You might be Canadian if...

[Chip]

Feel free to add your own jokes, but this is serious: You might be Canadian !

"Thanks to a new law, Canada will bestow citizenship Friday on what its government believes could be hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting foreigners, most of them Americans."

 

[peakbagger]

Thanks for posting this, my mother was born in St Nicolas Quebec so I guess I have to acquire a taste for poutine and blood sausage, Luckilly I already can make a mean tortiere.

 

[BobC]

Cool, my mom emigrated from Canada in 1952. I also recently found out that I have some Native American ancestry on my Canadian side. So I may be due for a check from the Canadian government....

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

I also recently found out that I have some Native American ancestry on my Canadian side.

Just a quick side note. I have a good friend who is what we here in the US refer to as Native American, except, he is from Canada and he tells me that in Canada they refer to themselves not as Native Americans but rather as "First Nation." I kind of like that.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Cool, my mom emigrated from Canada in 1952. I also recently found out that I have some Native American ancestry on my Canadian side. So I may be due for a check from the Canadian government....

My maternal grandfather was French Canadian with some "First Nation" ancestry. However, he crossed the big pond to Michigan long before 1948. So there will be no Canadian passport nor checks forthcoming for me.

Just a quick side note. I have a good friend who is what we here in the US refer to as Native American, except, he is from Canada and he tells me that in Canada they refer to themselves not as Native Americans but rather as "First Nation." I kind of like that.

Yes, the terms have changed several times and may again. I remember attending a New York powwow in the late 1980s where the head man made an announcement to the assembled spectators: The term "Native American" was no longer correct because American was of European origin. The correct term was now simply "Native". I bit my tongue a little as native is also of Latin origin (as is nation), and wasn't everyone a native of somewhere. I later asked some of my Lenape friends in New York about this. They laughed and said that most "Natives" preferred to be called by their own name. If a group term was needed, then the name of the specific clan, tribe, or nation would be the most preferable. If something more general was needed, then they considered the term "Indian" to be just as acceptable as any of the more recent politically correct creations.

I like "First Nation" also. It is specific to being the first nation on this continent, but without attempting to exclude or dismiss any of the later arrivals.

 

[brianW]

When I was in the army one of my roomates was a full blood Sioux. He told me he hated being referred as a "Native American", he was a Sioux or an indian or an American. Out of respect for him, I use either the tribe name or the other names he stated.

 

[The Hikers]

Since it was the habit of the early French settlers to arrive without women, and marry from the local tribes, one likely finds a little "indian" somewhere in their Rench-Canadian ancestry.