The Great White North

I remember back in the early eighties, as a Canadian, going to university in the Southern United States. I had many a great experience while attending school there for four years and made many good friends. Over the years, I have lost contact with most of them but my memories of them will live on forever.

As a Canadian, I was often asked numerous questions about Canada. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Canadian history or geography weren’t in the American high school curriculum, most American’s were fairly uninformed about us Canadians. As a result, we were asked many questions that, to this day, we still laugh about. We were asked as to who our king and queen were, do we live in igloos, what we do when a polar bear comes near to us, do we have cars… and so on.

Quite often, we Canadians would have a little fun with our American counterparts as well. We told them that Canadian chickens had fur instead of feathers since it was so cold. We told them that we had to canoe to the border where we took a bus or plane to get to school. We told them that all we ate was seal meat. We would tell them that instead of pet dogs, we had pet lions and tigers.

While living in Chattanooga, TN, we heard in the news about some guy who was biking on a ten speed all the way from Cape Horn, the southern most tip of South America all the way to Alaska. As he was making his way through Tennessee, he was interviewed by the local news media. During that interview he was asked about how he has adjusted with the many different cultures he has passed through and how he expects to adjust as he makes his way into Canada. “Adjusts as he makes his way into Canada??” I said to my buddies as we watched this interview. “Where does he think he is going to be when he hits the Canada-USA border!?!... the Ozarks??” However, it wasn’t the question that blew my mind, it was his answer.

“Well, I don’t think there should be much of a problem since I have a fair idea what to expect by watching Bob and Doug McKenzie.” Bob and friggen Doug McKenzie?? He is judging me and 32 million other Canadians by watching the McKenzie Brothers??? Now, I have to admit that these “two brothers” who are actually two comedians from the popular Canadian show SCTV, certainly didn’t give us Canadians a good name but c’mon… did the world really see us Canadians this way? Sheesh!

We never really lived down this new found reputation that we blamed the McKenzie Brothers for and had to settle with hopefully people forgetting these two clowns. Despite this connection, we all secretly loved these two guys and to this day, call the land of Canada the "Great White North." Check out the video on our two famous and one time favourite Canadian sons.