Canadians

[sagehen]

>>First ran across this when we moved to Miami in 1983. The French
>>Canadians were infamous for being very bad tippers. These were the ones
>>who had enough money to spend the winter away from Quebec, but lived in
>>second rate motels and pensions in and around Lauderdale. The trade
>>phrase was "CAC's" Cheap Ass Canadians.
>
>Ah, that makes sense.
>
>As to the Scottish background: a reasonable number of Canadians ceom
>from Scots backgrounds, usually a few generations ago, but I think in
>most of the country I wouldn't call it "disproportionate." And in
>southern Alberta, where there are enough Scots that you can always
>expect a bagpiper at an important provincial occasion, as far as I
>could tell they tipped about the same as everyone else. The snowbirds
>are a much more likely target -- people who spend the winter down
>south, but don't really have that much money to spread around. And I
>don't think the tipping culture is the same in Quebec as in the rest
>of the country (Quebec is really very different from English Canada
>in many ways).
>
>James Harbeck.
>~~~~~~~
 Anyone who has worked in bars & restaurants, &c., knows that good and bad
tippers some in all sizes, colors, nationalities & ages.  What may be more
significant in US/Canadian relations  is the rollercoaster of exchange
rates between our countries.  When we first moved up to a few miles from
the Canadian border in the mid '70s, the US & Canadian $'s were nearly at
par, & the parking lots of malls & plazas up here were more than half
filled with Canadian cars,  but by the mid '80s  the disparity was pretty
great.  I don't keep close track of this, but there was a period when the
Canadian $ was only worth about 66cents US, & the Canadian license plate
was rarely seen!
(Of course now it's our xenophobic border regs that're keeping Canadians away.)
AM

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