We Canadians

Now, I have a beef to pick with our Canadian government.  Wasn’t our temperature cold enough when we had the imperial system in place, before you brought the metric system to Canada.  It is no wonder that our good southern neighbours think that Canada is so cold.

Before the metric system was brought into Canada our average winter temperatures ranged from -5 degrees Fahrenheit to -10 degrees Fahrenheit.  Now, with the metric system in place, our winter temperatures range from -10 degrees Celsius to -30 degrees Celsius.  I don’t know about you but I think that -30, whether the system is metric or imperial sounds a lot colder than -10.
 
Take our summer temperatures.  Our southern neighbours are enjoying 80 or even 90 degree summer days and we are only topping 30. To me 30 sounds a lot cooler than 80 or 90 regardless of the system used. 

It is no wonder that Americans think we Canadians are crazy.  Our temperature system just proves it. 

We Canadians are a strange lot sometimes.  Take for instance our Thanksgiving holiday.  Our Thanksgiving holiday is in the middle of October.  The Americans, our good neighbours, celebrate their Thanksgiving at the end of November.  Why is this?

My theory on this topic is that we Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in the middle of October because we love turkey and can't get enough of it.  See, Canadians eat turkey in April for Easter and then again in December for Christmas.  When the Thanksgiving holiday was first decided upon in Canada, we didn't want to wait for the end of November to eat our turkey, we wanted our turkey earlier.  We decided that the Canadian Thanksgiving would be in October.

Now, when you come to think of it, having Thanksgiving in October kind of makes a lot of sense.  October is still a warm month with temperatures usually between 16 and 20 degrees C.  It is usually warm enough that we just have to put a sweater on and not our winter clothing.  October is a very pretty month in most parts of Canada, what with our maple trees changing colour.  The maple trees are very pretty at this time of the year with their orange, brown and red leaves.

Our American friends have to deal with colder temperatures for their Thanksgiving celebration and they don't have the beauty of the fall colours.  It is hard to imagine a Thanksgiving dinner without the fall colours.  That to me would be pretty boring and dull.

Another difference I have noticed between the Canadian Thanksgiving and the American Thanksgiving holidays is that we Canadians have our Thanksgiving on a Monday, which means that we get a long weekend off work.  Now, our Americans actually are a little smarter than we are in this respect because what they have done is have their Thanksgiving on a Thursday and then they end up somehow getting the Friday off work too, so they end up having a longer long weekend than we do.

Okay, now I know that a lot of you think that we Canadians are a strange breed of people and at times, I do tend to agree with you.  However, you must at least admit that our beautifully coloured dollar bills do make a lot of sense.  I mean, it is very easy for us Canadians to tell a $20.00 bill and a $100.00 bill apart. 

I have been to the United States as a child and I do remember seeing nothing but green dollar bills while there.  I thought that it looked very boring and a little confusing to have all the bills the exact same colour and I grew to appreciate our good old Canadian dollar bills, full of colour and full and life.  I remember how hard it was to tell a $20.00 bill apart from a $10.00 bill. 

It is no wonder that Americans seem to run out of money more frequently.  I mean how hard would it be to give someone a $20.00 bill instead of a $10.00 bill when all the bills are the same colour.  If you are in a hurry and just pull anything out of your wallet without taking a close look at it, this could very well happen quite frequently. 

I do understand that the Americans have recently adopted the practice of having different coloured bills and I feel that is a step in the right direction.  It is good that the Americans will be able to tell their bills apart and it will be good for the Americans to spice up their life with colourful dollar bills.

Our good neighbours to the south have this impression that we Canadians live in igloos.  Now, I hate to shatter their image of us but I have to set the record straight. There are very few Canadians that actually live in igloos.

The only Canadian people that live in igloos would be the inhabitants of the more northern region of Canada, Nunavit or the Northwest Territories.  However, even people in these remote places live in regular houses.  Igloos would only be used in the winter on a hunting expedition or as an emergency shelter.

It is funny how our southern neighbours perceive us as living in igloos, when in fact, their very own most northern state is further north than Nunavit or the Northwest Territories.  Do we Canadians have the perception that Alaskans live in igloos.  Of course we don’t.

Natives in Alaska do not live in igloos either.  They live in very nice houses just like the houses that we live in.  Their houses have heat and electricity, too.