A liberal democracy can survive for a while on institutional strength and widespread agreement. As long as most people are generally satisfied with how things are going (or have made peace with the status quo), it is easy to imagine that something like a social contract will keep things on track. Hamish MacAuley makes a persuasive case that many Canadians came of age politically between the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the 2008 financial crisis, when consensus was widespread and politics seemed optional, thus many chose to stay out. We abandoned democratic governing habits during prosperous times. Instead, we played politics. In response, McGill's Jacob T. Levy advocates for political action that rejects the status quo while also refusing to burn it all down or take our ball and go home. We should participate in politics, even if it is unsatisfying. When the foundations of our democratic structure or the rights of vulnerable people are jeopardized, it makes sense to delegate aut
The vibes of AmE on CanE are totally unchallenged, fam. Anyway, the examples of 'there is nothing to it' and 'sick to the stomach' American slang that have totally become a part of British English show that Canadian English, just like other types of English, is influenced by American English. But that doesn't mean Canadian English is becoming completely Americanized and identical to American English. Anyway, there's this thing that's like totally evolved in and around 'Cep'fer is like, a way to say 'except for' but like, in a more chill way. It's usually a preposition, but in sentences like the one above, it's like a complementizer, you know? (Chambers 1991b: 292) .
Vibes
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OMG, when it comes to verbs, Canadians are like totally woke about both British and American verb vibes (if there's even a diff, ya know). Predominantly, tho, they usually be vibin' with the American usage. Already in the fifties an Americanism dove was, like, the fave past tense form in Ontario instead of the British dived, and more than a third of peeps preferred the participle form drank (AmE) over drunk (BrE) as well as American bathe (transitive verb) over the British bath (Orkin 1970: 153-154). Montreal was like totally found to be all about AmE expressions, like, even more, you know? A recent study in Montreal just confirmed the tea; the results for bath/ bathe usage prove that "literally no one under 50 still uses the British form" (Boberg 2004: 261) and that, together with the dive/ dove usage, the "change is almost donezo". OMG, like, Boberg (2004: 261) was all like, "The younger generation isn't the only one who's into American usage, ya know?" The parents' generation is totally on the same wave, fam. OMG, like out of the three syntactic forms I'm about to spill the tea on, the first two can be spotted in both CanE and AmE. But sis, the third one is totally CanE exclusive, no cap. The first one, 'ever-exclamation', is like, an adverbial that's super emphatic and stuff. It shows up in sentences like. Does he ever drive so fast, like, zooming past everyone? Is he, like, so dumb! (Chambers 1991a: 263, italics added).
He be complaining hella these days.
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War, like, it's straight up genocide. (Chambers 1991a: 264, italics added) According to Labov, 'positive any more' can be replaced by the temporal adverb 'nowadays', but not always (qtd. in Chambers 1991a: 264). Like, pragmatically, as Chambers (1991a: 264) explains, sentences with 'positive any more' lowkey imply that the speaker ain't vibin' with the situation, ya know? For example, if someone says "He smiles a lot any more," they probs mean that they think his smiling is too much or fake or somethin' like that. So, like, this adverbial in CanE probs came into the scene when those Pennsylvanian refugees rolled into Ontario, ya know? It was like between 1783 and 1803, and that's when the 'Loyalists' roots started to show up in the expression, according to W.H. Eitner (quoted in Chambers 1991a: 265). While like, totally common in AmE and CanE, the two adverbials we just talked about can be seen as features that like, clearly set CanE (and AmE) apart from the British variety, ya know? refers to the settlers from the US who came to Canada during the American revolution (1776- 83) and after it (McArthur 1996: 163), like, they were totally flexin' their move up north, ya know? The adverbial phrase unique to Canada is as well – used as a sentence connector (cf. Crystal 1985: 9), like She totally warned us about the legit dangers, fam. And like, she spilled the tea on how to dodge those, you know? (Chambers 1991a: 264, italics added). Although its occurrence is like, pretty local, Chambers (1991b: 292-293) suggests that "it will keep on spreading [...] until it becomes common enough to be written down." It might just be another case of a Canadianism, ya know?
'Canadian' Eh, fam
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As Trudgill (1991: 51) like totally says, the interjection eh is used in like so many varieties of English, including Scottish and AmE. But like, he's all like, it's like, used a lot in Canada and stuff, and sometimes people, especially Americans, think it's only a Canadian thing, which is like, totally wrong. Eh can be used in many contexts with a number of different meanings, like "interrogative (You liked it eh?), narrative (We had pizza, eh, 25 and beer), greeting (How’s it going eh?), deferment (Yeah really eh?)", tag (You want to go, eh?) or intensifier (Do it, eh?) (McArthur 1996: 165). Additionally, eh often pops up in stories (McArthur 1996: 165). The mad use of eh by Canadians on many diverse occasions may be related to the use of tags in other varieties of English: it can be noted that CanE effectively swaps a bunch of different tags like ...isn’t it? ...haven't you, fam? ...does she, tho? by only one interjection, which reveals hella strong vibes of CanE towards the economy of language. Using "eh" in CanE is, like, super common, you know? As Jurcic (2003a: 3-4) like totally says, "the frequency and the context in which it occurs in Canadian speech is like sooo different from both American and British native speakers and thus it's a vibe." According to H. A. Gleason, CanE is the only variety where you can find "as well" at the beginning (qtd. in Chambers 1991a: 264). Therefore, this sentential adverb should be noted cuz it's like more proof of how CanE is totally unique, ya know?
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