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Why is Canadian English unique?

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Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#31

Post by notahacker »

branchless wrote: post #26
acrooks wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're right, but I think branchless' comment was referring to the Queen in the context of her role, not the person herself. Her role is that of, among others, a high-profile figurehead for the upper class. And the prominence and cultural importance of the role is certainly a factor in the oppression.

The UK is plenty oppressed. We still have all the same problems with economic rent extracted via land ownership.

Every country - republics included - has that problem.

Although the reason that a relatively high proportion of resource extraction revenues in Canada are redirected to public welfare is, perhaps ironically, because the vast majority of Canada's territory is classed as Crown Land...

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#32

Post by ZoeZoeBee »

pmelendez wrote: post #29
ZoeZoeBee wrote: post #24

Say what ever you want to say, but Eh is one of the best words out there. It allows you to create a question out of a sentence without having to change inflection.

> Say what ever you want to say, but Eh is one of the best words out there. It allows you to create a question out of a sentence without having to change inflection. I agree but I would argue that "huh" and "right" do the trick too :)

Huh and right do too, though they lack the panache of a well placed Eh

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#33

Post by ZanyProgrammer »

jordigh wrote: post #20
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>> Though English-speaking Canadians remain loyal to the Queen, they aren’t truly interested in being British or sounding British; they’re just interested in using the British connection to assert their independence from the independent United States, which they left because they didn’t want to leave. What horrible highschool textbook is this from? When did Canada separate from the US? And to say english Canadians ar…

> The queen is a total irrelevance in Canada Not to everyone: http://www.monarchist.ca/ Although you are right that many people do not care for the Queen, there are still pockets here and there who do, and she's obviously acknowledged everywhere in government, as a tour of Parliament Hill will attest. Newspapers report the prosecution of a criminal trial as "the Crown", and land that belongs to the government is call…

I've always figured that the reason why even NDP-ites in Toronto (people who I'm thinking of as the most leftist Canadians) aren't republicans is a desire to stay different from the US in some way. Its simply a way to retain a different Canadian identity.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#34

Post by georges_sand »

branchless wrote: post #16
pmelendez wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The queen is a total irrelevance in Canada. Maybe, but new Canadians still have to swear loyalty to the Queen in the citizenship ceremony.

I'm a Brit who moved to Canada and I find it _amazing_ that anyone here supports the queen. You moved to a new land where you were not serfs. Where you could live free and your children could escape a suffocating class structure. To a land where you elected your own leaders. Do you want oppression back?

Many Anglo-Canadians - and probably some Francos too - look at the monarchy as a "let's not re-write the whole Constitution" option, at least nowadays. Something that Australia's republican movement has discovered, to the best of my knowledge, to be quite burdening.

They call it "pragmatical monarchism" or similar wording.

That being said, I am similarly amazed - but for quite different reasons - by Brits moving to Canada.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#35

Post by pmelendez »

ZoeZoeBee wrote: post #32
pmelendez wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Say what ever you want to say, but Eh is one of the best words out there. It allows you to create a question out of a sentence without having to change inflection. I agree but I would argue that "huh" and "right" do the trick too :)

Huh and right do too, though they lack the panache of a well placed Eh

I can't say I disagree :)

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#37

Post by allengeorge »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #33
jordigh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The queen is a total irrelevance in Canada Not to everyone: http://www.monarchist.ca/ Although you are right that many people do not care for the Queen, there are still pockets here and there who do, and she's obviously acknowledged everywhere in government, as a tour of Parliament Hill will attest. Newspapers report the prosecution of a criminal trial as "the Crown", and land that belongs to the government is call…

I've always figured that the reason why even NDP-ites in Toronto (people who I'm thinking of as the most leftist Canadians) aren't republicans is a desire to stay different from the US in some way. Its simply a way to retain a different Canadian identity.

More likely, it's that the queen is inconsequential in day-to-day governance, and absolutely no one wants to reopen that can of worms that's the Constitution. Especially not after Meech Lake.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#38

Post by lazyant »

branchless wrote: post #16
pmelendez wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The queen is a total irrelevance in Canada. Maybe, but new Canadians still have to swear loyalty to the Queen in the citizenship ceremony.

I'm a Brit who moved to Canada and I find it _amazing_ that anyone here supports the queen. You moved to a new land where you were not serfs. Where you could live free and your children could escape a suffocating class structure. To a land where you elected your own leaders. Do you want oppression back?

Not anyone, I don't support non-democratic "foreign" institutions. Most people don't care as in they don't realize about something that's been there all the time.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#39

Post by bct »

branchless wrote: post #16
pmelendez wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The queen is a total irrelevance in Canada. Maybe, but new Canadians still have to swear loyalty to the Queen in the citizenship ceremony.

I'm a Brit who moved to Canada and I find it _amazing_ that anyone here supports the queen. You moved to a new land where you were not serfs. Where you could live free and your children could escape a suffocating class structure. To a land where you elected your own leaders. Do you want oppression back?

I'm pretty happy having a powerless figurehead, especially if the alternative is presidential elections.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#40

Post by sdm »

I'm surprised they missed one of the biggest ones that comes up in day-to-day life dealing with Americans: the use of verb "to table" in meetings.

In American English if you say you want to table something in a meeting it means you want to stop talking about it. Ex. Let's table this discussion for later.

In Canadian English if you say you want to table something in a meeting it means you want to raise it up and discuss it -- the exact opposite. Ex. I want to table to this report, has everyone had a chance to read it?

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