Why do americans travel as "canadians" outside the U.S.?

My husband and I have. We have placed stickers with a Canadian flag on our camera bags and worn pins with the Canadian flag.

Many Americans behave very poorly overseas: they speak in loud voices, drink to excess, have zero respect for other cultures, etc.

When you distance yourself from such egregious behavior you receive better service.

Furthermore, I have had Frenchmen and Italians try to enter into political discussions with me and try to inform me how life in the U.S. is when they have never been here. I do not wish to discuss my political views with people while vacationing. In many European countries that is acceptable, I try to avoid the opportunity and wearing a Canadian flag helps.

I've known some people who have traveled overseas and pretended to be from Canada, even going so far as to sew a Canadian flag onto their packs.

The theory is that America throws a lot of political weight around. That's pretty accurate and there are a lot of people out there that resent that. By comparison, Canada is seen as being less of a "bully". There is also a sterotype about American tourists - loud, crass, fat people. Sometimes that's true too, though I've met more than my share of loud French, English, German, Saudi, and yes, even Canadian, tourists as well.

I will say this -America's a huge country in comparison to most of the rest of the world. You can travel from thousands of miles in the US, and never have to speak anything but English (though a bit of Spanish might help). We're also richer and enjoy a better quality of life than most of the rest of the world....all of which does make some American travelers less than appropriately sensitive to the concerns and experiences of people in other places.

Personally, I'm happy to tell people I'm American when I travel. I've been all over Europe and SE Asia and while I get the occasional "ugly American" comment, a lot of the people I meet love America (well...they love the country and the culture, maybe not the politics or government). I figure the only way to beat the "ugly American" sterotype is to show people that Americans can be good guests.

PS: One of the above posters "the rest of the world doesn't register on my give a sh*t radar screen"...that's the type of attitude that many foreigners assume Americans have, and that's what leads to the resentment and bad service that causes some to claim to be from Canada. Just my $0.02

I don't know a single American that has a Canadian passport. So how do we travel as Canadians? Oh yeah, we can count all fcuked up when we travel "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 & 10" haha

When I lived in Kenya for a summer, we were told to say that we were Canadian because if people knew you were American, they assumed you were wealthy and pestered you constantly for money.

I agree that no self respecting American should deny their heritage, so I never claimed to be a Canadian, but I didn't go around telling everyone I was American either. I usually just made a vague reference to living overseas and dropped it. The people who knew me (my hosts and neighbors) all knew that I was American, and they didn't think any less of me. Quite the opposite actually - they were excited to hear about it's like here and I got invited to go visiting a lot.

You don't have to travel as a Canadian to be liked overseas, you just have to not act like a jerk, and you'll be alright.

I don't think everyone loves americans - certainly not in the muslim world. Other than that, Canadians have this sort of "peace loving" thing about them as opposed to a more aggressive style for the americans.

I never did. In fact, when I was in Italy, I also treated very well by the locals. Of course, I was polite to them, so they were polite to me.

I never tried to act Canadian when I travelled to Canada. That would just be rude.

Well seeing as CANADA, is involved in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN as well, then there is not much point in the Americans claiming to be Canadians to avoid problems with Muslim Fundamentalists is there??

I mean that would be like a German claiming to be an Austrian / Swiss or vice versa!!

I have never traveled outside the US as anything other than an American citizen. And if I did I surely would not go as a Canadian...wouldn't that require a castration and a spine removal surgery?

Maybe because I've heard that Canadians are treated better than Americans because Americans are thought of war-creating monsters outside the U.S.

No self- respecting American would EVER say they were Canadian. Personally I would say I'm a proud American because quite frankly, I really don't give a Rat's A.S.S if the rest of the world likes us Americans or not because, again quite frankly, "the rest of the world doesn't even make a blip on my give-a-s.h.i.t radar screen".

If that is in fact true it's probably because of all the anti-American sentiment due to the war.