Ask Lemmy

I've been fortunate to spend some time traveling down the west coast and into the south west then to the east of the US. I've also been lucky enough to travel through the west to the east in both Canada and the US too. Outside of New York I've not really made it to the east coast though.

Big differences are in some areas like city versus rural but as others have stated the borders don't mean as much of a difference like opposite coasts within a country does. Geography certainly does seem to be more important.

Provincial /State boundaries can be a difference in some cases but more for the big cities versus the rural areas that share the borders.

Like the US in Canada the divide is often rural versus city, then primary industries beyond the French vs the English.

One big difference I did pick up in my US business trips is for large factories or businesses to be located in small town USA when in Canada the city centers would be the normal place for those types of industry. The rural Canadian areas are much more reliant on resource harvesting and tourism. They often hold their nose about tourism in some cases as a necessary evil. They really don't want hordes coming to ruin it all.

I will say the absolute vastness of the US southwest made me realize there's a lot of territory to try to unit and it's a bigger job in the US with the sheer numbers and then the differences being boiled down to 2 major groups politically that have a real say.

In Canada we have 5 main political parties and then on the provincal level they can be pretty different from each other. Eventually we will end up with just 2 parties with enough elections but that will not be in my lifetime thankfully.

I think the biggest things for me are the terror of the US gun violence that just seems to be waiting around every corner depending on who you talk to or the need to gather arms to take on the government is a daily need. I've seen just a few packing weapons and I'm not sure I trust their ability to be a good guy if the need was to arise.

Unfortunately the mass shootings daily in the US are the few times a week reality and are pretty great for gun sales I suspect. Then followed by being bankrupted by US health insurance costs or a lack of it and being ill in the US system. The cost of drugs seems pretty insane too.

I'll take the feelings of mostly being safe in Canada but others would disagree with this much like many would say the same thing about violence in Mexico. Canadian Healthcare is slow but you won't be financially ruined by it yet.

Media is pretty different depending on your leanings. We can be pretty overpowered by the US media machine. Canadians can often know more general info than Americans about their own country and history at times. Canadians struggle to know more about Canadian history than US history.

The rage filled entertainment news of the US is not as common here but we get so much of a diet of US media our folks at times will parrot the same US talking points without realizing it doesn't apply to many Canadian situations. When the vaccine objectors started protesting, they were fighting for US constitutional rights within Canada. They didn't understand the right for Manitoba to join Canada wasn't the same right as the US's declarations.

Unfortunately these idiots have taken on flying Canadian flags all the time like our US cousins, becoming a hijack of our reserved flag waving as their identity. It's ruined the previous typical flag waving we would do for Canada day and sporting events. We are not at nationalist as our southern neighbours. The rest of us look at these idiots with disdain and do not want to be associated with them. It's almost at the same level as those that fly rebel flags in the US.

I've been fortunate to meet some wonderful people in Canada, Mexico, and the US. The geography of these countries can be quite stunning in areas without a doubt.

There are many differences but there are great similarites on a individual level. To paraphrase what George Carlin said, people individually can be fantastic but it's a problem when they start to group up and when it's 2 3 7 10 14 then you can start to get real problems.