Great quote by Trudeau on Canada-US relations

[Smallc]

Doubtful. The US doesn't have an official language.

[August1991]

News flash. The American education system doesn't teach students about Noah's Ark.

You might want to spend a little more time focusing on your own county's ignorance...

We're going afield here but whenever English Canadians point at American ignorance of geography, I ask them whether Mexico is a federal republic or not. (Few know; it is.) I then ask Canadians how many states are in the United Mexican States. (I happen to know; there are 20.) I then ask Canadians to name one. (Invariably they can't.)

Canadians, like Americans and other people around the world, usually know things that are relevant to them. The constitutional structure of Mexico is no more important to Canadians than Canada's geography is to Americans.

Indeed, I suspect that more Americans know about Canada than Canadians know about Mexico.

Now then, since we're in the world of claiming superiority based on knowledge - without checking google or wikipedia - who is the president of Mexico? Any Canadian who doesn't know has no right to claim that Americans are ignorant.

Doubtful. The US doesn't have an official language.

Individual American states have passed legislation to determine an official language.

The two countries have dealt differently with internal minority groups.

Edited March 29, 2010 by August1991

[Smallc]

Now then, since we're in the world of claiming superiority based on knowledge - without checking google or wikipedia - who is the president of Mexico?

Felipe Calderon

I had to look up the spelling though.

[Smallc]

Individual American states have passed legislation to determine an official language.

The two countries have dealt differently with internal minority groups.

Two Canadian provinces have also passed official language laws (Quebec and New Brunswick). Manitoba and Ontario are also mandated (one as part of its entry into confederation, and the other by choice) to provide all provincial services in both English and French where necessary.

Edited March 29, 2010 by Smallc

[GostHacked]

That's why the stoooopid Americans invented Google....not Canada.

No worries, we can still read regular maps you find at the service station.

[Moonbox]

Canadians, like Americans and other people around the world, usually know things that are relevant to them. The constitutional structure of Mexico is no more important to Canadians than Canada's geography is to Americans.

I don't expect them to know who our PM is, or who Mexico's president is, or what our capital is or anything like that. Canada is small potatoes in the grang scheme of things. It's pretty sad how smug and indignant most Canadians get when they catch an American who doesn't know these things. August you're right. People only know about things that are relevant to them.

On the other hand, elementary level knowledge of world geography and how people live in the rest of the world you would think at SOME POINT would come to them. The sad thing is that there actually ARE a lot of people that think we live in igloos. There are millions in the US that wouldn't be able to point France, Iraq, even China or the Pacific Ocean out on a blank map. I'm not even making that up. It's unbelievable.

Edited March 30, 2010 by Moonbox

[Guest American Woman]

The sad thing is that there actually ARE a lot of people that think we live in igloos.

You mean *gasp* you don't??

There are millions in the US that wouldn't be able to point France, Iraq, even China or the Pacific Ocean out on a blank map. I'm not even making that up. It's unbelievable.

Don't know where you're getting the "millions" figure from, but what so many non-Americans seem to choose to ignore is that young people in Canada and Britain did almost as poorly as the young people in the U.S. did on that national geographic survey.

What's unbelievable is how so many people like to make out Americans to be stupid, when other nations aren't much smarter. We all have our share of ignorant people, but for some reason, a lot of people only choose to dwell on Americans' ignorance.

[Guest American Woman]

American woman, do you think that in the future the US will have to have two official languages, English and Spanish?

As has already been pointed out, we don't even have one official language, so I, personally, just don't see it happening.

[Oleg Bach]

He WAS an intellectual gay guy that slept with famous women simply for the status factor...what man would condone the horrific behaviour of a wife that went off with Mick Jagger to blow coke up her nose and blow the coker?

[Jack Weber]

He WAS an intellectual gay guy that slept with famous women simply for the status factor...what man would condone the horrific behaviour of a wife that went off with Mick Jagger to blow coke up her nose and blow the coker?

He did'nt condone it...He divorced her...

[Oleg Bach]

He did'nt condone it...He divorced her...

He may have divorced her because he was more liberal than her..that he considered that men might offer as much pleasure --and he would not have to take on familiar responsibilty.

[Born Free]

You mean *gasp* you don't??

Don't know where you're getting the "millions" figure from, but what so many non-Americans seem to choose to ignore is that young people in Canada and Britain did almost as poorly as the young people in the U.S. did on that national geographic survey.

What's unbelievable is how so many people like to make out Americans to be stupid, when other nations aren't much smarter. We all have our share of ignorant people, but for some reason, a lot of people only choose to dwell on Americans' ignorance.

I love Jay Leno's Jay Walking episodes. Especially when its filmed on a college campus.

[Dithers]

Trudeau was a statesman the likes of which we haven't seen since.

[August1991]

On the other hand, elementary level knowledge of world geography and how people live in the rest of the world you would think at SOME POINT would come to them.

Moonbox, you live in a strange world.

In my world, in Quebec, people know about how to find an open day care place or which family doctor is accepting patients.

It is a woman's world. The president of Mexico is at most a question for their child's schoolbook.