Canada's obsession with maintaining their "difference" from the U.S. always makes me grin. The Globe and Mail has an article fretting about how their elections are becoming more like ours - no great recommendation, I'll grant.
Truly, no matter how they try to stop it, American customs keep seeping across our mutual (very porous) border. How could they not? All of Canada has about the same population as California, and most of them live within 100 miles (170 km) of the U.S. border.
Satellite TV signals from stateside providers can be intercepted north of the border, as well as plain broadcast signals in a number of locations. The New York Times reports:
All together, 1.6 million Canadians visit Florida every year, according to a survey by the University of Florida. Thousands of others go to such places as South Carolina, Texas, Arizona, California and Hawaii.Plus Canadians pay much more attention to U.S. news and politics than Americans ever do to Canadian happenings. Try as they like, Canadians are massively influenced by the U.S. with no effort expended on our part to make it happen.
Finally, if any American ever said, "Golly, let's make sure we don't become like Canada." no one took note.
