I was speaking with a Puerto Rican friend about this recently. He thinks there are too many competing interests in Puerto Rico to make statehood likely, at least in the near future. Some want statehood, some prefer the status quo, others would like independence, and still others would like the territory to become an autonomous zone (like the Azores for Portugal or Greenland for Denmark).
When you folks down there manage to raise your average life expectancy a bit, we can talk about you joining Canada as another territory maybe, like on a trial basis.
brb, going to break a bone to enjoy some of that sweet sweet healthcare
Come on, I'm Canadian and this was a great quiz! I'm more worried about our national lack of humour than any mild/inoffensive joke comparing Canada and the US.
The wording on this one makes it seem possible that Toronto should be included as a capital city - and as such I think its city proper population would be the largest?
I was so confused at how Ottawa could possible have a higher population than all but one US State capital, but I still got it by guessing the US State capital with the highest population; had to scroll the comments to figure out that provincial capitals were fair game.
Well I can already see this is going to be fun. I hope they have April Fool's Day in Canada, because it's meant to be a joke. No one thinks Canada is the 51st state. That would be ridiculous, like saying Cyprus is part of Europe, even though it's much closer to Asia and Africa.
Unfortunately our government, led by Stephen Harper at the time, abolished April Fool's Day in Canada about 10 years ago because someone pulled a practical joke that made him laugh so hard, he peed his pants. He was not amused and neither were his devoted followers, so prepare for copious indignation and complaint.
For various reasons, a big part of Canadian identity/patriotism more or less revolves around separating ourselves from the US, so many Canadians will get upset at something like this even if it's in jest.
According to his profile, he has never visited the US. This of course means that he is incredibly knowledgeable about the US and any of his opinions should be taken as fact.
Plenty of great people I'm sure and I'll admit I was being provocative by saying 'horrible', but America is perceived by the rest of the world through it's geopolitical activities and these have been mostly horrible post WW2. I hate laissez-faire capitalism and social inequality and America has consistently tried to force it's brand of individualism, hyper-capitalism, and consumerism on the rest of the world. A lot of people have died as a result. Vietnam, Iraq, basically every Latin American country etc. Just read up on America's involvement with someone like Pinochet or the Contras in Nicaragua. Even my homeland of Australia had it's most progressive government toppled in the 70s with the support of the CIA. The entire American political system needs to be overhauled and the whole world will be a worse off place until this happens.
I just love it when people want to have it both ways. On one hand: "oh, the USA is so horrible, look at what they've done for the last 70 years, their political system needs to be torn down", whilst never thinking about what that capitalistic system has actually done in those same 70 years for them and billions of people around the world (medicine, tech, etc., not to mention the generosity of the people and it's still the #1 emigration destination in the world). It's so intellectually dishonest. The world is messy and yes, the USA has made plenty of geopolitical mistakes. On balance though, the USA has been a massive force for good.
Have a look at this and tell me that the world generally would be better off with all the autocratic governments that we had as recently as 1977. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/14/more-than-half-of-countries-are-democratic/
Possibly controversial comment, but I've never understood why Cyprus can't be in both Europe and Asia. I mean, there are plenty of transcontinental countries, and the boundary between Europe and Asia is already vague as is. I personally think we should just abolish the idea of Europe and Asia as two distinct entities and combine them into one continent--not only would that solve the Cyprus problem, it would just rid of a nonsensical boundary!
I'd say calling USA part of Canada is more like calling all of Ireland a part of the UK rather than being on the level as saying Cyprus is a part of Europe since Cyprus' continent is a debatable topic
It's somewhat complicated. Median incomes in Canada are only a little lower than the United States. But Canada has fewer jobs that pay a very high salary. Canadians such as Alex Trebek, Mike Myers, and my friend Kevin have to move to the United States if they want to make the big bucks.
I didn't care for the 51st state joke either. It's only funny if Canadians tell it, to be honest. If it really is because of April 1, I hope you'll be taking it down after today.
Ottawa is a small city. I'm surprised only 2 states have capitals with higher population. I guess it's all about where the city lines were drawn and whether mergers have happened.
I'm Canadian and I took the whole 51st state thing as a joke, it being April Fool's Day and all. Jesus folks let's scale back on the reactions, shall we? Fun quiz, too
Indigenous Canadians never refer to themselves, nor are they ever referred to, as "Native Americans." As such, every state wins that one. You shouldn't claim "American" as a demonym specific to your country and then apply it more broadly.
All April Fools' Day jokes aside, I think a Canadian-American Union would actually be kind of cool. Not necessarily Canada becoming a part of the US, but like a North American Union.
I don't think a Canadian-American union would work. I think that the majority of Canadians would find American politics and American discourse undesirable. Plus Canada's much lower population would have to mean that Canadian values would be washed out by American values. If anything, we'd have to do some trades. The central US and the South can have Alberta and Saskatchewan, and then the rest of Canada can take the original colonies and the western seaboard. Seems like the best way for everyone to get along!
That would be great. I'd love to see the categories that aren't based on national differences (people lacking health insurance, etc.) but draw out superlatives about each province. French-speakers and deepest lake are a couple I can think of that might work.
There would need to be questions where only some of the provinces beat the U.S., but not all. It would be a bit difficult, but it does sound interesting, I will consider it!
I bet the format could work for other countries too (so long as they have well known provinces/states/regions). It's too bad Australia doesn't have more states, otherwise it could make a good comparison to New Zealand :)
If I was measuring by city limits, you would be right, but on most quizzes on Jetpunk metropolitan area is used because of the irregularity of city limit sizes, and Toronto's metro area is about 6 million, and Chicago's is about 9.5 million. Hope this clears things up!
Very excited to be visiting Canada for the first time this year.
I was also very confused by the last question as I kept reading it as "altitude" instead of "latitude". Finally re-read it correctly and the answer was obvious, but took about 30 seconds of me guessing New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana & Wyoming over and over.
brb, going to break a bone to enjoy some of that sweet sweet healthcare
Atlanta is both a capital city and absolute huge (same size as toronto) and is an obvious city left out without this clarification
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto
Have a look at this and tell me that the world generally would be better off with all the autocratic governments that we had as recently as 1977. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/14/more-than-half-of-countries-are-democratic/
make cyprus its own continent
We only invaded them once (and lost), so I don't really think that it's the same thing.
Oh well, at least the houses are cheaper in Canada...
Canada.
Astronaut 2: Always has been.
It's all good
Love from,
A Canadian who loves America too <3
-Love from an American who loves Canada!
The population of Toronto (city proper) is larger than Chicago, but the metro/urban population of Chicago is larger.
I was also very confused by the last question as I kept reading it as "altitude" instead of "latitude". Finally re-read it correctly and the answer was obvious, but took about 30 seconds of me guessing New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana & Wyoming over and over.