Around ~2008 I was in a Barcelona hostel and met a guy there. He started speaking and I interrupted him excitedly…“Oh you’re American!!”.
He looked down…the weight of pain curdled the air around us. You could sense deep sorrow welling beneath the surface of this man. He paused for what felt like an eternity to compose himself,
He looked up with a piercing, but harrowing, stare and said “No, I’m Canadian…”
I’ll never forget that moment. That sheer depth of emotion is something I haven’t experienced before or since.
Did I silently murder this poor Canadian soul? How do Canadians cope with the mistaken identity?
How much traveling have you done? I’m Canadian and don’t want to join America or something, and there are meaningful differences. But as someone that’s traveled a decent amount, we are way more similar than different. Even England and Australia feel way more alien than most places I’ve been in the the US do. (I’ll admit that one time I was in super rural Tennessee that it also felt quite alien)
I do alot of traveling south, see alot of hockey and football games. I’m not saying it’s alien, it probably is the closest thing we have to a brother. That’s why I said we love them, Yada Yada Yada. But we are different and that view is becoming skewed. Also, I can almost say with certainty your from Ontario. As a Maritimer, Quebecer, Northerner, Indigenous or BC’er. Would probably say how wildly different it is. As we are both huge countries with mosaics of local cultures. But Ontario has a similar culture to Illinois, Minnesota or other northern states. Also, rural states are funny… Stopped at a roadside dinner in Minni a month ago and posters of Biden with Devil horns everywhere and no one flinched…