in labor we trust

A liberal Texan brings us This Day in Alternate History. I'm kind of amazed. A lot of thought and creativity goes into this.

Comments

  1. lunger18 May 2005 at 20:15

    I think you mean labour

    ReplyDelete
  2. laura k19 May 2005 at 05:31

    It's not going to be easy, re-learning to spell...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous19 May 2005 at 07:54

    For the most part american spellings have become acceptable in Canada, except for some purists...

    The only one that I really hold onto is colour.

    I generally always spell the British/Canadian way, but it doesn't bother me too much to see the american way anymore.

    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  4. barefoot hiker19 May 2005 at 08:57

    It's interesting the issues this can raise. Here in Ontario, there's a cartoonist named Lynn Johnson who's been writing and drawing the successful family strip For Better or Worse for about 25 years now. I saw an interview with her some time ago in which she commented on the cultural pressures she's come under from certain quarters in the US. Early on, there was a lot of suggestion that the strip should be situated in the US, rather than Canada, and that she should adopt US spellings rather than Canadian ones... color for colour, check for cheque, tennis racket for tennis racquet, and so on. To her credit, she stood her ground and resisted these. The cultural differences and assumptions have led to some contention, too. A lot of papers in conservative communities in the US dropped the strip when she revealed that one of the characters, Lawrence, was gay. And she was surprised by a number of letters she got objecting to the imperialism implicit in sending Michael to school in London. Of course, what those complaining didn't realize was that she was sending Michael to London, Ontario, to the University of Western Ontario. It's not an impossible mistake to make (Archie Bunker on All In the Family lost his Christmas bonus one year by shipping an order to London, England... "who the hell ever heard of London, Ontario?" he groaned), it does reveal an interesting set of assumptions about Canadians held by some people in the States.

    ReplyDelete
  5. laura k19 May 2005 at 09:19

    "The cultural differences and assumptions have led to some contention, too. A lot of papers in conservative communities in the US dropped the strip when she revealed that one of the characters, Lawrence, was gay."

    Amazing the state of denial these people live in. If we don't talk about them, they won't exist...

    "it does reveal an interesting set of assumptions about Canadians held by some people in the States."

    Well yes, but... fame. London England is rather more well known than London Ontario - the world over, not just among Americans.

    There's a Brooklyn, Kansas, but if I write about Brooklyn, I don't need to say Brooklyn, New York.

    ReplyDelete
  6. laura k19 May 2005 at 09:26

    "For the most part american spellings have become acceptable in Canada, except for some purists..."

    I'm really going to try - so as not to be an Ugly American. I can set my spellchecker for Brit English, that will help me get in the habit.

    But not until after I move!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rognar19 May 2005 at 09:51

    There are differences between Canadian and Brit English. Canadian is something of a fusion of American and British. We say aluminum, rather than aluminium. Also, words like cheque and check or program and programme are used pretty interchageably. The biggest differences with US English spellings are, of course, the `u` in colour, harbour or valour and the rather recent switch from `er` to `re` in words like theatre, centre and metre. Personally, I don't care for the latter. They are French spellings of words that are pronounced differently in English and should rightfully be spelled differently.

    ReplyDelete
  8. laura k19 May 2005 at 12:08

    Then it'll be a little easier. Coincidentally, I already use the spelling "theatre" - when I in theatre, it was an affectation we all used, and it stuck. Like putting the line through my 7s.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

sharia

This morning I see that Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario, is banning the Muslim religious court known as sharia . This ends months of debate about whether sharia would be legal and binding in Ontario. I'm quoting at length from the story in today's Toronto Star because many US readers are likely not up on this. In a surprise announcement that caught both supporters and opponents of sharia law off guard, Premier Dalton McGuinty says he will move quickly to ban all religious arbitration in the province. McGuinty made the announcement in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press yesterday after months of debate and controversy surrounding use of Islamic sharia law in family arbitration. "I've come to the conclusion that the debate has gone on long enough," the premier told the news agency. "There will be no sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians." The announcement prompted t...
Read more

can of worms

I'm opening a sticky subject here, my need to understand causing me to throw caution to the wind. It's about Alberta. Alberta vs. the rest of the Canada. The Globe And Mail runs something about Alberta's gripes every day, and I try to follow along. If it weren't for wmtc's resident Albertan , and the ensuing arguments in comments, I would've had no warning. It's not something Americans know about. As is, observing for more than a year, I have only the smallest of clues. Here's what I know. Please pardon my ignorance and oversimplification, but I have to start somewhere. The province of Alberta is rich, because it has oil. The province of Alberta is conservative, relative to the rest of Canada. Hmm. Funny how those two go together. Because of its great oil wealth, Alberta revenue helps fund services in the rest of Canada. (These are transfer payments?) Apparently many Albertans resent this. They want to keep Alberta's money in Alberta. They don't...
Read more

low confidence

I'm excited about today's no-confidence vote . Only three months after moving here, we'll get to see a government fall, a campaign, and an election, in a system very different from what we're accustomed to. Even the expression "the government will fall" strikes us as oddly dramatic and revolutionary. My sense of current Canadian politics, for what it's worth, tells me that very little will change from the upcoming election. I'd be surprised if the Liberals didn't win. So it's kind of cool to see this happening without a lot at stake. On a semi-tangential note, have I mentioned I'm completely down with "Corner Gas"? Excellent show; I love the deadpan humour. (Great website, too; check it out .) So was that really Finance Minister Ralph Goodale ragging on Brent Butt's camera last Saturday night?
Read more