An inquiring Yankee wants to know...

1. Is Queen Elizabeth II popular in Canada?
2. What do Canadians think of her son, the Prince of Wales, and the idea of his succeeding her?
3. Since Leif Erikson founded Vinland in what is now Canada, does Canada observe Leif Erikson Day? (Or do any provinces/territories?)
4. Does Canada or any province/territory have a holiday for any other explorer (like Champlain maybe?)
5. Why do you have such better relations with your First Nations than we do?
6. What do Quebecois really want? Do they want to leave or stay? Have more parity with anglophones? Or what?
7. If Canadians love poutine so much, why are they not as fat as Americans? Is it their healthcare system?
8. Is there any pressure from insurance or pharma companies to change the Canadian healthcare system?
9. Did you know how awesome you are? (okay, that's a rhetorical question)
10. Does Canada worry about refugees from the USA? Would it accept them? How soon may I emigrate?

Cheers! And belated Happy Thanksgiving.

Some very inquiring topics that I found quite interesting and gave me something to ponder. Think you would get a wide variety of views on a variety of the topics if a number of people responded.

I'm not Canadian, but I lived right across the border and have a lot of Canadian relatives...
1. Eh, she's the Queen but doesn't have a lot of direct impact. The most excited I saw them get about her was when my great-grandma turned 100 and the Governal-General (Queen's rep in Canada), sent her a form letter.
2. No real opinion. Kinda far for him to have any real impact
3. Not that I know of in Ontario
4. Not that I know of in Ontario
5. Actually, they don't so much? I think a lot of PR in the past 20-30 years about "First Nations" has tried to put some icing on that, but they did have problems. Maybe not to the extent the Americans did, though
6. They want to be special. So they hold the country hostage every so often to vote on leaving Canada but then realize they couldn't make it on their own easily, so they stay.
7. I don't think they do love it so much. It's like putting ketchup on your fries to them. As for weight, it's about the same as the US from what I've seen. Healthcare probably doesn't have much to do with it.
8. I don't know, but my relatives are always having problems with the healthcare system and complaining. One had to wait about 9 years to get her cataracts fixed (and they would only do one at a time, and YEARS apart, and wouldn't give her new glasses in the interim).
9. Watch the I Am Canadian beer commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pASE_TgeVg8
10. I think Canada has had so many refugees and immigrants from elsewhere that it would't really bat an eye in some areas such as Toronto and Vancouver.

Well, I am Canadian, so I'll give a try.... This is going to be coloured to some extent by my personal experiences, and by my politics, because Canadians have a variety of opinions on some of these subjects.


1) I would say that most Canadians kinda like having a queen, but that's mostly because she doesn't actually bother us or make us do anything. If I think about the queen once a year, that would be a lot.

2) We don't think about him at all, one way or the other. William and Kate, the actual likely successors, are about as popular as Elizabeth - approved of in a very mild way.

3) Newfoundland might, since that's where Vinland was.

4) Not that I know of.

5) To the extent that we do, it's mostly because land was gained by treaty, not by conquest. And those treaties, while not honoured perfectly by any means, have been honoured better than treaties signed between the US government and American native people. I don't want to sugarcoat how good things are - it's mostly a question of neglect, corruption, and systemic racism being better than slaughter and systemic racism.

6) You'd have to ask a Quebecois. I would hazard that it is not a question of parity, but rather of feeling like a different country and therefore wanting to BE a different country.

7) They don't. Poutine is disgusting.

8) Yes, there is a lot of pressure, but it's mostly pretty quiet. Whenever it comes to making actual changes that the voters hear about, it becomes clear that Canadians do not want much privatization at all, certainly not any that would affect the level of care. I have to disagree a bit with Beth about the healthcare system. For most people, who have the normal kinds of health problems that most people have, it's a good and workable system, with some holes (we don't really have great pharmacare, for example). A Canadian would probably have to wait longer for certain health care than an American with good insurance, but the Canadian would not even put one second's thought into the cost of the procedure. If you need to go for tests, or to the hospital, you just go, don't even think about it. For less usual and possibly more expensive procedures, well, my experience with a rather unusual procedure I had was that I waited about a year from first referral to a specialist to getting it done. Americans I know having the same procedure got it done much faster, but they used up about a year fighting with their insurance providers to get it covered. And Americans without insurance just didn't get it done at all.
The difference as I see it is that Americans with good coverage get excellent health care, while all Canadians get decent health care. Personally, I would rather get slightly less speedy and perfect care, but know that all my neighbours are also getting what they need, no matter what they do for a living.

10) I'll treat this seriously, even though I know you were being lighthearted. Most Americans, right now, would not qualify for refugee status, though there is talk of changing the safe third country agreement. Americans looking to immigrate would have to be assessed. Americans with skills would probably not find it hard to get permanent residency. And yeah, our big cities are full of people from all over the world - Canada takes about 2/3 as many refugees per year as the US, even though we have about 10% of your population. And that doesn't include regular immigrants who are not applying for refugee status - lots of those, too. My neighbourhood in Edmonton is wonderfully diverse - there are even some Americans living here!

Haha - I agree with #7!

What makes poutine poutine? I knew it had to do with French fries.

It's french fries covered in cheese curds and gravy.

I was going to ask what poutine is, it sounds like something you smear on your chest when you have a cold! Having read what agony has said, ewk, I will stick to Vicks!

If I told you I would rather have Vegemite, Sue, would you understand,?

You smear Vegemite on your chest?

Ewk!!!

I’ll be the first to say that poutine is delicious and is justifiably amazing. The first thing I had upon returning home from Europe this past summer was a poutine at the airport heaped with chicken, jalapeños, and sriracha (and cheese and gravy, of course).

There are lousy poutines out there though, just as there are lousy fries on their own out there.

Re: First Nations, we don’t have good relations and it’s been an arduous process to get anywhere near the acceptance we have now. Obviously that’s a bit of a political topic but I believe it’s unarguable that we’re not at the spot we should be in regards to equality in this regard.

Also, I wouldn’t give up our healthcare. The U.S. is bananas for not approaching their processes differently, but I would say there are bigger fish to fry these days.

I'd try it...but might not have it again...depends on how it tastes.

As for Vegemite/Marmite...you can have both...ewk!