Canadians

[James Harbeck]

>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.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org