Who's Canadian

[cos]

With the help of a cute little program called WireTap, I recorded a bunch of radio programs from NPR and other sources and burned a disc for my roadtrip to the March for Women last weekend. One of the programs I put on the disc was Who's Canadian - notes and stories about the Canadians among us. It's my favorite episode of This American Life, and one of my favorite radio shows ever. The first portion of the show talks about how many of the prominent people in American culture are actually Canadian, and in this clip (about two minutes) a Canadian talks about how Canadians always know who the other Canadians are. It's as if they have a Canadian-recognition chip implanted in their brain, he says.

Off the top of my head, I can think of several Canadians on my LJ friends list: bassringer, choucroute, ert, jasonkelly, ladymondegreen, emerlion... I got to thinking, who else is Canadian? Are there any on my friends list who I don't realize are Canadian, or I've just forgotten? They do tend to blend in.

So, come on! You Canadians on my friends list should be able to tell me who the other Canadians are, right? Fess up and reveal yourselves and your countrymen!

Comments

[tashari.livejournal.com]

Oh, c'mon, you know I'm Canadian too. Musta slipped your mind. ^_-
Although I haven't run into other people and suddenly my brain told me they were Canadian ('cause I don't meet many other Canadians), I have been discovered by people who caught my slight accent. Someone once guessed it from the way I said "tomorrow". O.o

[beowabbit]

I’m an honorary Canadian. :-)

[cos]

Hmm, I wonder if safetybitch is an honorary Canadian too...

How'd you become one?

[beowabbit]

My Canadian friends told me I was too polite and rational to be an American. :-)

[laurens10.livejournal.com]

I used to tell people in high school I was Canadian.

Thanks for pointing out this application! This completely makes my day.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

questioner is.

[cos]

Oh yeah, I knew that, but forgot. They really do blend in!

[sandhawke.livejournal.com]

I used to be....

(For two year of my life, I had lived more in Canada than the US, and far more of the formative ones, so I considered myself Canadian. I think I can still sing O Canada and God Save the Queen, like we did every day in Grade One (not "first grade").)

These days I have fun recognizing people from the Bay Area.

[forgotten-aria.livejournal.com]

I'm legally a Canadian, still have my citizenship and all, but I spent 8 years in Canada and 21 in the states, so, I'm not sure I'm really a Canadian any more.

[cos]

That's what they address in the fourth portion of that show. There's a brother and sister, both from Toronto. He moved away to New York, she to Winnipeg (much more "Canadian" than Toronto). They have a phone conversation talking about how Canadian or not Canadian the brother is. Apparently living for a long time in the US makes one less Canadian than living the same amount of time in Europe or elsewhere. But all her friends in Winnipeg think he's extra-cool for living in New York (just not as Canadian).

[somehedgehog.livejournal.com]

I gots Canadian ancestors, who fled to Nova Scotia when they realized that the colonies were not a safe place for Tories like them. I don't think that counts, though.

[murph-grrl.livejournal.com]

I pretend I'm Canadian. But that's about the extent of it.

[beavertails.livejournal.com]

I'm not on your friends list, but I am Canadian :)

[choucroute.livejournal.com]

and cos, beavetails is cool.

and also. I am so totally canadian, even if I've spent the last 3 months and will be still here for another month in the states.

[cos]

I think rural Quebec gives you extra Canadian points that someone from Toronto wouldn't get, to start out with. And the Pacific Northwest is no New York City. You're probably still more Canadian than that guy from Toronto was before he ever left home.

Did you listen to that show? Or at least the short clip I posted an mp3 of?

[choucroute.livejournal.com]

I haven't, yet...

[somechicksings.livejournal.com]

i was made an honourary canadian buy a guy named wesley from alberta. i've also slept with a canadian in toronto, so perhaps i have sexually-transmitted canadia?

[cos]

Huh, does it matter where you do it? Because I've had sex in Canada and I've had sex with Canadians, but never with Canadians in Canada. I should look to see if anyone's done research on sexually-transmitted canadia...

[geminigirl]

I'm married to a Canadian.

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

Well, I used to live north of Canada. As in directly north of.

After 3 days in Toronto, people mistake my accent for that of a local.

Of course, for the majority of my life (28 years of it) I lived in states adjacent to Canada. I still listen to CBC radio.

[cos]

Does "directly" mean the arctic (as opposed to, say, Alaska, which could be "north of and to the side of")?

When I visit Toronto, I feel a lot more like I've just travelled to another state than when I visit most parts of the US. Toronto's more Bostonlike than anywhere in Colorado, for example.

[wendolen.livejournal.com]

Having spent time in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, and Montreal, I gotta say that Toronto has more in common with Canadian cities than with American cities -- but it's something I can't put my finger on, or put into words.

It probably is the most American of the Canadian cities, though.

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

Directly, as in if I went in a straight southerly direction, I would run into Canada.

I could find places in any Ontario city where I could get buttered cucumber sandwiches with tea. Are there any such places in Boston?

[scherzoid.livejournal.com]

My ancestors got kicked out of Nova Scotia by the British in 1755. Does that count? :)

[ellipticcurve.livejournal.com]

gyesika is a Stealth Canuck: born in Montreal, raised in the US. I'm her best friend, which I guess lets me bask in the reflected glow of her hidden Canadianness.

(I have French citizenship! Can I still be cool?)