Often times, I hear stories of people travelling and telling the locals that they"re from Canada. Sometimes they"ll get this response: "So you"re an American right?" Unlike most Canadians, I find this quite humorous. I"m always mystified by the ignorance that foreigners demonstrate whenever Canada and the United States are mentioned in the same sentence. Is Canada really "U.S.A. Jr."? And is Canada really the infamous 51st state? The answer is no. Nevertheless, aliens from distant countries, fail to realize this, and that there are differences between these neighbouring nations. Differences which are quite obvious to North Americans which lie within sports, diet, and general daily practices. .
A couple of months ago I was watching the Simpsons on television and it happened to be an episode dedicated to Canada. In the show, Canada was portrayed as a cold and snowy place. Canada was also depicted as a country where hockey reigns supreme. Although this was just a cartoon show, non-animated Americans that I saw on Jay Leno also had the same opinions. I later reflected on what I watched and came up with a conclusion. Americans do indeed have a great point. We do play hockey a lot, and yes, we also like to believe that it's snows for each and every month of the year. That's why people across the country have no other choice than to play and crave hockey all year long. Furthermore, the fact that we don't excel at other sports like soccer, doesn't mean we can't play them. It just means that it's harder to play soccer in snow.
