MonkeyPants

Sensitive: Canadians Are Not Friendly.

I’ve lost it now, but in a recent Macleans “Canada’s National News” magazine, there was an article from an American ex-pat woman living in Vancouver who has started a support group for other American ex-pats, because Canadians, allegedly, are unfriendly. As someone who prides herself on directing lost tourists and helping the elderly off buses, this came as a shock to me.

I re-read the article, and there were some inconsistencies. For one thing, she alleged that Canadians are unfriendly. However, she lives in Vancouver. I have heard that Vancouverites are less friendly than the rest of Canadians, but I do not know how true that is. Second, it says she lives in Vancouver. Lots of people say they do when they really live in White Rock or Maple Ridge or some other suburb that the rest of the world thinks of as ‘part of Vancouver’. So I am at a loss as to where/how she is collecting this unfriendly vibe.

Then there’s the issue of the support group. She started it so American ex-pats ‘could speak their minds’. Because apparently, Canadians don’t. IMO, that doesn’t make us unfriendly, it makes us reticent. I admit it: We are. Canadians generally will not approach strangers and state their opinions, especially not controversial ones. We tend to like that about us. However, the writer of the article doesn’t. She says it’s nice to relax and ‘be loud’ with the other ex-pats.

I am not sure what bothers me so much about the article. It did not state the reason for her move, so perhaps she was transferred to The Great White North against her will. Perhaps she chose to move here for economic or social reasons. Whatever the reason, I cannot believe that our entire nation has excluded her from our ranks in a consolidated act of froideur.

I wonder how she is presenting herself. She freely admits to being a ‘loud’ American, but how is she being loud? There is a difference between guffawing loudly in public and, say, decrying homosexuality on Davie Street, or complaining about our gun laws at the United Church jumble sale.

Readers, what do you think? Are Canadians unfriendly? Are Americans more likely speak their minds than Canadians? Am I being oversensitive? Tell me.