As Americans, is it accurate to consider Canada an international country? (1 Viewer)

Saintman2884

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I apologize to those who, upon seeing this for the first time, believe this is a silly and stupid statement for a thread, but to me while Canada is a foreign country outside our borders, it doesn't strike me as being an international type country for many Americans who in more than a two dozen states, Canadian border is just 30 minutes to a several hours drive away from their front doors. International is a term that to me means a highly-anticipated, very long distance travel by air, sea, or land over the course of 10-12 hours or a day or two to arrive there, like traveling from NY to Tokyo, or Beijing, Moscow, London's Heathrow, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo, Rome, Istanbul, etc. I realize in the context of living in the American Deep South, traveling to most Canadian cities might present a more expensive, logistical challenge and longer travel time for me then those living in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, Upper Plain States, Montana, Idaho, PNW or Alaska. But even for someone like me, making travel plans to go and spend time in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, NS, or Quebec doesn't seem as big or as unrealistic in terms of feasibility as an American compared to traveling to UK, France, or Germany, or Greece.

For millions of Americans, Canada might as well as be the next state over especially if you live in Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle, Rochester, Cleveland, Pittsburgh or Massula, Montana.


I pose the same question to Canadian posters on SR, especially those living in cities right on or within relatively close distance to US border like Ottawa, Toronto, Windsor, Ontario, Vancouver, BC, do you consider the US an international country or just a big, huge foreign country to the south of you?
 
The word you are looking for is "overseas".
Yeah, Canada is not overseas, but an international destination by definition, i.e., outside national borders.
 
Growing up in Montana I always thought of Canada as just another state which measured things weird and had cartoon money.
 
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I get your point, but Canada in many areas is more foreign than NOLA is to people from Wyoming and I like to use the words as defined.

in·ter·na·tion·alDictionary result for international
/ˌin(t)ərˈnaSH(ə)n(ə)l/
adjective
adjective: international
  1. 1.
    existing, occurring, or carried on between two or more nations.
    "international trade"
    synonyms:global, worldwide, intercontinental; More
 
Well, there was this one time when I was checking in for a flight from Houston to Calgary... I put my bags on the scale and handed over my tix. When the agent asked for my passport, I told him, “I don’t have it, it’s at home on the shelf in my closet.” He gently reminded me that, “Canada is a whole other country you know.”

In all my rush it simply escaped my mind that it was an international flight or a “whole other country.”... oops.

Thanks to my FIL for the urgent passport fetching/delivery, I made the flight without issue.

And based on the reaction/mild enquiry of the Canadian officials once I landed.. yes, as an American I can say that Canada is its own country.
 
And see growing up years ago you didn’t need a passport or anything. Most of the time we went up with my grandma and used the point of entry up by Eureka, MT. The Canadian border guys, and the Americans for that matter would just address her by name and welcome her as the family had been up in that area for about 100 years and travel back and forth was about like going to Wal mart.
 

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