Poll for an English Assignment

[SoccerDogWithEars]

Hi. My name is Annie and I am a junior in high school in Raleigh, NC, USA. Which I'm pretty sure has now aroused your curiousity as to why I am on the Canadian boards. So I'll explain.

My english class recently watched Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine". For homework, our teacher told us to assess the validity of three things from the movie. In the film, Michael Moore heard that most Canadians do not lock their doors and went to a few houses to check. Every door he tried proved to be unlocked. I wonder how true this is, as it seemed like a major distance between houses he tried. So I would just like to know whether or not you keep your doors unlocked. This is due on Friday, so the more people I can get to answer in the next 2 days, the better!! I promise this is purely for school, and no names will be used, just the statistics I get. Thanks for your help!!

 

[misslissa]

I have never left my door unlocked! I have lived in both very urban and very rural areas... and I remember thinking when we saw that movie how wrong it was!

 

[cudworth]

Our door is only locked at nite or if we go away overnite. We live in a city of only 10000 .

 

[cudworth]

I never lock the door of our car either unless we leave it on the street over nite . when we go down town it is opened the whole time.

 

[amw]

Of course we lock our doors ... Canadians are not immune to crime, no matter how polite we seem I did not see the movie so I can't comment on where his tests were made, but in urban Ontario we lock, and most have alarms to boot!

 

[mousy_in_canada]

I only lock my door at night and if I am out. I also never lock my Van.. ever! if they want my 1994 junky car they can have it lol I live out in the country, about 20 minutes from a Large city

 

[samepoohdifferentday]

We leave ours unlocked.
(We live in Ontario, a city of 30,000)

 

[iluveeyore]

We only lock our doors at night - my front door is always unlocked and we live in an urban area. Good luck with your report - we love visiting North Carolina & will be in Charlotte in May!!!

 

[so_are_you]

we live just out side of edmonton we only lock the doors at night and if we are going away
infact we went away for a week and I forgot to close the garage door and the extra car was in there with the keys in it and the door between the house and the garage was wide open
not only did nothing get touched we even had neighbours who we didn't know tell us they kept an eye out then finally after 4 days someone was able to find out where Dh worked and they told one of my brothers who worked there and he went up and closed the door
but I do leave the keys and my purse in the car in the garage all the time

 

[cdnmickeylover]

We lock our doors but I can tell you that my aunt who lives in Nova Scotia doesn't. We arrived at her house after driving from Ontario to find a note posted to the door that they were over at a neighbour's (directions given) and please make ourselves at home and then come on over. This was a few years ago and amazed me coming from an urban area but I imagine that it varies across the country.

 

[spicemom]

From a small community (14,500) We ALWAYS locked our doors. I live in the city right next door now (about 52000) and I always have my doors locked.

 

[Charleyann]

We lock our doors at night. My garage door is never locked and my car is never locked!

I have forgotten to lock my doors on numerous occasions!

Charleyann

 

[Freddie Beach Shelly]

We only lock our doors at bed time!

 

[bbangel]

I live in an apartment and now my door is usually locked. (Although I have been known to leave the keys in the lock overnight)
While I was growing up doors were never locked, either when I lived in the town or in the country. And I can remember visiting my dad a few years ago and we went for a long walk and the garage was left open and the door unlocked (the house had an alarm and was never used).
My mom still leaves her's unlocked most of the time.

To add to your poll data, my family has only ever had one break in. And the doors were locked at the time.

 

[Echie]

Wow interesting responses... I think that you can't really generalize that Canadians never lock their doors. I think no matter where you live (Canada, USA, Europe, etc) it depends on where in that country you live. I think regardless of what country you live in, if you live in a larger city, you will lock your doors, but if you live in a more rural or smaller area you might be more inclined to leave them unlocked.

We definitely always lock our doors! Even though we live in a very safe neighbourhood, you just never know who could come in - better safe than sorry! We live in a city of 70,000.

Good luck on your assignment

 

[Northern_Julie]

I live up in Northern Canada. The nearest major city is a 15 hour drive. The population is 20,000 max and I lock my door.
The one time I left an apartment door locked I had the landlady try to walk in trying to show the apartment. I almost attacked her and then installed a chain lock.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

My cars and my house are locked. Now my igloo I don't lock at night.

 

[Northstar]

Cultural difference within our family leads to confusion over locking doors (and both adults in the family are transplanted Americans!):

I only lock doors when I'm going away for a few hours or more... and I've been known to forget and leave the whole place open. I grew up in a semirural suburb where we always had to hunt to find our front door key so we could lock our doors to go away on vacation. We never locked doors. None of us ever carried a key when we left the house for the day. I remember one time people came into our house in the middle of the night. They were out-of-town visitors looking for the same number house on the next street. Of course, we knew who lived there and just sent them on over... no guns pulled, no racing hearts, just "who are you and why are you standing in our entrance hall at 2:00 am?"

My DH locks the doors even when he's in the house. He has locked me out when I'm taking out the garbage or mowing the front lawn! He had a monitored alarm system installed in the house, which would make us all much safer I guess if I could just remember to set it all the time I'm out. He grew up in Brooklyn, NY where you lock if you don't want to suffer home invasion and burglary.

My neighbors are a mixed bag between consistent lockers and casual non-lockers. We live in a semirural suburb (we call this a "subdivision") and it's Nova Scotia, where folks tend to know their neighbors except in the actual city. But I guess we all carry keys and lock if we're going anywhere in our cars. Don't know anybody who actually doesn't know where their house key is anymore.

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

Thank you all sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!! Thumper...you're kidding, right?

 

[briarberry]

My doors are usually locked except in the summer during the day when I leave the screen door open and it doesn't even have a lock. I live in a city of about 36,000 people and the crime rate is very low. Good luck with your assignment.
Just for the record Michael Moore (in Sicko) also said in London, Ontario you only wait 20 minutes in the emergency room of any hospital. Right, buddy. I would hazard to guess it is at least a 2 to 6 hour wait most days. I live very close to London and have spent many hours in their emergency rooms!