Speech pattern and typographical variations across Canada

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

It makes perfect sense to me that southern TO would feel more generally Canadian than Ontarian. From my perspective, many "Canadian" things are southern Ontarian.

Southern Ontario from Ottawa to Windsor has about half of Anglo-Canada's population when you think of it.

[SignalHillHiker]

And they're the old part of Anglo Canadian, together with MTL and the Maritimes. "Canadian" probably means something else among Anglo Montrealers but I am imagine they're just as attached to it, even with the city's dominant municipal identity.

Same here with Townie/NLer. Latter doesn't mean the same thing across the island but we're just as attached to it as those for whom it means something different.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Wendy's has "St. John's FAVOURITE BURGER!", or so their billboards tell me hahaha.

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Appealing to Québécois identity is basically ubiquitous here.

Quebec companies do it as do companies from other places. Many that have anglo corporate names do it to make themselves appear "more local" and not just an imported brand.



Home Depot for example: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/184929128420696223/

[SignalHillHiker]

Yeah. I've seen "not just bilingual. Québécois.", etc., positioning for things marketed to Quebec.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Appealing to Québécois identity is basically ubiquitous here.

Quebec companies do it as do companies from other places. Many that have anglo corporate names do it to make themselves appear "more local" and not just an imported brand.



Home Depot for example: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/184929128420696223/

How are they dealing with the Canadian milk logo? It's the one with the leaping, maple leaf-stamped cow with the "100% Quality Canadian Milk" underneath and has become very common here, I think in response to worries that the milk market may eventually open to world competition. Everytime I see it, I think it's ironic that it's used to promote a product that comes heavily from Quebec but would give some Quebeckers heartburn (the logo, not the milk!).

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Yeah. I've seen "not just bilingual. Québécois.", etc., positioning for things marketed to Quebec.

"Canada" and "Canadiens" aren't used that often in marketing in Quebec.

It's usually "la pizza préférée des Québécois" or "le 4x4 le plus vendu au Québec".

If they want to use a cross-Canada stat or factoid in a marketing campaign, like the best selling truck in Canada, they'll often use the word "pays" (country) instead of Canada.

So an ad in English that says "the best-selling truck in Canada", becomes "le camion le plus vendu au pays" in French.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

"Canada" and "Canadiens" aren't used that often in marketing in Quebec.

It's usually "la pizza préférée des Québécois" or "le 4x4 le plus vendu au Québec".

If they want to use a cross-Canada stat or factoid in a marketing campaign, like the best selling truck in Canada, they'll often use the word "pays" (country) instead of Canada.

So an ad in English that says "the best-selling truck in Canada", becomes "le camion le plus vendu au pays" in French.

A propos of not much of anything, a few weeks ago I heard a newscaster on English Canadian TV refer to "Canada and Quebec". I can't remember what the issue was but I wanted to reach into the screen and smack her! That is one formulation that really needs to stay in Quebec.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

How are they dealing with the Canadian milk logo? It's the one with the leaping, maple leaf-stamped cow with the "100% Quality Canadian Milk" underneath and has become very common here, I think in response to worries that the milk market may eventually open to world competition. Everytime I see it, I think it's ironic that it's used to promote a product that comes heavily from Quebec but would give some Quebeckers heartburn (the logo, not the milk!).

I do see the cow logo here on products but in advertising and marketing in French this is what you always see:



Milk marketing has been very innovative and successful in Quebec, going back several decades now. Most people can remember at least several distinct campaigns and the slogans they developed.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

A propos of not much of anything, a few weeks ago I heard a newscaster on English Canadian TV refer to "Canada and Quebec". I can't remember what the issue was but I wanted to reach into the screen and smack her! That is one formulation that really needs to stay in Quebec.

It annoys a lot of federalists in Quebec too, although even a lot of Quebec federalists tend to say it as well. It's so ingrained it seems.

I guess you can imagine what Franco-Ontarians think of it!

[MolsonExport]

"la pizza préférée des Québécois"

All-Dressed (awl draayzze)

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It annoys a lot of federalists in Quebec too, although even a lot of Quebec federalists tend to say it as well. It's so ingrained it seems.

I guess you can imagine what Franco-Ontarians think of it!

It's (to me, at least) surprisingly uncommon here - usually only used in reference to something that predates Confederation. For example, "In his will, Rhodes allotted scholarships to Oxford for Newfoundland, Canada, Australia, etc." I think people here are just less likely to jump into this division language-first. We're pretty comfortable with House of Assembly, etc.

You see the word "Canada" replaced by "union" or "federation" a lot here, especially in political speeches, and then mostly by Progressive Conservatives.

For example:

Our experience in confederation with Canada has included some challenges: the stigma of being the poorest province in the union, the bitterness of the Upper Churchill injustice, the resentment of a decimated fishery and the anger of not having our voice heard within the federation. However, today represents a significant shift in our relationship with the federal government. We are now a full partner in the federation of Canada.
- Then Premier Kathy Dunderdale, Dec. 17, 2012

I think the most common way people verbally separate them doesn't really imply any sense that the two are actually separated. You'll hear people say, "She's coming down from Canada", "He's working up away", etc. But if you replied, "This is Canada!" to them (as Ayreonaut does, ), they'd be absolutely bewildered that their words implied otherwise. So not really the same thing.

[kwoldtimer]

Recent posts had me paying attention on my errands today - a new big box pet supply place is "Proudly Canadian (red maple leaf)", Gino's Pizza replaces the apostrophe with the red maple leaf and another shop uses it to dot the "i" in its name. More common than I had realized although I generally find corporate nationalism pretty smarmy.

I don't think I've ever heard Canada referred to as "the union" down here (it might imply USA more than Canada). You do very occasionally hear references to "the Dominion" from people trying to be a bit flowery.

[1overcosc]

"Dominion" is a term that only older people seem to use. Don't think I've ever heard anyone under 40 ever use it.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

"Dominion" is a term that only older people seem to use. Don't think I've ever heard anyone under 40 ever use it.

I doubt anyone uses it seriously anymore, but you hear references from time to time on the lines of "throughout the Dominion", perhaps only by the older set and only when they are waxing a bit poetic.

[SignalHillHiker]

Loblaws here is Dominion so you still hear it all the time.

People have some attachment to the term, although they'd never refer to NL as a Dominion today because that's inaccurate. It was our official title 1907-1949, and lots of people extend it, inaccurately, back to 1855 (responsible government and independence) or 1832 (representative government under British rule).

Dominion's logo is just an inverted Loblaw's one:


Dominion/Loblaw's

[Trevor3]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Recent posts had me paying attention on my errands today - a new big box pet supply place is "Proudly Canadian (red maple leaf)", Gino's Pizza replaces the apostrophe with the red maple leaf and another shop uses it to dot the "i" in its name. More common than I had realized although I generally find corporate nationalism pretty smarmy.

I don't think I've ever heard Canada referred to as "the union" down here (it might imply USA more than Canada). You do very occasionally hear references to "the Dominion" from people trying to be a bit flowery.

I know this is off topic...

American chains often use the star in the same way that Canadian businesses, or Canadian branches of American operations drop the maple leaf into the logo. Like McDonalds in Canada has a maple leaf in the centre of the big M, Wal-Mart used to use a star instead of a hyphen in the US.

That brings me to a question, has anybody ever seen the Wal-mart star logo used on a building in Canada? A couple years back the hyphen on ours was replaced with the star instead of moving to the new sunburst logo that is in use everywhere. This is what we have for some reason:


100_1214

I know we're a bit more American than the average Canadian town, but this is strange to me.

[MolsonExport]

We had the same wal*mart signage in the multiple locations in London until about two years ago, when it was changed to the (even worse) generic starburst.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

You see the word "Canada" replaced by "union" or "federation" a lot here, especially in political speeches, and then mostly by Progressive Conservatives.
.

Canada is never referred to as "l'union" in French. It is also never referred to as "la nation" BTW. The most common way to refer to it is "la confédération". You also hear "le pays" (the country) quite a bit.

"La fédération" is quite rare as well.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

"Dominion" is a term that only older people seem to use. Don't think I've ever heard anyone under 40 ever use it.

The all knowing Wikipedia suggests that Canada never made a full-on clean break with the term "Dominion of Canada" but gradually drifted away from it as it acquired more sovereignty from the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Canada

Apparently, "Dominion of Canada" was a very common way to describe Canada up until the World War II era... since then, the "Dominion of" part has faded away into history as Canada has simply become "Canada", plain and simple. In that sense, it's a relic of old times.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by esquire

The all knowing Wikipedia suggests that Canada never made a full-on clean break with the term "Dominion of Canada" but gradually drifted away from it as it acquired more sovereignty from the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Canada

Apparently, "Dominion of Canada" was a very common way to describe Canada up until the World War II era... since then, the "Dominion of" part has faded away into history as Canada has simply become "Canada", plain and simple. In that sense, it's a relic of old times.

I don't think it faded away at all. It was the Dominion of Canada when I was a child and that was long after WW II. But even by then, Trudeau (père) and his friends had begun to deliberately suppress official usages of the term. Dominion Day was still going strong as Dominion Day until the Liberals suddenly informed us that it would henceforth be "Canada Day" - just as institutions like the Dominion Bureau of Statistics suddenly had new, generic-sounding names like "Statistics Canada" that respected neither tradition nor basic rules of English syntax. It was mostly that they wanted government departments to have names that looked similar in English and French and "Dominion" was allegedly meaningless in French (or too colonial or something). It was also from a love of streamlining, rationalization and simplification that was all the rage in many facets of life in the 50s and 60s (e.g. the very modern design of the new flag, PET's elimination of the separate identities of the Navy, Air Force and Army and of course the adoption of our beloved metric system).