Proud to be Canadian

[Propain]

buddy sent me this email at my sucky desk job and it made me laugh.

WHAT DO CANADIANS HAVE TO BE PROUD OF?

1. Smarties

2. Crispy Crunch, Coffee Crisp

3. The size of our footballs fields and one less down

4. Baseball is Canadian

5. Lacrosse is Canadian

6. Hockey is Canadian

7. Basketball is Canadian

8. Apple pie is Canadian

9. Mr. Dress-up kicks Mr. Rogers butt.

10. Tim Hortons is better than Dunkin' Donuts

11. In the war of 1812, started by America, Canadians pushed the Americans back...past their 'White House' Then we burned it...and most of Washington, under the command of William Lyon McKenzie King who was said to be insane and hammered all the time. We got bored because they ran away, so we came home and partied...Go figure..

12. Canada has the largest French population that never surrendered to Germany.

13. We have the largest English population that never ever surrendered or withdrew during any war to anyone. anywhere. EVER.

14. Our civil war was fought in a bar and it lasted a little over an hour.

15. The only person who was arrested in our civil war was an American mercenary, who slept in and missed the whole thing... but showed up just in time to get caught.

16. We knew plaid was cool far before Seattle caught on.

17. The Hudsons Bay Company once owned over 10% of the earth's surface and is still around as the worlds oldest company.

18. The average dog sled team can kill and devour a full grown human in under 3 minutes.

19. We still know what to do with all the parts of a buffalo.

20. We don't marry our kin-folk.

21. We invented ski-doos, jet-skis, Velcro, zippers, insulin, penicillin, zambonis, the telephone and short wave radios that save countless lives each year.

22. We ALL have frozen our tongues to something metal and lived to tell about it.

23. A Canadian invented Superman.

24. We have colored money.

25. Our beer advertisements kick butt.

BUT MOST IMPORTANT!

26. The handles on our beer cases are big enough to fit your hands with mitts on.

27. And we don't bomb our allies.

28. oh yeah... and our elections only take one day.


Pass this on if you are proud to be Canadian!!! I AM CANADIAN

[glc]

Eh? Take off, hoser!

[HAL9000]

No way eh!

Funny that this was brought up... yesterday was legal day one where the company I work for CUETS, became CUETS Financial limited as we were bought out by MBNA Canada which is owned by.... The Bank of America

As a gift for getting all of our retirement paperwork filed on time, we had a choice of a sweatshirt or ball cap with the phrase on it... you guessed it...

I AM CANADIAN!


Even funnier... I just looked at the label... the shirt was made in Mexico.

[XenaWP]

From Wikipedia: "Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson in French) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world ..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson's_Bay_Company

OTOH, "The Beretta company was established historically in 1526, when gunsmith Mastro Bartolomeo Beretta, of Gardone Val Trompia (Brescia, Lombardy, Italy), received 296 ducats as payment for 185 arquebus barrels sold to the Arsenal of Venice. The paperwork for that order still exists in the company's archives..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta

But I realize there was just a wee bit of hyperbole in the OP.

[Jaggannath]

There's a few claims in there I'm a bit dubious about, but it doesn't make it less funny

[HAL9000]

I know there are a couple in there that aren't quite true, but the majority of them are.

[Statica]

Some of them are highly debatable too
Beer ads being better here .. BLECH! I'd rather watch the west coast feed for most games etc. so that Global or CTV or some other annoying Canadian channel doesn't take the simulcast rights and play the same sappy, unimaginative ads over and over. And no the ads, particularly, the beer ads are WAYYYYY better in the US (which incidentally is put to shame by UK ads!) IMO. I think we're still too juiced up about that "I am Canadian" ad - we have to let it go!

Re: Tim Horton's being better than Dunkin' Donuts ... sewage water is sewage water. Can't stand Tim Horton's .. give me Starbucks or Seattle's Best.

And there's one thing that's missing though...
We, like most of the world, know how to divide by 100 and can use the SI system quite well.

[Cricket]

Canada sounds like a fun place...I hope to travel there someday.

Cricket

[blue60007]

Heheh! You know...since Canada was around in 1812....

[SonicVanguard]

Someone want to explain to me how baseball is Canadian?

The game that's played today has it's origins from the game that Alexander Cartwright and Dr. Daniel Adams organized in 1845. Cartwright wrote down the agreed upon rules and I would argue is the person responsible for today's game.

But stick and ball games date back to the Egyptians and the Mayans.

And Apple Pie as it's known today would be attributed to the Dutch who were the first to incorporate sugar (raisin sugar to be exact) into their appelgebak recipes - which would later become the basis for the colonial apple pie.

Don't mess with the two things I hold most dear!

[blue60007]

Hehe. Basketball is a bit of a stretch too. It was created by a Canadian living in America and the first players were Americans....

I'm brushing up on my Canadian history - but it doesn't look like Canada became one official country till the mid 1860's. Americans fought the French in the war of 1812... (but then again...I guess you would call the settlers in America Americans before 1776). Also it was the British who burned the White House.

Despite a few stretches...still funny.

[HAL9000]

Baseball has no actual given credit to any one person.

Basketball is Canadian... the inventor was a Canadian... doesn't make it any kind of stretch just because he was in the US.

Canada was under British rule back then, so really it's not that far of a stretch to say a Canadian if you can call settlers in America Americans.

I don't believe the Zamboni, Velcro or Jet Ski were Canadian inventions either.

[XenaWP]

Originally Posted by SonicVanguard ... But stick and ball games date back to the Egyptians and the Mayans. ...

Yeah, but you did NOT want to be the loser at those Mayan games ....

[SonicVanguard]

Originally Posted by HAL9000 Baseball has no actual given credit to any one person.

The original rules of baseball have been credited to Cartwright - and although Doubleday organized games based on the game rounders, Cartwright and Adams actually organized a league based on Doubleday's model but using their rules.

[HAL9000]

May have been credited to, but no real proof of him as an originator.

[Jaggannath]

Originally Posted by blue60007 Also it was the British who burned the White House.

Incorrect... they were actually Canadian militia. Additionally, contemporary sources suggest a lot of the damage done to the city was done by looters after the army had left

Originally Posted by statica Beer ads being better here .. BLECH! I'd rather watch the west coast feed for most games etc. so that Global or CTV or some other annoying Canadian channel doesn't take the simulcast rights and play the same sappy, unimaginative ads over and over. And no the ads, particularly, the beer ads are WAYYYYY better in the US (which incidentally is put to shame by UK ads!) IMO

Although I'll sound fairly patriotic here, you reckon the UK ones are good then have a look at the Aussie ones... having lived in both countries, I reckon the Aussie ones are hilarious. My personal favourite is the Carlton Draught one "It's a big ad, expensive ad, it had better sell some blooooody beer"

[freakitchen]

While the UK Guinness ads have always been excellent, there's probably a reason why Fosters lager (yuck) have gone for an Aussie style ad campaign (well you wouldn't want a warm beer, wouldya?!). They might market it as an Australian beer, but it's brewed in Tadcaster!

[Great_One]

Isn't the Queen of England still the Queen of Canada as well?

If so, I would have thought by now Canada could afford their own Queen?

[HAL9000]

She is only a figure head for Canada, she has no official power.

[hitchface]

Except that in the military, her picture has to be set the highest out of all others in the room. Don't forget the song, God Save the Queen...

I'm American by birth, but lived in Canada since I was 9 (21 now), so I tend to claim whatever I need at the time!

"Canadian beer rules!" "Yeah it does!"

"American's have cooler fireworks!" "Yeah they do!"

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by Freakitchen While the UK Guinness ads have always been excellent,

To me this is the best beer advert on UK tv at the moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbcCw7YSkww

[Jaggannath]

Originally Posted by Freakitchen While the UK Guinness ads have always been excellent, there's probably a reason why Fosters lager (yuck) have gone for an Aussie style ad campaign (well you wouldn't want a warm beer, wouldya?!). They might market it as an Australian beer, but it's brewed in Tadcaster!

hahaha noone in Australia drinks Fosters... it's a joke over here that we gave it to you because we hate it. I knew it was brewed in the UK

Actual best beer ad: Flashbeer

[freakitchen]

Originally Posted by Jaggannath hahaha noone in Australia drinks Fosters... it's a joke over here that we gave it to you because we hate it. I knew it was brewed in the UK Actual best beer ad: Flashbeer

Joke is the right word. I've been drinking a bit of Coopers Pale Ale recently - was surprised to see it at the supermarket and thought 'why not'! It's got a nice taste to it, I prefer it to Victoria Bitter.

Richard - not seen that Guinness advert up north as yet, I do like the disclaimer at the end, even if I completely disagree with it

EDIT: That Flasbeer ad is superb! I actually meant to post this at some point, it's not a beer ad but it's got a LOT of people over here talking about it, which I guess is the whole point!