Canadian and American Stereotypes

In the movie "Canadian Bacon" Canadian and American stereotypes are both shown. Canadians and Americans were portrayed almost opposite of each other. Canadians being polite, and cheerful, and Americans being rude, war loving, and angry. I do agree that many of these portrayals were on the right track, but have been exaggerated significantly. Canadians are not as polite as everybody makes them out to be, and Americans are not as angry as everybody makes them out to be. The Average Canadian is probably just like the average American, they may have just been brought up a little differently.

What do most people think of when they hear the word Canada? They think about Canada’s citizens. In “Canadian Bacon,” and almost all other movies, Canadian people are portrayed in the same way. Hockey is all we think and beer is all we drink. They think of us as lumberjacks, wearing long-sleeved, plaid, flannel shirts. We adore our national animal, the beaver. Canada is ridiculously cold, has insanely long winters, and because of this and our love of hockey, our main type of transportation is by zamboni. We are portrayed as being the most polite nation in the world. Please and thank you are basically the two most spoken words in Canada. In “Canadian Bacon” They think, because of our polite nature, that we are trying to take over the world. All Canadians are loud and rowdy, in a reserved way. We are usually the polite and innocent ones, but if you insult our nation, our flag, or our beer, our national pride will kick in to overdrive and you will know what we think of you.

In “Canadian Bacon,” Americans are portrayed as psychopaths. They are the angriest of people. They love their wars, and couldn’t do anything without them. The president of the United States of America is portrayed as a little bit less then smart. He is portrayed as an outright idiot, who doesn’t know a thing about his, not to mention any other country. Greedy and ignorant is the way Americans are being portrayed. All they care about is their money, not including war, and would do anything to get more of it. They are ignorant to everything except themselves. They don’t know a thing about the world beyond the fact that they want to control it. They are portrayed to have set out to take over the world, but won’t know what to do once they have because there will be no more wars to fight.

The stereotypes in this movie seem accurate to a certain extent. They are greatly overstated, but for the most part true. Canadians really do appear to be extremely polite, when compared to other countries. We really do love our hockey and our beer. We are among the proudest of people. Americans stereotypes on the other hand seem even more exaggerated. They do seem to love their war, but through their wars they are keeping peace in the world, or trying to. Many Americans really are ignorant to the world around them. They are not educated about anything except for themselves. Both Canadian and American stereotypes for the most part seem to be on par, but are definitely over exaggerated.