feldman

The thing to remember about Canadians is that however much they look like Americans they're not. Canadians expect their government to make sense, maintain the cleanliness and order of their cities and sustain the health of their society, for example, and when their government fails they get peeved in a way that's only seen in American city hall meetings. Their politics are neighborly and personal in the way of seeing their politicians as human and approachable (and shame-able if necessary); compared to American politics which is a corporately produced product much like the contents of grocery store shelves.

Speaking of grocery stores--take public singing, for example.

Canadians share a cultural love of singing with African Americans that makes most white Americans uncomfortable. Most white Americans don't sing in public without vast amounts of reassurance that it's okay to suck; during the holidays, or at loud concerts, or safe in the wombs of our cars. Culturally, white folks in America sing in church, in highly structured choir environments, and at football games--places where they've agreed as a group to sing together, or where they can't be heard, or where strangers might blame their poor performance on alcohol. They might hum to themselves, the way a person might fart in an empty grocery store aisle and then quickly head toward the freezer section.

They do not sing in grocery stores.

Canadians are more comfortable with singing, with sharing the music in their heads, and far more comfortable with the sound of their voices and expressing emotional content through voice. To most white Americans, the idea of singing in public, to oneself or with a friend, is as odd and uncomfortable as climbing into a traditional Japanese bathtub with the whole family and scrubbing clean.