Watch the Footage

So, at WitchPixie's excellent instigation, I am continuing the tradition with a thread that allows me to ramble about Canada, my home and native land. Because I obviously don't do that enough.

If I think of info-dumps that I think are generally interesting, I'll put them here (and, if only there were other Canadians on the forums, I would invite them to do the same... but there aren't), and, more importantly, feel free to ask questions! About Canada!

From what I've heard, they film a lot of movies in Toronto. When you're watching movies do you just go "Hey! I recognize that! That's Toronto!" all the time?

Questions about Canada huh? no I refuse it'll just end up with me trolling

Guyshane wrote:Questions about Canada, Eh? no I refuse it'll just end up with me trolling

Fix'd

narrativedilettante wrote:From what I've heard, they film a lot of movies in Toronto. When you're watching movies do you just go "Hey! I recognize that! That's Toronto!" all the time?

Actually... yes.
Though even more often than noticing Toronto in movies, I notice movies in Toronto. By which I mean, my dad's place of work has been hijacked a number of times to be used as a movie set.

One time, they turned off the heating in the dead of winter because it was interfering with the sound. When he went into the hall to complain, he was told that he'd missed Dustin Hoffman by about a minute.

Another time, the Hulk stole his parking space. Yes, specifically his parking space. He drove up to his reserved spot, and it was covered in props and stuff.

And at least once a street in my neighbourhood that we generally drive down to get to school was blocked off except for "local traffic only" because it was being used as a movie set.

So yeah, movies. It's also a lot of fun noticing in the movies, though. Like when it's set in New York, but there are TTC buses in the background. Or, you know, they forgot to edit the CN Tower out of a shot. Bit of a dead giveaway, there.

Also, I do not know very many Canadians who say "eh". I'm not sure why that is a thing. But fine. It's a trope. Keep trotting it out, why don't you.

Sicon112 wrote:

Guyshane wrote:Questions about Canada, Eh? no I refuse it'll just end up with me trolling

Fix'd

You Magnificent Bastard

Wait, has Sicon written a book?

Genndy Oda C.O.G. wrote:Wait, has Sicon written a book?

Maybe, maybe not, but since you haven't read my book, you don't know which.

Oh! I'm not going to hijack this thread, but your stories about filming reminded me...

When I was really little (as in, I don't remember this AT ALL) they were filming something near our house for two days or so... at night. It was loud, and when my dad complained, they gave him money so that we could stay at a hotel until they were done. My dad pocketed the money and dealt with the noise.

Oh also, TWWF-relevant, when I was getting that second LA Echo, the one at the hotel, it was tricky to get there because they were filming a car jump in a nearby intersection. I didn't get to actually SEE the car jump, of course, I just got to drive around the intersection, and then walk around the intersection, and look at the ramp and the people standing around.

Okay I should ask another question.

Um... What's the deal with poutine?

Ah, poutine... it's a French thing.

I will probably go into more detail later about the "two solitudes" Canadian paradigm and all the baggage that comes with essentially having a dual culture, two distinct language groups living side-by-side with a certain amount of tension, and all the differences between Montreal and the rest of Quebec, and between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

But, in short, when Canada became Canada, there were the (mostly Catholic) French of Lower Canada (now mostly Quebec), and the (mostly Protestant) English of Upper Canada (now mostly Ontario). (Upper and Lower refer to their position in relation to the St. Lawrence River.) Both cultures were preserved, and respected, despite the English winning the war for control of Canada.

So anyway, [/digression]. Poutine is a French Canadian thing, I think. French fries with cheese melted on them and gravy on top... and no, I do not understand it. I have learned about the invention of poutine in school, and boggled, and wiped it from my mind. I have tasted imitation poutine, and it is disgusting.

Who'd have thought? There's a Canadian thing that I don't like.

I have randomly stumbled upon a page of canadian slang and pronounciation, and I just can't erase the association between it and the pirate-speak.

If it sounds like pirates, it's probably from Atlantic Canada.

Speaking of slang and pronounciation, as I'm sure Dryu can relate, it's worth pointing out that Canada is very big. We have a whole spectrum of timezones, climates, regional slang, and accents. I mean, I don't have the right accent for where I am, because I'm living in Toronto with a Montreal accent-- and yes, you can hear a difference, even though they're relatively close together. Ottawa accents sound adorable. Atlantic Canada accents sound like a combination between Irish and French Canadian (which is its own whole deal), and Newfie accents are unlike anything you have ever heard. I'd describe Western Canada accents, too, but I haven't heard them often enough to say more than that they sound kind of... American?

Okay, random info-dump based on something I saw in the chat...

A lot of people have trouble with how other countries are, for want of a better word, structured.

Canada is divided into ten provinces and three territories. If you're American, think of provinces as states. Territories are like that, but... much smaller population, and their internal government works a little differently (I'm ashamed to say I don't know differently how). Canada's parliament consists of the Senate, whose power is mostly ceremonial-- rubber-stamping things the House has agreed on-- and who are appointed until they die or retire, by the Prime Minister, whenever there's an open spot; and the House of Commons, which is where stuff happens. The people in the House of Commons are MPs-- Members of Parliament-- and they're elected based on population. That is, the country is divided into "ridings" of approximately equal population (though each of the territories consists of only one riding), and people vote for a candidate running in their riding for the party they want, who will represent them (this means that sometimes, though not often, people will vote for someone from a party they don't usually support, because that specific person is someone whom they want to represent them).

The leader of whichever party forms the government is the Prime Minister. While the Prime Minister is the head of the government, he is not the head of state. Canada is a constitutional monarchy; our head of state is our Queen. Her name is Elizabeth. Members of the UK may recognize her, since she's their queen, too. However, she is not queen of Canada in her capacity as Queen of England; that is, if the UK abolished the monarchy today, she would still be Queen of Canada. Since she doesn't live here (obviously), the Queen is represented by the Governor General, who is appointed for a term by recommendation of the Prime Minister, and rubber-stamped by the Queen. The Governor General, while technically the acting Head of State, has only had any real influence over Canadian policy/politics twice in the history of Canada (one of those times in very recent years).

Each province has its own provincial government, composed of MPPs-- Members of Provincial Parliament. The leader of provincial parliament is the premier-- the provincial equivalent of the Prime Minister-- and each province has a Lieutenant Governor, a provincial equivalent of the Governor General.

One more thing worth mentioning-- a note on minority governments. Because Canada has not two but (depending on how you count it) either three or five major parties, very frequently no party can win a majority of seats in the House. There are 308 seats in the House of Commons, which means that if a party wins 155 of them, that party is the uncontested party in power. However, more often, no party has that many seats. Instead, the party with the plurality of seats-- that is, the party with more seats than any other-- forms the government, but it is a minority government, because the governing party holds a minority of seats compared to the other parties combined. This means that in order to pass any motions, the party in power must appease factions of the other parties, or be blocked at every turn, achieving nothing, and resulting in a vote of no confidence (which, if successful, would mean a new election). Theoretically, in a minority government situation, the opposition parties could form a coalition with a majority of seats and ask the Governor General to allow them to form the government instead; in practice, I can only think of two notable coalitions in Canada-- one had nothing to do with minority governments and was in fact back in the days when Canada had only two major parties (the coalition was formed during the Great War over the question of conscription), and the other was that time in recent years when the Governor General had actual sway over Canadian politics-- and in that case, she actually refused to allow them to form a government, instead acceding to the Prime Minister's request that she prorogue (postpone for a few months) Parliament. I'll say no more about this because of Rule 6.

...And that is probably more than you have ever wanted to know about how Canada works. Laconic: It's not the Queen of Britain we have on all our money. It's the Queen of Canada.

I've been watching a Canadian TV show called "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (though on Hulu they shortened the title to "Little Mosque"). It's set in a fictional town that seems to be an hour or two away from Toronto, and the characters all kind of... disparage Toronto somewhat frequently. In a few different episodes it seems like the people living out in the prairies view people living in Toronto in a negative light, and they seem to treat people from Toronto as Acceptable Targets.

So I'm wondering if this is a Canadian stereotype that I just haven't heard about because I don't live in Canada, or if it's just general "people living in small towns don't like people living in big cities" or if maybe it's just an in-joke because the series is filmed in Toronto (I checked and it is). Are there any insights you have?

Little Mosque on the Prairie... ah, yes. I haven't seen it, but I think I get the general idea.

As far as I can tell, it's not set near Toronto, but rather out West, probably Alberta. (Keep in mind that Toronto is in Ontario, the "central" and second-largest of Canada's provinces; way out on the West Coast, there's British Columbia, and then Albera, with two more provinces between Alberta and Western Ontario.)

And yeah, all the rest of Canada hates Toronto. It's a thing. Toronto is Canada's Acceptable Targets. It's very sad for those of us living here.

(There's even a song called something like "Toronto Sucks" about how much the singer hates Toronto... though it then goes on to say that he hates everywhere in Canada except Alberta.)

Random fun note on capital cities:

Each province has a provincial capital (Toronto is the capital of Ontario), but then of course there's also the national (I suppose I should say federal... this goes back to Quebec again-- they use 'national' to refer to the province of Quebec, even though that's so wrong, so 'federal' refers to the country as a whole) capital, Ottawa (which is in Ontario). Ottawa is sometimes referred to as Ottawa-Gatineau, because Ottawa is right on the border between Ontario and Quebec, and on the other side of the river, in Quebec, is the city of Gatineau.

Why is Ottawa the capital city of Canada? (I ask this knowing that it is a tiny little hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere.)
Well, the story goes, back when we needed a capital, the major population centres were (and still are, I think, though people are moving West) Toronto for the English-speaking population, and Montreal for the French-speakers (note: the capital city of Quebec is Quebec City; Montreal is currently the most Anglophone city in Quebec-- though it still, of course, has a heavy Francophone majority-- mostly because it's the most heavily-populated city in the province).

There would probably be riots on the streets among the Francophones if Toronto were made capital, and there would probably be riots on the streets among the Anglophones if it was Montreal. So the question was put to the Queen (Queen Victoria, Canada's first and longest-reigning monarch, though if Elizabeth sticks around a little while longer, she'll outstrip her), and she, in her wisdom, compromised, by picking a little hole in the wall halfway between Toronto and Montreal, straddling the border between the two provinces.

So... Today is Canadian Thanksgiving!
That's a cultural thing, right?

I mean, it's a lot like American Thanksgiving, only on a Monday in October? Also we don't make as huge a deal about it. But I think all harvest festivals are essentially the same.

Qara-Xuan Zenith wrote:So... Today is Canadian Thanksgiving!

...

Also we don't make as huge a deal about it. But I think all harvest festivals are essentially the same.

If the prime minister doesn't pardon a turkey then it's not a real Thanksgiving.

Do you at least take the day off and brave horrible traffic and crowded airports to have a tense family gathering?

JackAlsworth wrote:If the prime minister doesn't pardon a turkey then it's not a real Thanksgiving.

What.

narrativedilettante wrote:Do you at least take the day off and brave horrible traffic and crowded airports to have a tense family gathering?

Yes we do have today off everywhere and family gatherings. I get to have Thanksgiving dinner with my cousins tonight!

Today is Victoria Day in Canada! We have a long weekend and fireworks and stuff to commemorate the life of Canada's first Queen, Victoria!