[benjikan]

You may find this very amusing to say the least!

Benjamin Kanarek Blog Some very STUPID questions asked about travelling to Canada

What dah yah "Tink"?

[bdery]

Thank you... I guess I cannot believe some of the stuff written there. But then, someone in New York once insisted on explaining to me what air conditionning was...

[Peter Zack]

That was worth the read Ben. I had a friend who worked as a border agent and he would laugh at how often people would come through customs in July with parkas and winter coats expecting that the temperature would be -20c at the Maine border. Another friend was an RCMP officer and he'd catch speeders driving 110 Mph because they didn't read the posted speed limit correctly.

[8540tomg]

That’s hysterical Ben. Thanks for sharing.

Tom G

[ve2vfd]

Darn! They found out about our underground hippo racing!!! Quick hide the hippos!

Pat

[blackcloudbrew]

Well, I'm not a Canadian (ok, so my grandmother was born in Tronto and I have some family still in Ontario) but I must say that you've missed the obvious question.

How many states does Canada have?

Given that - well it's my understand that - as I've been told Canada's most fervernt wish is that the US forgets it's there. I think providing all these answers to these vexing questions is doing a great deal of harm to your reputation. You need to stop before we in the US realize you are there (that is up there right?).

Thanks for the info...

[Marc Langille]

Having lived in the US for just over 10 years now, I've seen/heard some interesting things about perception and questions as to being Canadian.

To be fair - disclaimer: I certainly don't expect anyone outside of Canada to know it's history. Compared to US history, it's pretty tame in terms of scale, etc. except for perhaps the Métis Rebellion and a few other points.

This is by far my favorite set of questions from someone while we were out on an easy training ride (cycling) several years ago - I was only in Arkansas for just a couple of years. All names hidden to protect the innocent...

Q: "Do Canadians celebrate Canada's birthday?"

A: "Yes. Canada's birthday celebration is on July 1st."

Q: "Cool... How come they don't celebrate it on July 4th???"

(I lost some patience at this point and asked him a question instead...)

A (now AQ): "Do you think every other country celebrates their date of independence on July 4th??"

Q (now QA): "Ummm... no?"

AQ: "Good answer!"

QA: (silence.... )

A: "Canada's birthday is celebrated on July 1st because that's the date we became a Dominion (or country), having independence from direct British rule was on July 1st, 1867...."

(At this point I knew explaining the Constitution Act in 1982 would only confuse matters...)

Q: "Really?"

For reference, "Q" is not the British tech support specialist in the James Bond series...

Cheers,
Marc

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Last edited by Marc Langille; 07-01-2009 at 09:32 AM.

[daacon]

Excellent Read Ben - my Mother had one when she use to snowbird in Arizona - someone aksed her in in the mid '80's 'Do you get the land given to you up there for working it" - I think her reply was something about Tundra and not being able to 'work the land'

[dugrant153]

Has anyone seen that show by Rick Mercer a while back? haha

Pure awesome.

[Andi Lo]

Good laugh Ben, thanks for sharing

[photolady95]

Another still laughing. Thanks Ben for sharing that. I've been to Canada several times, and "I" wasn't that stupid.

[Jimbo]

One day Canada will be understood better. The funny thing was these were all true questions. JIM

[FotoPete]

haha Ben, thanks for the laughs! Great Q&A!

[mickeyobe]

Thanks for the geography lesson, Ben.
Now I know much more about my country than before.

Mickey (Hogtown)

By the way - Who is our president?

[ve2vfd]

By the way - Who is our president?

Red Green?

And our Vice President is Don Cherry?

Pat