Canadian Naivety

Degrassi. What the hell is Degrassi? I scratched my head, then I quickly put both keys back on the keyboard, qwerty was designed for two hands, not one. Puzzled and bemused, what was this thing I saw on the screen that created so much attention? Well, as I was to find out from Google (beats the spotty kid I used to copy at school for the questions I didn’t know), it did, and has, cult status in Canada. Question solved. But, and more importantly, if I didn’t know about a cult television show in Canada, then how much did I really know about this quite significantly large country?

Well, let’s brain storm, after all I was working in an office now, and lets be fair, in reality, all brainstorming really is an excuse to get help from others, in reality you haven’t got a clue what you are talking about. Here goes……….

Maple Leaf
Ice Hockey
Big
Rockies
Policemen in red coats
Unsolved murder suspects
Mike Myers (really!)

And there is goes. Quite frankly, I’m embarrassed. I know a fair number of Canadians, I have read books on Canadian history, I’m very possibly going to Canada in July for a lovely holiday (if the contry will let me in now), I watched ‘Due South’ as a kid, I …. Hang on. I think I have just found the cause of all my problems. That’s right, I blame it on Due South. My first ever memory of what the Canadian police were like. Of course, they set it in Chicago which I only found out later. Then, at the same time, I remember seeing “Twin Peaks”, which made me think Canada was America and vice versa. So, not the best of starts.

You see it is my own fault. Having never been to Canada or America, I experince both countries via the visual and written world. The truth is, I live in double standards, I expect people to the know the differece between Britain, Scotland and England (tiny winny countries), when I think Baywatch is set in the Rockies.

“Mike Myers, he is Canadian you know!”. How many times have I heard that one over the years. Well, my response to Bob from down the pub was “Is he?”. I don’t know why. I don’t know why it matters. What difference does it make? I guess it's one of those ‘did you know’ pieces of information that get used when people are really really, bored (Bob was quite boring). Now, I can hear Americans and Canadians saying “Deeerrrrr, yeah, but isn’t that obvious?”. Well, no. You see from these parts you can tell a French speaking person, a German speaking person, a Dutch speaking person, an Australian speaking person (ok, I do sometimes get it mixed up with Kiwi but that’s not the point) , somebody who lives fifty miles away from another person in England, but for the life me, I cannot tell the difference between a Canadian and an American accent. Confession over. Well maybe I’m being a little hard on myself, tell any Welshman, Scotsman or Irishmen they are English, well just don’t, it wont go down very well.

So where is all this going? Well I don’t really know as I have digressed so much. But on the subject of accents, I have just found out the following people are Canadian, when I just naturally assumed they were American.

Tom Green
Jim Carey
Dan Aykroyd
Celine Dion (well actually I thought she was French, then realised she must be Canadian due to the French Canadian thing)
Alanis Morissette
Shania Twain

And the list goes on, of course………………..

So what’s to blame about my Canadian naivety? Maybe it’s just the accents. Maybe it’s the television and film bias that is given to American output in this country. Of course, there are similarities, there would be for two neighbouring countries. But you never know, if more stuff like Degrassi was shown in the UK then maybe I will know a little bit more. Anyway, better go, South Park is on, I’ve heard it’s a funny American comedy.

P.s, do you know Mike Myers is Canadian?