Jack & Naree wrote:
The thing aboot (!) Canada is that there's a steady stream of recent (and educated) British immigrants as with Australia, maintaining the standards. I would not be surprised to find Americanisms more a feature of urban working-class Canadians near the US border.
Some 80% of the Canadian population lives within 150km of the US border. (That's about 90 miles for you Brits and Yanks that don't understand that.) British and Australian immigrants have not been dominant among those who choose to come live in Canada; we see far more newcomers from India. I understand that years of British influence have resulted in a peculiar form of hypercorrect English, but I don't see how this influx of Raj English will help maintain standards among Disneyfied Canadians. I think that a continued practice of smug linguistic aikido will be more effective Come to think of it, that strategy may work as well in cricket as in baseball.
Ec