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lronitulstahp -> RE: Political cultures in Canada vs the US (9/7/2009 6:42:51 AM)
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quote:
We demanded, and took, our independence, you remained subjects, and took a gradual path to autonomy. That seems like a pretty significant cultural dividing point.
It's a lot easier to "demand independence" (note the irony) when you have someone to do the hard work for you. There are quite a few cultural divinding points.
from Wikiquote:
As a result of the Canadian physical environment, slave labour never became an economic institution as exemplified by Southern American States and the Caribbean where cheap slave labour was needed to harvest plantations
... but i digress.
According to a report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based group of 30 countries with democratic governments that provides economic and social statistics and data....
Canada is the 6th happiest Nation in the world. The US didn't rank in the top 10.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/05/world-happiest-places-lifestyle-travel-world-happiest.html
Perhaps the political clime of the US is taking a toll on the general happiness and well being of it's citizens. The idea that we are so divided over which political parties we support is ludicrous to people outside of this country. Extreme partisanship on the scale it's now practiced, seems to be a very new American cultural phenomenon. A disturbing one in many ways.
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2009/analysis/
quote:
In PIRLS 2006, the average U.S. 4th-graders' reading literacy score (540) was above the PIRLS scale average of 500, but below that of 4th-graders in 10 of the 45 participating countries, including 3 Canadian provinces
The National Center for Education Statistics International Assesments may implicate another difference between the two nations. The educational system of the two nations varies. Although American 4th graders fare rather well in assessments, by age 15 our students lag much further behind their peers in Canada, and other industralized countries. http://books.google.com/books?id=1tWeoxRELX0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-11-13-student-study_N.htm
Perhaps the differences in education contribute to the differences in political cultures. The idea of "elite" vs. "everyman" that's being pushed in the faces of many in the US seems to really be a commentary on the education, or lack therof offered in our nation.
Learned people, college graduates, (whether they come from an affluent background or not) are labled "elitist". The very idea that being educated puts people at some sort of moral disadvantage is beginning to be perpetuated and accepted by many.
It seems the difference in political cultures may be the same factors that take part in our societal differences. In the US, quite often, we focus too much on the things that make us different...separate. Canadians, (well the one's i've known, anyway) are much more likely to focus on the things they have in common.
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