Dudley Dundee

Australians don't tend to be a flashy mob. Though we are, like most of the Western world, influenced by the all-pervasiveness of the US, we still retain a certain reserve as a national characteristic. "Pull yer head in" is a common saying amongst the Aussies, usually addressed at someone thought to be "crowing". Braggarts and "those who blow their own horns" are generally looked down upon by Aussies.

Ours is an understated culture. We have a wry, self-effacing and rather earthy humour, and one that I know can either rub others up the wrong way or be completely missed as attempts at joking at all. We aren't known for our passion, though we are known for our generosity. Aussies are a giving people, but we don't tend to like having attention drawn to it. Those who do are derided as being having big heads that need deflating.

On the other hand, Canadians have a reputation for being polite to a fault. The character of Dudley Do-right is as iconic to them as Crocodile Dundee is to Australians, giving the impression that Canadians are uptight and polite, honest to a fault and are incredibly naive to the point of idiocy.

  Dudley Do-right and associated characters © Jay Ward Productions

If you believe this is the absolute truth for every single Canadian, Aussies, then go back to your buffalo hypnotising and brandishing your big knives around.

 Crocodile Dundee ©1986 Paramount Pictures.

Back home we often wondered how our fellow Colonials deal with their louder downstairs neighbours. Do they try to ignore them, or do they sigh, turn up their own music and join the party?

It's hard for the Canadians not to be affected by their proximity to the US. Here in Southern Ontario, people travel across the border into the US as a matter of course, some to work, others to shop or holiday. Historically the closest states to here were also British colonies before the War of Independence, so the foundation peoples of both countries were similar types.

Compared to Australian understated tastes, even the Canadians like things bigger and brighter. This isn't to say that Australians don't want big things and the newest toys, but things that many Canadians take for granted are technologies that were things which made me gawp like some kind of yokel when I got here. Houses I would have considered large are called small by those who live in them, and in living here I finally understand why the Husband considered my house back in Australia so tiny.

All that being said, Canadians are friendly and close enough to Australians for me to be comfortable amongst them. And while I may be mistaken for having a British accent by them, at least I haven't yet been asked what language we speak in Australia, unlike when I worked at a Girl Scout camp in Ohio 13 years ago...