Well, just a few.
Canadians endure the principle of the Queen as head of state. Still. Americans would never tolerate that.
They have much more faith in government than we do, and give it more power than most Americans would ever allow. For example, their medical system. It will be a long time before pure socialized medicine takes root in the US. Their concept of the right of the state to limit freedom of speech is much more extensive than ours. They accept state limits on derogatory speech about other races and cultures, for example. Most Americans would never allow the state to fine or jail people for such speech. They have much more restrictive government regulation of firearms than we do. All those, and more, indicate a greater willingness to submit their personal affairs to the control of the government than we do.
Then there is their toleration for Quebec and all that nonsense. Can you imagine if Congress decreed that all signs, packaging, etc. in the US had to be in both English and French, or more likely English and Spanish? No way.
They don't have the history of revolution as part of their national mythology. They don't have the history of armed struggle to obtain civil liberties. Those concepts, IMO, run deep in the American psyche.
Those are only a few differences of many, but they are, IMO, significant ones.
Then culturally, they simply don't have the |
