I mean, sure, it’s not as population dense as the USA, or Mexico, but Canada is huge, your people are nice, you have some of the best entertainment companies on the planet (namely Cirque du Soleil and Pornhub), your natural resources and attractions are unbelievable and your actors are the best (especially the BSG/Chronicles of Riddick cast).

And yet, as an Italian with an international perspective (lived abroad for the last 16 years and visited the USA and South America repeatedly), I have been not “Canada-aware” for most of my life.

I get it that you are not boasting like your neighbors (and that alone makes you better than them imho), but how come that I was left to realize only today that the Manitoba flour I used to make pizza all my life takes its name from one of your provinces, while I know about all the shitty pizzas the US made up in a century.

Same thing goes for Latin American countries, even the ones I never visited, like Mexico or Argentina.

I shall visit soon and I hope you can take the chance to teach me more in the meanwhile.

  • JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Just remember that it was a Canadian who invented the Hawaiian pizza. So, sorry about that.

    (for the record, I like Hawaiian pizza)

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      The meme about hating pineapple pizza comes from Americans that hate eating anything that’s recognizably plant-like.

      It must be ultra processed or meat.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      Ha! I love bringing up Hawaiian-style pizza.

      Canadians also invented the Football, Basketball, Baseball (1838), and the absolute most deadly ‘modern’ sport there is: Lacrosse, a ‘gentrified’ form of the most brutal aboriginal sporting action seen since Pokolpok . Lacrosse is honestly just handball with quarterstaves.

    • biofaust@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 days ago

      I never tried hawaiian pizza, mostly because I hate soggy pizza. I guess it is not meant to be eaten on a Neapolitan style base, but then again, I am not interested.

      I am from Rome, where we have a pizza that would be possible not to get soggy when putting pineapple on it, but it is a curse from God, rather than real pizza.

      • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        It helps to give the pineapple a really good squeeze to reduce the liquid before you put it on. Then use the juice for sangria or whatever. :)

    • YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
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      I especially love Boston Pizza’s Hawaiian pizza with a sweet chilli drizzle on top. I can’t remember the name.

    • biofaust@lemmy.worldOP
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      Pornhub is a technical achievement, it has versions for visually impaired and acoustically impaired users, a section dedicated to data analysis and one to sexual education.

      YouTube has often copied their advancement in the UX design, like the most replayed graph on the timeline.

      They also enacted the Great Digital Purge which has been a first in history, and which scared other platforms as an example of the kind of responsibility that platforms would be asked to take for the content published.

  • Arkouda@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    I think it has to do with an old saying.

    “Speak softly and carry a big stick”

    Generally we as Canadians on the international level speak softly, while the US speaks very loudly. It is of no shock to me that you only remember us when we have to bring out the stick because we aren’t as “interesting” to watch as the US is.

    We may have Cirque du Soleil but everyone knows the real circus is US politics, and it is hard to compete on the world stage with the best of the best. haha

  • DrivebyHaiku@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    We know we aren’t flashy. The world kind of forgets about us sometimes because we are next to the loudest kid in the class. We are proud generally of the co-operation we have with other places and groups. Our medical advances raise waters that lift all ships , we have a space program that primarily assists other nations space exploration. We have a military but we are primarily devoted to UN peacekeeping.

    The Canadians were a pivotal force tasked with the Italian Campaign in WWII which had some of the most brutal on the ground city fighting of the war. My Grandfather was there from the beginning to the end of the Campaign… Yet I have heard Americans on here ask “Did Canada storm the beaches of Normandy?” as some kind of “gotcha” to shame us because they don’t know that we had our own beach operation but all they know is that Americans were there because Hollywood only shows American battles.

    We are used to being kind of forgotten but we can be proud of ourselves for a job well done.

  • Jay@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    To be honest I never knew we shipped our flour that far. (I live in Manitoba)

    I think for the most part we realize that we are not perfect by any stretch, and instead of bragging about what we do or don’t have, many of us would prefer to just try our best to make our corner of the planet as nice as we can. We are, after all, made up of people from all over the world and I think that’s one of our greatest strengths.

    • Daryl@lemmy.ca
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      Ney, Manitoba, prairie flour is shipped all over the world. It was one of the first commodities from Canada shipped to the Soviet Union during the height of the cold war. I remember the hype that was caused when we started shipping it. You young-uns would be a lot better off if you read a bit more of your history than just about oil and gas fields. You have much more to offer the world than these.

    • biofaust@lemmy.worldOP
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      I think it is not always produced in Manitoba, but it is the name of the kind of wheat flour that is best for pizza.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        Durham wheat (also grown in large amounts in Manitoba) is considered one of the best for making pasta flour.

        • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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          It’s kind of funny how many non-Italian things go into making that distinctly Italian food, pizza. I don’t think of this as a criticism, but a credit to them, that they will unashamedly take those things they can’t find or weren’t originally found in their region and make them their own.

          Just remember, it takes exploring half the world to make a Hawaiian pizza.

      • Jay@lemmy.ca
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        Ya, I would assume that although the name originated from here, it’s grown throughout the prairies and probably the states as well.

        Still interesting to know that our name is attached to it though. I’ve always thought that “manitoba flour” was just regular flour that was local.

        • Daryl@lemmy.ca
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          It is a Canadian hybrid wheat developed specifically to grow in the prairies, Completely developed in Canada by Canadian agriculturalists. I learned that way back in elementary school. That was way back when the Canadian teachers actually knew something about Canada.

        • biofaust@lemmy.worldOP
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          It is a strong white flour, it builds quite a strong glutinic net (I am translating from Italian here) and therefore keeps a good elasticity after rising, while being stretched and pulled.

  • MyMotherIsAHamster@lemmy.ca
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    I don’t think your experience is unique - I think because the U.S. has been so dominant economically, culturally, and certainly militarily, much of the world overlooks us. It’s not in our national character to be boastful, we just get things done - but never mistake our quiet nature for meekness. We’re fiercely proud of our country and our accomplishments - and of being very unlike our neighbors to the south.

    You should definitely come visit if you get the chance, there’s a lot to see, and a nation of friendly people to help you enjoy it. Ciao!

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      Sometimes we Canadians overlook ourselves, too…

      Just as one example: the National Film Board making and promoting Canadian films just seem like some art-school hobbyists in comparison to the USA. You see all the big-name Canadian actors ending up in Hollywood blockbuster movies.

      • MyMotherIsAHamster@lemmy.ca
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        Absolutely. I had a friend (f*ck cancer) who was a huge movie buff, never missed TIFF, but he refused to watch Canadian-made movies. His argument was that he had been disappointed by them too many times, but I pointed out that Hollywood had disappointed him way more often lol. I finally got him to watch some, but he was a stubborn bastard about it. Miss ya, Fred.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        You see all the big-name Canadian actors ending up in Hollywood blockbuster movies.

        That’s because hollywood has the big audiences and therefore the big budgets.

        If you want to be an actor you want your work to be seen and you want to be paid.

  • primemagnus@lemmy.ca
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    It’s hard to be aware when most everything in Canada has basically been sold to the US by the greedy. I mean the last shred of our heritage is the French on the packaging. If it weren’t for that, you could never tell between products from either nation.

    Hockey? We have like 3 teams left in the NHL. Superman? He’s American now. Alaska, which is the landing point for a staggering amount of goods coming into Canada, American now too. Tim Hortons? American.

    We sold our heritage long ago. You can say whatever you want to farm karma but the sad reality is we basically are the 51st state. And as mad as Canadians get hearing that, especially now (I loath Trump and have always had a tenuous opinion of the US), it’s the sad truth.

    And if you’re hoping for Carney to make this place great, he won’t. The whole “we are building a better world” is the biggest lie told because people have long realized you die. Legacy or not. No one wants to spends their lives in agony so three generations down will get it easy. That’s a hackneyed trope for a sci fi movie, nothing more.

    • biofaust@lemmy.worldOP
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      I cannot really relate to hockey or Tim Hortons, but c’mon Shuster was only born in Canada.

  • Daryl@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    And you forgot to mention, we are a lot SMARTER than the Americans.

    It s true, Americans have hugged the limelight for 70 years, always, ahem, Trumping the news. No matter how loud we shout, it is always the American voice that is heard in Europe. But really, the reason lies not just in America’s behavior, or even Canada’s, but in the complete disinterest of Europeans in even bothering to learn anything about Canada, the assumption in Europe being that we are just ‘not significant’ compared to the US. Even though we did a lot more to defend Europe in the two Great Wars than America did. We were the ones that developed the strategies for the new technological warfare (Vimy Ridge, for example), the Americans simply copied them. It’s just that the Americans took all the claim.

    • biofaust@lemmy.worldOP
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      I repeat: Canada is quite a big one, it has a developed economy and produces solid cultural products.