Cancuck or what ever it is?

Is everyone from Canada a Canuck?

It was originally an American reference to French Canadians but now it is a general reference to all Canadians.

Is it an insult if I call you one?

No, not in Canada. You might want to ask the Vancouver Canuck hockey fans. I think there are probably 6 of them. Be interesting to know if it is viewed as an insult in countries.

Where does the term come from?.

From where we get a lot of things in Canada: the USA.

If I move to Canada do I become one?

No. Everyone else, yes. But you, no.

Why is it so difficult and expensive to become a Canadian citizen?

We are a great country. Entry fee is high.

If they are so selective, how do you explain some of the citizens they already have?

I think we have apologized enough for Celine Dion and Tom Green. They now live in the US for a reason.

Sorry this 12 pack of beer has left me with lots of questions.

If it is American beer, the first question I would have is why are you drinking that crap.

Interesting. I was under the impression the expression came from the cartoon character Johnny Canuck.

As with many word origins, the origin of "Canuck" is obscure. We start with the word "Canada" itself.
William and Mary Morris in their Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1962 and 1967) say that the best authority seems to indicate "canada" was originally a word in the Huron-Iroquois language meaning "a collection of lodges." So the first Canada was an Indian village. Jacques Cartier, the French navigator who discovered the St. Lawrence River, first used the word in an account of his travels of 1535. He spent the winter in an Indian village near the site of present-day Quebec. The chief waved his arms about as if to include all the land stretching beyond the horizon and exclaimed, "Kanata!" Cartier thought the chief meant Kanata was the name for the entire area (along the St. Lawrence, from Grosse Ile in the east to near Quebec in the west), but it only referred to the Indian settlement nearby.
IMHO, that's not too far different from the "I don't know" origin stories for kangaroo. But different enough to be plausible.
The earliest recorded use of the term Canuck, sometimes spelled Kanuk, was in 1835. Similar terms such as Cannakers or Canukers were in use in the 1840s. The term was first used in lumber camps in Maine to refer to French Canadian loggers working in the Maine woods. It was used to distinguish them from other Canadians. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1970) suggests it was "possibly a corruption of Connaught, a name originally applied by the French Canadians to the Irish immigrants." This seems unlikely.
The usage had spread by 1850 to mean all Canadians, sometimes used as a derogatory term. Canadians generally use it with pride or light-heartedly. "Johnny Canuck" is a personification of Canada, dating from 1902, just as "Uncle Sam" personifies the U.S. There is at least one hockey team calling itself the Canucks.
The term "kanakas" meaning Hawaiian islanders is probably not related, although some authorities suggest there might be a relation. There is also the term cañada (note the tilde over the n), a Spanish word meaning a glen or small dale between two mountains, presumably also not related.

What Canalrunner said...

I agree with Canalrunner, though you forgot to mention our igloos.

Sally

Good thing, Mike Huckabee didn't win.

Canada spends 10% of GDP on health care and has universal hospital and physican care, USA spends 15% of GDP on health care and does not. Government spending per capita on health care is basically the same in both Canada and the US. I'll take American Myths about Canada for $200, Alex.

There are different classes of immigrants but one criteria is basically skills (doctors etc..) or money (investors). Fee is supposed to be cost-recovery only but recently there has been some debate whether the fee is too high and whether the Canadian government is actually turnning a profit from the fees.

Silly Sally mentioned the Igloos. If you come to Canada, you will have to visit on National Igloo and participate in our polar bear hunt in Saskatchewan.

I love Wisconsin. The Dells. The Cheese. The Packers. Laverne and Shirley. Squiggy. The people are very nice.

Flounder,

Is there anything else we could change to make our simple, yet expensive, country more to your liking? What can we throw in to entice you up here?

Our "socialistic health care system" is what allows Canada to function the way it does. You never hear of people going bankrupt because of the medical bills associated with catastrophic illness, our life-expectancy is fairly high, and people in need are seen ASAP. But, thanks for your input!

PS. If you wanted to leave the US because someone a little left of your centre might have become President, then Canada probably wouldn't be the place for you. Our Conservative government would find itself squarely at home on the Democratic left.

Bring me your poor and downtrodden, your nurses and your accountants, your huddled masses.

I always get by on my wife's merit as well, but sounds like you'd make a great Canadian. That is....if you can pass the Hockey Quiz.....er Citizenship Exam. And of course, there is the secret handshake.

I hate to disappoint you but in Canada, we actually have an exodus of nurses to the States. Why? In the States, nurses:

1) are much better paid, maybe even close to double the amount
2) work shorter hours
3) have better working conditions

It's a known fact that our dedicated nurses have it rough.

Hats off to nurses in general actually ... thanks so much for taking care of us.

Sally

Alberta just gave their nurses a nice new contract. I'm looking forward to when my wife's union renegotiates theirs.

I may be able to become a kept man!

Saskatchewan nurses just got a fairly hefty raise as well. They didn't do as well on the working conditions though.

They are upset about new Essential Services legislation (ring a bell Tamblyn???)

ding, ding, ding, ding!

Gee whillikers WR4C, are you one of those holdouts who continue to believe that teacher's aren't an essential service?

Of course I am an essential service. Gordon Campbell told me so.

ah, the brain washing has taken nicely despite years of freedom. Bwahahahahaha

So Flounder, I hope that this discussion of teachers as an essential service has cleared up any question you have about moving to Canada.

We definitely need more doctors and nurses here, although at least for doctors the outmigration to US has been stopped and just slightly more doctors come to Canada from the US than leave for US. Perahps we need to find similar solutions for nurses.

We were desperate for nurses a few years ago, but from what my wife is seeing - at least in her hosptial - things seem to be getting better. Much less opportunity for overtime now.