The whole discussion on "America" made me wonder the above.
by the way The War of 1812 wasn't against Canadians but against the Brits and won by Americans after the Battle of New Orleans--which inspired one of the funniest lines in folk music, penned by Jimmy Driftwood and sung by the great Johnny Horton:
..."We fired our cannon 'til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind."
Someone in that thread posted the lyrics to "We are the World" does anyone remember the parody that came out: "We are the Worms"? very funny.
I think Canadians are a little jealous because America gets so much attention in the world and they feel ignored way up there at the top of the continent. In their defense they have some beautiful country and almost every canadian girl I have ever met was super fine.
The whole discussion reminded me of one of my pet peeves: The difference between "nationality" and "ethnicity".
Invariably, I hear all the time people ask: "What nationality are you?" to someone when they mean to ask: "What ethnicity are you? or even What is your heritage? or What is your race (though some people are touchy about that an insist on there only being one human race--whatever).
Anyway, nationality is the wrong question. One's nationality refers to their citizenship as in when you are trying to cross the border and the border patrol asks you what is your nationality you should (if you are American) say: "I am a U.S. national" or better "I am a U.S. citizen".
But if one asks what is your ethnicity then you can say: I am french, german, italian...blah blah blah..or if they mean your (racial) mix then I am white and black with Cherokee Indian too....blah blah blah...
Interestingly "Hispanic" is one of those terms that people have different takes on, even more if you say "Latino" or "Latina". Obviously in one sense you mean Latin based but that applies to a large group not typically viewed as Latino. Latin America, what is that exactly? Most people from Mexico say Mexican, from Puerto Rico say Puerto Rican, or Cuba, Cuban, Guatemalan etc. the specific country but all of these get grouped under Latino and including Spain then you get Hispanic. But not Brazil, they are Portugese
and lets not even talk about mestizos!
Oy vey!
So you Canadians take pride in Canada ey and stop envying us Americans.
-Eduardo