Pearson

Canada needs to clean up its act. The USA is decades ahead of Canada in the treatment of sewage. http://www.sierralegal.org/m_archive/pr04_09_08.html

Thanks for posting the original link I had not seen it, only the BBC article reporting on the study. You are correct that Canadians come in eighth overall considering the multiple criteria of: behaviour; politeness; willingness to learn the lingo; enthusiasm to try the local delicacies; and how much money they put into the local economy. Apparently Canadians are last (alongside Russians and British) in the category of politeness which, as the BBC article puts it, "Americans were judged the most courteous and the British the rudest, alongside the Russians and Canadians." And that is what I based my earlier statement on, since it is the only time Canadians are mentioned in the BBC article. The direct Expedia link says basically the same thing; i.e., "‘Have a nice day’ Americans are the most polite, out-charming Germans and Japanese. Britons are judged to be the rudest, followed by Russians and the usually placid Canadians." Another thing to consider is the points assigned. The top three countries overall were the Germans, Americans, and Japanese who scored 41, 32, and 24 points, respectively. Canadians only scored 4 points so there is a large gap there. And let's not forget the real moral of this story. Canadians were not at the top. The world does not have the same image of you that you have of yourselves. In fact, the evidence is the opposite; Canadians are considered to be among the rudest citizens in the world when travelling overseas. And Americans are not the rude, arrogant, "Ugly-Americans" that we are so often called by Canadians. In fact, the evidence is just the opposite. Americans are polite to others when travelling overseas, exhibit decency, and basically get along quite well with others. It is time to bury this myth.

One other myth Canadians like to deceive themselves with... in fact, this might fall into the same legendary category as Americans being trained from birth to worship the red, white, and blue as a religious icon; and American kids being taught to begin chanting from an age old enough to speak - "THE USA IS THE BEST!"...is the well-ingrained belief of virtually all Canadians that Americans are universally despised when travelliing outside of the country, while Canadians are looked upon as some sort of master race, "Look Amma, a Canadian. Ooohhh, can I just stand next to him, maybe he'll let me touch his maple leaf" Then what do you make of this article from the BBC (must have been some real soul-searching the day this was published) that out of 25 countries assessed by global tourism boards that Americans are tied for the very best, most-liked, most-courteous, etc... tourists in the world (tied for number one with Japanese and Germans). Guess where Canadians were on the list? Number two? No. Three? No. Four? Guess again. Fifteenth? Nope. 20th? Keep going. Dead last? You mean tied with the Russians? BINGO! (see paragraph 11) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2137729.stm And I note that this was published just prior to the Iraq War, so in a sense these feelings are untainted by political views on the war and probably more accurately reflect the world's real feelings for American tourists. And note if you read the comments on the story (given by clicking on the link to the side, essentially all comments are favourable about American tourists until you start reading comments from Canadians - which are almost the only negatitive comments about Americans on the whole site. Further confirming my belief that hatred of Americans is brainwashed into Canadians. Why? THat is a whole nother thread. Once the war is finally over maybe you should start sewing American flags to your luggage.