Note to American Travelers Pretending to Be Canadians: Stop It!
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 09.27.04 | 7:22 PM ET
Joseph Cohen writes in Sunday’s Seattle Times that he “could have held a full (and very poorly played) hockey game with all the fake Canadians [he] ran into while traveling in Western Europe.” They were, of course, Americans trying to avoid being outed. Cohen believes pretending to hail from Canada is a silly practice. “The plethora of Canadian flags on American backpacks this summer obviously has roots in current events dealing with Iraq and President George W. Bush,” he writes. “Yet Europeans do not translate their dislike of our president into animosity toward American travelers. You have a better chance of being pickpocketed in Switzerland than accosted for being an American anywhere in Western Europe.”
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
john morton 07.06.06 | 5:02 PM ET
first of all you geys elected that idiot from texas in the first place now most canadains think at the balot and canadains don’t pretend to be american do we its stupid we canadains hate haveing camarecans in the same sopt as us its an insult to be in france and meeting some girl and haveing her say so were are you from and and when i say canada she says yeah right with presadent canuk
you people ruin our reputaition in other conterys just think on that next time you go to scotland
Robbie Brodeur 02.03.08 | 2:23 AM ET
John,
I am an American living in Vancouver. I would like to point out a few things. First, in the United States it is not the popular vote that elects the president, it is the electoral college. George Bush actually lost the popular vote in the United States. It is my understanding that you don’t elect your prime minister either. Think before you speak. Second, if you speak like you writethen you are ruining your own reputation in other countries and don’t need anyone else’s assistance in doing so. Third, I have never pretended to be anything but an American, and yes even while I am living in Canada. I am not a Canadian citizen and I don’t pretend to be one. I can honestly say that I haven’t really met many Americans that pretend to be from Canada. I find foreign discrimination to be more about appearance and demeanor than about where you are actually from. Just my thoughts though.