Quote:
Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker
I've gotten "Welcome to Canada!" before. I've been asked if we had electricity. A cabbie once remarked I must be excited to be on a four-lane road. I've been hysterically laughed at for being a lying loser for saying St. John's is larger than Moncton.
At times it felt like the majority of mainlanders outside the Maritimes had no idea New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador are two separate provinces, and always assumed they're some combination of one being a town in the other. There's an even more ignorant subset who really only have the vaguest idea of Atlantic Canada in general and think Newfoundland is the capital of Nova Scotia, or "The island of Newfoundland is called Prince Edward Island, right?"
I've been both laughed at and apologized to when getting a beer because there was no Screech. I've had people correct my pronunciation. That one was jaw-dropping at first. I doubt they do it to the English, Irish and others but maybe they do? I don't know. I literally did not know how to react. It never occurred to me people could be that rude.
People can get through the Canadian education system and still be mindnumbingly ignorant.
And it goes the other way too. When I told family/friends I was moving to Winnipeg, I got probably a half dozen separate warnings about how conservative and religious it is, and the ankle-length skirts the women wear (for stealing, of course), and how I would have to go back in the closet, and please be safe and careful, etc.
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Sigh. You know, I can see it. For all of the places I've been, I have a hard time getting interested in reading about a place before I've been there - it comes alive thereafter. Again, I think it would be a really different story if Canadians travelled more in Canada. My goal is to make it to every province and territory. Like a lot of Canadians, I've spent a lot more time travelling outside of the country. I went to Halifax and region last summer and had a blast. Next target destination is St. John's...plan to do a lot of eating on that trip! Raymonds, Mallard Cottage...yum.