...with coffee?

Obviously, Man doth not live on donuts alone.

"Americans aspire to independence," he says. "Their model is to drive out of town, Gary Cooper with Grace Kelly, and get on their ranch and she's in the kitchen and having babies and he's standing at the ranch gate with a gun, saying, `no trespassing.'" (sounds good to me).

"Canadians, by contrast, are far less fearful. Yes, we're mostly autonomous (from institutions and the state) but also interdependent (with each other as individuals).

That's partly because, despite the vastness of Canada, our population is much more urban: Roughly 40 per cent of us live in the three biggest cities, compared with 15 per cent of Americans."

I really have to laugh at the this quaint concept of Americans being more fearful. 40% of Canadians huddled together in three cities really doesn't strike me as being very courageous. Perhaps that's why their armed services are peacekeepers, while the populace roosts in their city coops totally dependent on the fearful Americans who provide defensive protection for them and their interests throughout the world.

Timmy's indeed.

The author beggars his knowledge of Americans and I'd think of Canadians as well. I'd guess many of them will get a laugh from this mouses roaring as well.

8,000 years?

Isn't that what Bishop Ussher says?

We drove the entire Queen's Highway west from Montreal and were surprised to find that Canadians live in a thin strip of small towns and villages along the U.S. border, dotted every so often with a middle-sized, quaintly old-fashioned looking city.

This is fine as there's not much to see from there to the North Pole. Perhaps it's their exposed position which causes Canadians to
become interdependent more than their superior moral authority.

Arriving at Calgary and the Canadian Rockies is thrilling and going further to Jasper is breathtaking. We haven't had the pleasure of visiting the other side of the Canadian Rockies, but hope to do so in the near future. We were treated courteously everywhere we went, but didn't feel quite at home and welcome until we reached Calgary which we thought a beautiful city with what seemed to be busy happy people. Aside from their odd pronunciation of the word, "about" nothing seemed at all different and the U.S. plates on our car weren't looked upon as suspect at all.

If there is anything more beautiful than Lake Louise with the sunlight reflecting off it's huge white glacier and unbelievably blue water as seen from the terrace of Le Chateau, I haven't seen it yet.

Actually OJ, no. According to the good Bishop I believe it would be roughly 6,002 years - assuming his dating of creation to 4004 BC holds.

Regarding the Canuckistani theory that Americans are more fearful than our Socialist brethren to the north. Hah!. What is braver, going it alone to hew a home from the wilderness, or nesting in comfort in the company of one's fellows?

If our forebears were of the same mettle as the author of this article, or of those folks who inhabit the recesses of the Timmy's in Eastern Canuckistan, things would be different here. We never would have ventured west, never to see the Pacific, never to have tamed the wilderness, never to have achieved the greatness that other nations aspire too. We too would see the bulk of our population concentrated in just three large cities, Washington, New York, and Philadelphia. We'd also be talking jealously about that Judeo-Christian giant that lay west of the thirteen colonies. The country that dominates the continent, protects us from foreign threats, won two world wars, leads the fight against terrorism, and is the financial heart of the world. Why, we'd be Canadians too.

Slightly off topic -- Have the Maple Leafs ever been any good since the let Tim Horton go to Buffalo? The whole franchise seems as if it's been spending all its time eating donuts and driking coffee since 1969.

It's not even true that Canada is more urban than the U.S. According to these pages, the United States is nearly twice as densely populated as Canada at both the 1st and 2nd population density quintiles.

Petey here. Or Petie, if you prefer. Actually we go to Tim Horton's because the coffee and doughnuts are so darn good. But, hey, any old place will do as a backdrop for yet another tiresome wank about who we are and what distinguishes us from the rapacious Yankee traders. Having just returned from a drive to Florida and back, I'm hard-pressed to see much difference in restaurant behaviour except you eat a lot more and, while we like to wish people a good day, you tend to command them to have one.

John:

No, and it looks like they might miss the playoffs this year. Sublime!

Tim Hortons vs. Starbucks.

Canada vs. U.S.A.

Interesting can of worms opened here. (I wonder if more gun toting hunters hang out at Tim Hortons than Starbucks?)

Obviously, Wendy's couldn't get rid of Tim Horton's soon enough:)