ians. Collectively, the western hemisphere New World is often called the Americas. .. at least as far as tradition goes...

[birgitte]

I was a little hasty asking my question and tried to keep it short. I really am meaning the origin of the people of Canada. I wondered if the people migrated there from America at some time and settle there or if there origin was directly from Europa.

I think daicoses in part answered that question when when you said <Though a lot of Canadians (british loyalists) came from America a few hundred years ago after the war of independence...>

I am not meaning to offend when I say that my mother found Canadians very friendly. It is true as she was very impressed with the country and the friendliness but there is one country she visitted recently where she was suprised to find the opposite. I will not name so I do not offend ;) .
 

[Clanad]

One more story about (aboot?) our good friends to the north... Seems two elderly maiden sisters in the U.S. tried and tried to save money for a European vacation, but couldn't quite come up with enough.  One said to the other, "Well, let's go to Canada."  the other one said, "It's not foreign and won't be any fun"... But they decided to go.  On the train outside of Winnepeg, the disaffected sister asked a gentleman sitting next to her "Where are you from?" (slowly and loudly, as though he couldn't possibly understand).  He replied "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan"... With that the sister turned to her sibling and said "...And you thought they weren't going to be foreign enough, they don't even speak English here!"...

[Romeo]

So what you are asking, birgitte, is whether Canadians are of American descent.

The ancestors of both white Canadians and white Americans came, on the whole, directly from Europe around the same time. 

However, the ancestors of many black Canadians came from America later, as the Canadian colonies didn't go in for slavery, and escaped slaves fled to Canada.

Native Americans (or American Indians) already lived in Canada and America before the other races came.

[daicoses]

Basically, in short, there were the French, British, and some Viking-ish people that landed where is currently eastern Canada and around the St. Lawrence. There were also British colonists living in the American colonies (the inhabitants of which originally came from Europe and Britain). When the Americans won their independence, the people who remained loyal to Britain were alienated and isolated. Most of them fled up north to the remaining British colonies (which existed amongst mainly French colonies). Canadian confederation was in 1867, nearly 100 years after American independence. I suppose there is something to be said for the required 3 years of Canadian history.

[daicoses]

On that note, a question: how many years of nation-specific history do students have to take in your countries? (I.e. years of British history in Britain, years of German history in Germany). Does anyone else think that for being one of the youngest nations in the world, 3 years of required Canadian history is insane?

[HAnn521]

This may be repetitive, but as an American (from the USA), I believe that the term "American" came to be used strictly to describe someone from or living in the USA (United States of America)...regardless of the name, what else could a resident of USA be called??...If you live in England-you're English, that's easy!

But with a name like The United States of America, we have to be called Americans...it's not like we steal the name or try set ourselves apart from the rest of the North and South American continents...

I believe it was landie who implied this?

[nikkik]

Well it seems that what Landie was trying to imply was that collectively people from North America would be (North) Americans and people from South America would be (South) Americans in the same way that we have Africans, Asians, Europeans and um... Australasians (?).

[Ivankafka]

I was told by some growing up that most Canadians are of French origin, ( an Urban myth perhaps) but reading the history of Canada years ago I saw that this certainly wasn't the case. I couldn't really prove it though until I bought a superb Gazeteer one day. It lists today's Canadians as being roughly 65% of British descent, 25% French and 10% Native American.