Considering the vast majority of Canadians live within 100 miles of the American border and there's a ton of cross-border traffic, I don't find it that surprising that the cultures are similar.

As an Washington DC area kid who visited Ottawa as a teenager (Canadian relatives), aside from having to go through customs and everything being in French as well as English, I felt right at home.

It was mostly a joke.

I spent some time in Canada, and yeah, it's "America, but civilized." ;-) The main cultural difference is that they never threw off English rule, they're still technically subjects of Her Majesty the Queen of England (or something like that.) Quebec has this dual culture going on where the French were overthrown by the English and are still a little huffy over it from time to time.

I don't have any idea how CA stacks up to the USA on all the points the article raised though.

> The main cultural difference is that they never threw off English rule, they're still technically subjects of Her Majesty the Queen of England (or something like that.) Quebec has this dual culture going on where the French were overthrown by the English and are still a little huffy over it from time to time.

It boggles the mind why people think this of Canada. The queen takes up a combined 0% of our collective thoughts and concerns. English rule is non existant, we're a sovereign nation.

With the possible exemption of some archaic laws 99% of people wouldn't be able to cite, England has 0 influence over Canada.

Likewise your assessment of Quebec is quite dated by a few hundred years. It's the equivalent of Europeans wondering if the US south is still dealing in slaves. With that said, tensions in Québec are not imagined, but they often miss attributed. As an English Québec I feel I can confidently state that issues are almost 100% due to how the government of Quebec desperately seeks ways to preserve their French culture while being in the middle of North America. Most of their laws and issues, no matter how misguided come from this very understandable motivation to keep their culture.

The south today is still far far far worse to be in if you're African American. I expect that you're slightly downplaying the role that the queen has in Canada's affairs. For one thing, Canada will come to the aid of the UK far more quickly than the US would in crisis times. That's the whole point of the "Commonwealth of nation's"

I'm still mostly joking. No offense intended.

In re: Quebec specifically, I was obliquely referencing the 1980 Quebec independence referendum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Quebec_referendum) and the laws about having French names on stores, that kind of thing. But yeah, FWIW, I agree with your assessment.

It's Her Majesty Queen of Canada. Yes, she is Queen of England, but also Queen of Canada, a separate role (though yes, I don't see her moving from Buckingham Palace to say Ottawa anytime soon).

The role of Quebec can be understood as Aboriginal, British and French are considered the founding people and English and French should have equal status throughout the government. It's also a very populous province that, by uniting around a single Quebecois political party, has to be considered in deal-making.

That may be the role of Quebec federally, but "historic anglophones" are definitely being pushed out in Quebec proper. More and more places it's becoming illegal for the government to speak French - no more English power bills are legal, for instance, and no more English pay slips. "Hi" was outlawed three years ago in shops open to the public; now legally, it must be Bonjour. So, to say that they have equal status in Quebec or that there are not tensions isn't entirely accurate.