Anglophiles

[dodgymanc]

Why do the majority of people from North America (particularly Canada) have a fascination and an instant love of British people?

[shybearuk]

Because we are worthy of love and adulation :o) (as well as being dead sexy as a nation) Why question it?

[dodgymanc]

Im not arguing at all, I love it, I just never worked out why!

[Quizmonster]

There's also the fact that a great many of them trace their ancestry to immigrants from here, of course. Canada -other than the Frenchified parts - especially, was populated initially very largely by Scots. Hence 'Nova Scotia', Latin for 'New Scotland', Banff National Park, named after the town of that name on the Moray Firth of Scotland and loads of other connections. We're "family", in other words.

[woofgang]

While we all "know "! that America is largely an immigrant society, I don't think we recognise how different that is. My partner and I lived in New Jersey for a while and found that we had a lot of conversations along the lines of the american saying something like "where are you from?" Us "England" them "No where are you from originally" Us "England"them "no, where were youir parents from?" Us "England" and so on . There was great fascination in the fact that we are multi generation from the same small island. Before anyone says anything, this is not intended to be any kind of comment on multicultural societies, or immigration, its just a story which may help to explain the fascination that Americans have with Brits.

[darth vader]

Actually England is quite an immigrant society too (though no one chooses to think of us as this) - apart from a few who can claim to be ancestors of the original English tribes, the majority of us are descended from Danes, Normans, French, Spanish, Irish, Scots (even the Irish and Scottish are mainly of Norman descent too) etc. etc.

by the way here's another twist in the immigrant puzzle - my Grandfather was born in Ireland, and raised in Scotland. I was born in Yorkshire, so everyone that knows me thinks i'm an Englishman living in my own country. My mate Kammal's grandad was born and raised in India. He was born in Yorkshire - so how come there are some people who think he is an immigrant who should "bu_gger off back to India"?

now that i have got off my soapbox, in answer to the question i believe that ancestry plays some part in the reasons, as has been mentioned, but also i have heard that Canadians have a certain apathy with their neighbours on the southern border (called the USA) and prefer the UK people to the USA people.... I'm going to kick a hornets nest here i can tell, but this is only what i was told, not my opinion (cos i don't have one!)

[treaclefight]

just to back up what darth is saying, this country is built on immigrants, not a century has passed without refugees from europes wars coming here in their thousands, karl marx springs to mind as someone who, as a refugee, chose england for its open minded progressive attitudes to asylum seekers (i wonder where he would choose today). i cant see that the american/canadian interest in the british is entirely down to lines of descent if immigrants in other countries forget their roots as easily as we have. i think a large factor is the relative youth of canada and usa, two hundred years is not enough time to develop a cultural identity that is on a par with the rest of the world and maybe the maintainence of ties with other cultures provides a base for a new culture. i realise that the north americans did not all arrive in the new world on the same day, but there was not an established culture to 'join' when you arrived, your culture travelled with you and was not overridden by a native one, i think that this freedom to carry on traditions and identities is one of the most positive things i associate with america and canada. :-)

[Lardybloke]

Its a lot to do with the fact that we've got lots of history and they haven't. They love all the medieval stuff cos they had nothing like it. They somehow don't like to remember their own past history, murdering thousands of native Indians and the like. Ho hum.