Canuck to American Travelers: Lose the Canadian Flag

Hey Eva, Thanks for the post, the article was funny to read. Guess all strange trends have to root somewhere. But I’m glad someone finally said something about it! Ran into that a bit myself last summer, I didn’t get it either….

I’d be guilty of a bit more of this….. http://www.vagablogging.net/ check out the recent quote posted about ‘going native’

Gee, I learned the words to Oh Canada and everything. I even watch hockey. I guess now I’ll brush up on my Spanish, start calling soccer football, and pretend to be Mexican.

In fact, my daughter is currently abroad and has, but only in jest, recieved more flak from other Westerners, i.e. British, for being American than she has from (in her case) Koreans.  On the reverse side, you do actually find many foreigners who are APPRECIATIVE of what America has done to help out other parts of the world or who encourage Americans, and other Westerners, to come visit and become a part of their culture.  We aren’t perfect, but I think we try. 

The Las Vegas Adventurer
http://www.thelasvegasadventurer.com

I’ve traveled all over the world, and only ever saw Candadian flags in the 70’s on Canadians in their homeland.  In fact, I’ve seen loads of U.S. Military type clothing on people in my travels.  I doubt if there were harassed, or they would have either ceased on their own, or been ordered not to wear it.  When traveling, I’ve spent lots of time talking to Arabs because they speak English.  This entire “Americans wearing a Canadian flag to avoid terrorists” rumor may have been started by travel writers. Maybe they are the ones wearing them.

When I was posted with the Canadian military to Europe in the mid 1980’s there were in fact MANY US citizens wandering around with Canadian flags on their packs, lapels, camera straps, etc.  They said they did it just for the reasons of being treated better than if they were known to be American, to get better service in stores and restaurants, and to travel hassle free.  I don’t know how things are in Europe today, but Americans wearing Canadian flags never was a rumor, it was ABSOLUTE fact.  Some did it, some didn’t.  Some needed it, some didn’t.  In the end I guess it just comes down to the belief of the traveller.  (An American Air Force Sgt told his army Cpl to put a Canadian flag decal on each end of his car to avoid vandalism on the streets!  He did and it worked.  His car was never touched again.)