Political Culture and Values

A long intellectual tradition links the different historical experiences in Canada and the United States (U.S.) to continuing contrasts in their political cultures. New evidence from contemporary public opinion polls highlights more cultural similarities between nations than differences. In broad value priorities, Canadians and Americans are more similar to each other than to the citizens in most other advanced industrial democracies. Feelings of national identity and trust in government are also strikingly similar across these two nations. The norms of good citizenship are very comparable. And perhaps most surprising of all, images of the appropriate role of government overlap substantially. In short, the rhetoric of cultural differences is less apparent in the reality of public opinion surveys.