Americans and Canadians culture Q&A Thread.

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Must have been hard not voting all those years.

I suppose it really would depend on how much a person's day to day life was impacted by it (which I'm sure depends on where you live in any given country), I mean not everyone is interested in politics for sure.

It's a bit cute TBH when we go voting people often the comment is "oh it's so good to see young people voting" (although eventually we won't be considered young lol). I will say with this pandemic lower level elections have gotten much more voter attention than in the past. Not a huge amount of people really gave much thought to a school board position or even a Community College board position heck even city council wasn't as big to think about (and I include myself in this) but for families who have children who is on the school board can be really important and if you're prohibited from voting because you don't meet the legalities on it I could see how that might be tough although that might also fall onto if you're interested in politics.

I know for our most recent election this past Tuesday for the school district my house is in it's very close numbers with mail-in ballots changing who is currently in the lead for the school board position. Last count it was separated by 63 votes. There was record turnout for our county too in an off year. Another election last year in the county above me the winner won by just 14 votes. There was even one either last year or the year before where the person won by just 1 vote.

You bring up a good point, there are some drawbacks (though probably not enough to sway someone) to not having that citizenship.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

Must have been hard not voting all those years.

It's really not all that hard. We loosely follow American politics (it is really hard not to when it is EVERYWHERE for two out of every four years), but when an election comes along, we just shrug our shoulders. The Americans need to do what is right for them and their country. It is not our country and we have no skin in the game. It becomes more of a spectator sport for us. If polling people call, we just tell them we can't vote. If someone comes to the door, we just tell them we can't vote. If people are talking politics and ask us what we think, we just tell them that what we think doesn't really carry any weight because...we can't vote. If anything, it simplifies our life during election time, although we do jokingly tell our daughter to "Vote for the right person for all of us!"

 

[ronandannette]

It's really not all that hard. We loosely follow American politics (it is really hard not to when it is EVERYWHERE for two out of every four years), but when an election comes along, we just shrug our shoulders. The Americans need to do what is right for them and their country. It is not our country and we have no skin in the game. It becomes more of a spectator sport for us. If polling people call, we just tell them we can't vote. If someone comes to the door, we just tell them we can't vote. If people are talking politics and ask us what we think, we just tell them that what we think doesn't really carry any weight because...we can't vote. If anything, it simplifies our life during election time, although we do jokingly tell our daughter to "Vote for the right person for all of us!"

Whew, I thought I was the only one. I couldn’t give a flying flip about American politics beyond how foreign policy affects Canada. It was bewildering to see so many Canadians (many of whom probably couldn’t even name their riding, let alone their own MP) become rabidly embroiled in what went on stateside during the last presidency. And extremely vexing and insulting that other Canadians assumed what my opinion was/would be based on my geography.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

Whew, I thought I was the only one.

Nope. You've got a friend in me.

I am in complete agreement with what you wrote.

 

[prairie_girl]

Whew, I thought I was the only one. I couldn’t give a flying flip about American politics beyond how foreign policy affects Canada. It was bewildering to see so many Canadians (many of whom probably couldn’t even name their riding, let alone their own MP) become rabidly embroiled in what went on stateside during the last presidency. And extremely vexing and insulting that other Canadians assumed what my opinion was/would be based on my geography.

I feel personally attacked lol

I do take an interest in their elections mainly because (sorry Americans) it’s such a circus. I don’t get to the point of rabidly embroiled, and have never discussed politics With anyone else beyond a hey, did you hear about ________? Crazy, hey?

I have had enough, though, so I literally 20 minutes ago changed my tv package and dropped CNN. If something happens, I’ll hear about it on Twitter lol

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It's really not all that hard.

I took the PP's comment to mean anyone in a country they were living in but not a citizen in regarding voting. Maybe I was wrong as that was how I framed my comment. Like if I was an American living in Canada for instance.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don’t get to the point of rabidly embroiled

Probably because politics doesn't have the same role in your country that it does in ours. Remember the PP's comment about just how many people we have on elected positions? That comes into it.

And people have to understand especially people who are getting their information about the U.S. political atmosphere from articles or biased (regardless of where they are at on the spectrum) tv stations is a lot focuses so much on the extremes it's almost comical.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

And extremely vexing and insulting that other Canadians assumed what my opinion was/would be based on my geography

That's a fairly common thing that happens here too. Not just by where you live but your age, your race, your ethnicity and your educational background as well as your gender. Lots of assumptions, it's one of my pet peeves. People are individuals capable of their own thoughts and opinions (even if those thoughts are just of indifference) and shouldn't just be looked at as if they are a box to tick off on a list

 

[Frozen Canuck]

I took the PP's comment to mean anyone in a country they were living in but not a citizen in regarding voting.

But I am a person living in a country where I am not a citizen. I have lived here for decades, unable to vote, which is why I addressed that part specifically. Speaking from personal experience, it has not been challenging at all to accept that I am living in a country where I am not a part of the electoral process. I don't bemoan the fact that I can't vote and make an impact while living here. I have the ability to discern that voting is not one of my rights and responsibilities while in the US and just leave that part up to the people for whom the voting matters. Even if I would potentially want to see a certain person elected, me "wishing" it would be of little use, so I don't tend to give the US elections much bandwidth in my day to day life...thus making it relatively easy and not "hard not voting all of those years."

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

But I am a person living in a country where I am not a citizen. I have lived here for decades, unable to vote, which is why I addressed that part specifically. Speaking from personal experience, it has not been challenging at all to accept that I am living in a country where I am not a part of the electoral process. I don't bemoan the fact that I can't vote and make an impact while living here. I have the ability to discern that voting is not one of my rights and responsibilities while in the US and just leave that part up to the people for whom the voting matters. Even if I would potentially want to see a certain person elected, me "wishing" it would be of little use, so I don't tend to give the US elections much bandwidth in my day to day life...thus making it relatively easy and not "hard not voting all of those years."

Sorry for the confusion I was talking about the comments collectively. Multiple posters were centered on caring about American politics. If you're talking more generally it would be that you don't care about the politics of whatever country you're living in that you are not a citizen in, irrespective of that being the U.S. or not.

So yes you may not care about American politics but when the PP made that comment I guess I was thinking about it from a general sense. If I was living in France for instance but could not vote because I wasn't a citizen but I had been living there for decades if I cared about politics at all it could be difficult or at least something that would be a consideration for path to citizenship. But not everyone cares about politics in general.

I guess I took the comment to be thought-provoking regarding living in a place long-term but yet not having a say in things that may or may not impact me. Maybe I was thinking about things in a less for lack of a better word biased viewpoint as clearly people were only considering it from "I don't give a flip about American politics". There are other countries out there people live in for decades and yet do not have a desire to be a citizen of the country they are living in. Blame it on me thinking more broadly I suppose which may not have been what the poster's intent of their comment about it being hard to not vote.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

So yes you may not care about American politics but when the PP made that comment I guess I was thinking about it from a general sense. If I was living in France for instance but could not vote because I wasn't a citizen but I had been living there for decades if I cared about politics at all it could be difficult or at least something that would be a consideration for path to citizenship. But not everyone cares about politics in general.

Now I get ya! But I still hold firm to the idea that after decades of living here, raising kids here (and knowing they will likely stay after I move home), owning a home here, making a whole life here, I am fully able to reconcile the fact that I am not able to vote and yet can still manage to sleep at night. It's not that I don't care about American politics. I do care enough to follow along with the highlights, read multiple news sources, check for new updates throughout the day, etc. That is just good citizenship in general, to be informed about your community and the things that could potentially impact you (whether you can vote and make a difference or not). It's not like I don't care who our state governor is just because I'm Canadian. I'm not from the UK, yet I know of and hold an opinion on BJ. I can pick Angela Merkel out of a line up. I know that Macron is not Prime Minister of France anymore. Following what is going on in politics is interesting at times, but I don't worry about the fact that I'm not able to vote in other countries' elections or voice my say over Brexit. There is nothing hard about being informed, yet sitting back and watching history play itself out as a country goes to the polls to make its collective voice heard. I'm okay with watching American politics unfold from the sidelines.

 

[lisaviolet]

It's really not all that hard. We loosely follow American politics (it is really hard not to when it is EVERYWHERE for two out of every four years), but when an election comes along, we just shrug our shoulders. The Americans need to do what is right for them and their country. It is not our country and we have no skin in the game. It becomes more of a spectator sport for us. If polling people call, we just tell them we can't vote. If someone comes to the door, we just tell them we can't vote. If people are talking politics and ask us what we think, we just tell them that what we think doesn't really carry any weight because...we can't vote. If anything, it simplifies our life during election time, although we do jokingly tell our daughter to "Vote for the right person for all of us!"

Makes total sense.

My sentence above was me simply being melancholy that I never thought to ask my brother all those decades, as he has passed away. When he talked American politics at times with me. Or any time for that matter. Sort of snuck out of me, flew off my fingers.

I bet it has made election time much simpler for you.

As an aside, when you do move back are you thinking of returning to the same area/province? Just curious.

 

[lisaviolet]

I suppose it really would depend on how much a person's day to day life was impacted by it (which I'm sure depends on where you live in any given country), I mean not everyone is interested in politics for sure.

For sure.

My brother was very passionate about politics including local issues where he lived, I was simply very regretful in that moment- typing that sentence - that I never ever asked all those years. Or had even thought to bring it up for that matter.

.Blame it on me thinking more broadly I suppose which may not have been what the poster's intent of their comment about it being hard to not vote.

And now I think you're psychic Mackenzie.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

For sure.

My brother was very passionate about politics including local issues where he lived, I was simply very regretful in that moment- typing that sentence - that I never ever asked all those years. Or had even thought to bring it up for that matter.

Politics is a hard topic to even get into even if people enjoy talking about it. Sometimes my sister-in-law's boyfriend hints at political stuff from Pakistan (which he is still heavily involved in knowing about) usually from Facebook posts (amid the cricket game posts which seem to be more prevalent lol) but he's also quite passionate about politics here in the U.S. (he's lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years at this point though he is a U.S. citizen too) but I don't think I ever have broached the subject about how he would have felt had he not been able to vote here. Anyways the comment did make me think of things in a different perspective and I appreciate that

And now I think you're psychic Mackenzie.

aw shucks thank you

 

[ronandannette]

...Even if I would potentially want to see a certain person elected, me "wishing" it would be of little use, so I don't tend to give the US elections much bandwidth in my day to day life...thus making it relatively easy and not "hard not voting all of those years."

Given the way our population and federal seats are distributed and our kinda wonky electoral system, I feel the same way here at home, but I digress...

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

So bouncing off my comment:

The game Cricket. What's the popularity of that in Canada?

What about Formula 1 racing (something my sister-in-law's boyfriend is also very interested in)?

Obviously in the U.S. NASCAR is bigger than Formula 1 racing but it's around. Sister-in-law and boyfriend went to the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Texas a few weekends back.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Edited to delete a duplicate post.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

So bouncing off my comment:

The game Cricket. What's the popularity of that in Canada?

What about Formula 1 racing (something my sister-in-law's boyfriend is also very interested in)?

Obviously in the U.S. NASCAR is bigger than Formula 1 racing but it's around. Sister-in-law and boyfriend went to the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Texas a few weekends back.

The cricket clubs in my area are largely connected to the Caribbean community. No cricket matches on tv that I’ve noticed.. but I haven’t been searching them out either.
Formula 1 racing has a large following in Montreal with the race in that city very well attended. Toronto has an Indy race (sponsored by Honda) which is packed all weekend long.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The cricket clubs in my area are largely connected to the Caribbean community.

That's really interesting

No cricket matches on tv that I’ve noticed.. but I haven’t been searching them out either.

I haven't searched them out either but I wish I could remember where sister-in-law and boyfriend have been watching them. I know she told me it took her quite a while to get a grasp on the gameplay though I'm not sure if she's completely well versed on it still.

Formula 1 racing has a large following in Montreal with the race in that city very well attended.

I should tell them about this. I wonder if they've thought about traveling to different countries for it. I know a dream of course is to be there for Monaco. Side note Monaco (and the French Riviera region itself) would be a lovely region to visit.

 

[prairie_girl]

So bouncing off my comment:

The game Cricket. What's the popularity of that in Canada?

What about Formula 1 racing (something my sister-in-law's boyfriend is also very interested in)?

Obviously in the U.S. NASCAR is bigger than Formula 1 racing but it's around. Sister-in-law and boyfriend went to the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Texas a few weekends back.

You can usually find a cricket match or ten being played across the city. One of our sports channels occasionally shows a match and I have watched enough to know what a duck is.

I know next to nothing about Formula 1 racing but is that what Villineuve did? I did watch some major things if he was participating, and watched the Australian Grand Prix. If you can’t tell (lol), I’m Canadian but partake in Australian culture as well since it’s half of me.

ETA- if I wasn’t half Australian, I wouldn’t care at all about cricket.