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In contrast, I've found that Canadians are remarkably more relaxed about cultural matters. Some of this might be downstream of Canadian multiculturalism, but I think a lot of it is just a slightly cooler demeanour in general. It's easier to be tolerant when you're chill.

27. Related to the above, I feel like random people in Canada are more likely to actually *pay attention* to me and what I say I need, compared with Americans. I find it remarkably difficult to get Americans who I don't know well to pause their own narrative and *listen*.

As a goofy example: I run really warm and feel ill when I overheat, so I often dress lightly even in the winter (yes, I realize I'm a walking stereotype here ❄️). In both Toronto and Boston I'm occasionally stopped by a stranger and told to put on a warmer coat.

I usually respond with something like "I'm fine, thanks. I run warm and this is comfortable for me." In Toronto, people back off and leave me alone. In Boston, I've been followed down the street (!) and insulted (!!) for refusing to acknowledge that I was under-dressed (!!!).

I think the person thought that I was ungraciously refusing help? I genuinely think that they just couldn't stop their own narrative long enough to actually internalize the words that I was saying. 🤷‍♂️

28. It's hard to assess this reliably, but I've seen Canadians be a lot more willing to go out of their way for strangers. I used to think that this was a climate thing when I lived in California: maybe something about inhospitable winters makes people more civic-minded.

But then I moved to Boston, which gets plenty of cold and snow, and I still find that people take a much more "whatever" view when it comes to strangers and the public realm.

29. My sense is that Canadians are much more willing to accept a good solution rather than a hypothetical perfect one, while Americans tend to demand the best solution and fall back to doing nothing when that's infeasible.

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No, they pretend they want a perfect solution so they can easily dismiss the less than perfect ones. Subtle but important difference.