Then why aren't you living there?

We do. Part time.

Difficult concept, I know.

i love our "can do" attitude.

What part is so difficult for you?

Heavy Beer !

because we won the Indy 500. Yay go Kiwi, go.

No one has mentioned Federalism yet.

When US contributions to govt. are analyzed by political scientists, that gets the big #1 - not any of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

Freedom of speech.
Freedom of expression.
Our tolerance of *********s, not to be considerd caving in, but being able to walk away shaking your head because someone just does not get it.
Kilts. I am an American of Scotish heritage.

and lay off the frog. He can't help it if the French have not won a war by themselves since the french revolution, and besides that they make pretty good pastries and the presidents wife is a looker:D

oh yeah, the young boy is just that. A young boy. He isn't old enough to have developed opinions that are not influenced by his folks and others. He has an opinion now and as he grows it will surely change.

and I can be considered an ********* if you want:rolleyes:
America, it's not perfect, but it is the best damn thing going!

Why are Island and that other douche attacking people from other countries? Pelican isn't just a website for Americans. One reason not to be proud is the f*cking a-holes on this board.

Oh, and freedom of speech.

natural beauty, diversity, generosity of the people

The title of the thread is clear. Maybe folks don't know what "your" means? I think the real reason though is that some people define themselves by what they hate.

And there is a 100% correlation to haters being Republicans on this thread.

Hate is not a family value gentleman.

Because Dottore is once again showing his disdain for America. Ask him if he's a German citizen or a German-American.

I know this must be an unbearably tough question for you lefties. I'll try to help.

Independence
The Constitution
Putting an end to slavery
All the inventions of the industrial revolution
WWI
WW II
Moonshot
Winning the Cold War without firing a shot
Global Humanitarianism

Mexican food.

Just kidding.

The old Space Program is right up there.

2 things. You're way ahead of Michell Obama!

I know this can be a touchy subject, and I recognize that there are limits... but I really like the acceptance and accommodation of other cultures. It's not the same everywhere in Canada I'm sure, but when I lived in Montreal I just loved the mix of different groups, languages, religions. There was a bar I used to go to that typified my experience there... it was an Irish pub with great blues music, run by a Jewish family, with a Chinese takeout in the back. Total mish-mash, but really great spot.

In some cities, people can get by without ever learning English or French. Even in here in small-town atlantic Canada, we've had a significant influx of Chinese & Korean immigrants, and it's great to see those communities thrive. It's really changed the "look", and the sound, of the city.

Tom & Jerry, Itchy & Scratchy and the Marshall Plan.

But Quebec is one of the least tolerant places in Canada of foreigners. Remember the touring "town hall meetings" they did recently on immigrants and their integration into Quebec society? Remember the hatred that came out at a few of them? It was pretty disgusting. And the ongoing dislike and distrust of the English is one of the things that drove me out of Montreal. Don't get me wrong - it's a wonderful city and I miss it dearly, and experiences like yours aren't at all unheard of, but when I think of Quebec I don't think of "acceptance of others".

Yeah I'd definately agree that "pure laine" Quebec is not an accepting or tolerant culture, but I don't count Montreal as being "truly" Quebecois. Someone once described Montreal as "where Quebec meets Canada, and the rest of the world". I really don't find it's anything like other cities in Quebec. I lived there ~1997-2000, a few years after many people (like you) had felt pushed out of quebec before & after the referendum. The city certainly had a different vibe than it did when I visted immediately before and after the 95 referendum. There was a lot of hostility then, especially towards the "ethnic vote" as Parizeau put it.

I was living there from 1999-2002. I wouldn't at all describe the atmosphere as hostile - it was much more subtle than that. But growing up a white male in a small city in southwestern Ontario, I'd never felt any kind of bias, prejudism, etc. before, so it was certainly noticed.

I had a run in with a Arabic woman who favored speaking French over there. The most hate filled person I've ever met. She hated me because I spoke only English, was an American and I did not like the way the Arabs took over my old neighborhood. Her friend (my bilingual French/English speaking date) apologize for her, but a lasting impression was already made.

Much friction in Montreal, not the best example.

Well, it's not fair to write off a city or culture just because of one person. That person could've been from Toronto, or Texas, or Berlin, Shanghai, etc etc.

Yep.

My country speaks the language I was born to speak....oh, wait.....nevermind.

Isn't the ability to speak French a requirement for for 50% of immigrants to Canada? Or is that urban legend in the lower 50 states??

The foot long hot dog!

Freedom of speech,
Freedom to bear arms,
Freedom to practice religion,

just so, and we continue to do so
I got that without the smiley face or anything
It is because I am a conservative so I am smart instead of just acting like I am
we do
oooh, irony, is that on purpose or are you just naturally funny

Americans are the most generous people there are, that is what I am most proud of...

People are still willing to risk life and limb to come here, beacon of opportunity and freedom man. Our wines are at least as good as the French, beer and sausage as good as the Germans. See, we stole them. The US takes the best of everywhere and concentrates it in one place, though it concentrates a lot of the bad too, two edged sword

Wow, I've never heard that one before, but it's not even close to being true, in fact it's one of the dumber misconceptions I've heard come out of the US. How could you possibly enforce such a rule? Immigrants to Canada can (and do) speak whatever language they want to. The only language restrictions on immigrants is that those that immigrate to the province of Quebec must enroll their kids in a French school.

Of course not a rule what you need to speak in your day-to-day life - just a skill set that is a requirement for a certain percentage of immigrants.

Not that dumb a notion when you consider the legal wrangling over language up there..SmileWavy

I read something, somewhere....

There's no "legal wrangling" over language in Canada. There was in Quebec a number of years ago when bill 101 was brought in, but that was years ago. We've had 2 official languages since 1982, and that's that. There are cultural differences that are sometimes based on language, but that's a completely different ballgame.

To immigrate as a skilled worker or professional, you need a "knowledge" of English or French, but there's no quota as to which you need to know.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/index.asp

edit: note: this is for immigrants, not refugees - big difference.

So you're claiming I'm all that because I asked your socialist buddy "Then why aren't you living there?[Germany]"

Ya know, the best part of Freedom of Speech is, the sensitive idiots make themselves known with ease. :)

From the same web-site. I was not that far off the mark:

"Quebec-selected skilled workers: Who can apply The Government of Canada and the Quebec government have an agreement that allows Quebec to select immigrants who best meet its immigration needs.

Under the Canada-Quebec Accord on Immigration, Quebec establishes its own immigration requirements and selects immigrants who will adapt well to living in Quebec.

If you want to come to Canada as a Quebec-selected skilled worker, you must first apply to the Quebec government for a certificate of selection (Certificat de sélection du Québec), the official document that shows that the Government of Quebec has accepted you for immigration to its province. Visit the website of the Quebec ministry that handles immigration for more information on how to obtain a certificate. You will find a link in the Related Links section at the bottom of this page.

Quebec-selected skilled workers are not assessed on the six selection factors of the Federal Skilled Workers Program."

I doubt this program was set up to boost the number of native Cantonese, Urdu and Swahilli speakers!:D

Agreed with the first bit. There is no legal wrangling over language in Canada. It is officially a bilingual country.

Of course relatively few people actually speak French. The last statistic I read put this at about 12 per cent - but I could be wrong. More people in Canada actually speak a dialect from China or India - than speak French.

Although a professional immigrant must in theory have some knowledge of English or French, there are two problems with this. First, the minimum language requirement is really very low. Second, most immigrants today come not as professionals but as (a) relatives of existing immigrants or (b) so called investors. For these two categories the even very minimal language requirements are largely ignored.

For those American interested in this - there is a fundamental distinction between Canadian and US immigration policy. US policy has always had 'assimilation' as its goal. That the immigrant actually "becomes" American in some existential way. This has never been the goal in Canada. Canadian immigration policy has always recognized immigrant communities as being distinct. Buzzwords like "vertical mosaic" and "patchwork quilt communities" were coined to describe the Canadian approach, and while this served Canada very well for quite some time - the flaws in the Canadian approach are increasingly apparent as certain ethnic communities keep growing and become increasingly insular and unwilling to behave as Canadians are "expected" to behave. This will become an increasingly sensitive topic in parts of Canada with large immigrant communities in future.

Sorry for the thread hi-jack.

....That, and it makes the truly farking a-holes really obvious. ;-)

Yup...and the majority of people from Quebec speak both language...They have to...because there's not a lot of thing you can do in Canada (and ROW) if you don't speak English...

I live here...Montreal...And the peoples you talking about is a minority...a BIG minority...

I used to work for the largest employer in Quebec and spent a lot of time in Montreal. Have to agree with Syl here that very few people there are like this.

My French is very limited but have never had a problem in Montreal or even Quebec City because of this. Its a lot worse in many parts of Miami if you cannot speak Spanish.

Jeeze I didn't mean for my comments about Quebec to derail this thread. But while it's derailed.... Joe you should come up for the Montreal GP!

Gaijan, there's no doubt that reading between the lines of that paints a picture that they'd like you to speak french, but there's no 50% rule or anything like that, especially for the rest of the country. Sorry if I'm getting my back up a bit - common American misconceptions about Canada drive a lot of us nuts.

Syl, there's no doubt that it's a very small minority. The English-French tension is only one of the reasons I left, though it did leave a sour taste in my mouth. Try getting health care in Montreal with an Ontario health card. While I understand that health care is provincially administered, it's a federal right under the Charter, and all Canadians are entitled to it, no matter where they are in the country. The only place in the entire city that wouldn't clam right up as soon as they saw my Ontario health card was the McGill health unit and Mtl Jewish General. All the CLSC and other hospitals turned us away, even when offered cash. What really pissed me off were the few people that suddenly pretended they didn't speak English, just to get us to leave.

Definitely the opportunity to do what you actually studied in school and make money. I have some really smart friends in other countries who can't even find work unless they settle for something they don't really want to do. If luck = being prepared for the opportunity, well, I'm certainly lucky. I guess all of us are.

OK, I'm with you there. The whole quebec bureaucracy is very skewed, even in Montreal. I had an aweful time with health care when I lived there too. And just recently, I had to deal with the SAAQ (Quebec DMV) to get an $800 tax refund for my mercedes I bought there. Was supposed to take 2-6 weeks, took 5 months. You just can't deal with them in English. They simply refuse, they will transfer you over and over, often mid-sentence. Theprovincial gov't service for anglos is really appalling. I think it's Quebec's way of punishing the Montreal Anglos.