Five decades ago my 11-year-old classmates and I were asked by our teacher to write “Compare and contrast” essays. I struggled with selecting a topic, and ultimately my halfhearted attempt to list the similarities and differences of an apple and a banana resulted in an uninspired paper that was as insipid as it was mediocre.

But recently as my sons and I were spending an entire day driving from Toronto’s west end to our home in southern Maine, I thought of the perfect subject for the task I had failed so miserably 50 years ago. Watching central New York State’s flat, featureless terrain go by was eerily reminiscent of what we had seen just a few days earlier on our westward drive across eastern Ontario.

Thanks to that observation and a bit of long-overdue hard work my sixth-grade quality essay (below), complete with a final paragraph beginning with the two-word phrase that still drives English teachers everywhere crazy, is finally finished.

I sincerely apologize to the late Miss Cooney for its tardiness.

Comparing and Contrasting the USA and Canada

America has a population of over 325 million people, while Canada’s is barely a tenth of that. Neverthless, the similarities between the two neighbors are as compelling as they are numerous.

Each country comprises approximately 6.1 percent of the world’s total land mass. The United States is actually a tiny bit larger, containing 3,531,925 square miles of terra firma, compared to Canada’s 3,511,023. But when total area (including surface area of the country’s non-oceanic waters) is calculated, Canada contains 3,855,100 square miles, while the colossus to its south is comprised of a mere 3,796,742.

True, America has 50 states, while Canada has only ten provinces. But each nation’s smallest independent district is an Island (Rhode and Prince Edward).

Both countries feature craggy eastern coasts fraught with scenic overlooks and communities whose very existence have for centuries depended on the adjacent Atlantic Ocean and its resources. With a bit of imagination Portland, Maine could easily pass for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Close your eyes while driving along Maine route 166 in Castine, and you could easily see yourself meandering toward Port Bickerton on Nova Scotia Route 211. But shutting them for too long would virtually assure you of finding out for certain, in either location, whether or not your car is amphibious. (Hint: it’s not.)

Similarly, motoring across New York or Pennsylvania is virtually indistinguishable from driving through eastern Ontario. Canada’s immensity is attested to not only by the length of the seemingly endless trek my family and I just completed, but by the fact the lengthy gap between Ottawa to Toronto is barely 25 percent of the distance from Toronto to the province’s boundary with Manitoba. How long it takes to drive west across Ontario’s entire length remains unknown, since it hasn’t been attempted since Christopher Columbus had to turn back at what is now Thunder Bay during the notoriously bitter winter of 1494.

Canada’s Prairie Provinces are remarkably similar to America’s midsection. In fact, “Manitoba” is an Assiniboine term meaning “Upper Dakota,” and “Saskatchewan” translates literally as, “Nebraska, minus Omaha and Lincoln.” Driving through Kansas on Interstate 70 with one’s eyes closed can seem remarkably like traversing Canada’s Route One between Moose Jaw and Swift Current. But while driving blind for too long won’t put you in the drink as it would in Nova Scotia or coastal Maine, bouncing through a wheat field is no picnic either, although it might take 20 or 30 kilometers of closed-eyed driving along utterly straight highways before one actually exits the pavement there.

The Rocky Mountains that bisect America’s non-coastal west continue into Canada. Consequently the province of Alberta, like the U.S states below it, features breathtaking scenery dotted with ski areas and national parks. California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, which comprise the left edge of North America, are similar on both sides of the international border as well. The weather is comparatively mild at the coast, while inland sections of both nations are agriculturally fertile and attractive during those parts of the year when they’re not on fire.

The case for the United States and Canada being virtual mirror images of one another is a striking one. Geographically the nations are practically identical twins, and they’re remarkably similar politically as well.  Each country chooses its nominal leader by popular vote, except for when an outside influence gets involved, like Vladimir Putin or America’s Electoral College.

Presently Canada’s prime minister is young, handsome, modest, thoughtful, reliable, unselfish, polite, and honest, while America’s president is aging, bloated, vain, impulsive, erratic, narcissistic, crass, and unprincipled.

But aside from those things they’re practically the same person.

In summary, Canada and the United States are a lot alike. Except for when they’re not.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.