For some reason, there is a popular misconception (even among some linguists!) that "Canada" is some kind of unified linguistic zone, or that somehow it is "close enough" (maybe people are just lazy). Whereas English diversity in the US has been studied to very fine level of detail, Canada remains mostly a blob on most maps[0].
Of course, anyone who lives, say, in urban Ontario will immediately notice the differences in accent of someone from B.C. or Alberta, though that seems to just "sound Canadian" to other listeners.
I'm not sure that a linguist would paint all of canada with one brush. Any linguist worth being called such should at least recognize a couple english-french divides.
Comments
For some reason, there is a popular misconception (even among some linguists!) that "Canada" is some kind of unified linguistic zone, or that somehow it is "close enough" (maybe people are just lazy). Whereas English diversity in the US has been studied to very fine level of detail, Canada remains mostly a blob on most maps[0].
Of course, anyone who lives, say, in urban Ontario will immediately notice the differences in accent of someone from B.C. or Alberta, though that seems to just "sound Canadian" to other listeners.
[0] See e.g. http://aschmann.net/AmEng/
I'm not sure that a linguist would paint all of canada with one brush. Any linguist worth being called such should at least recognize a couple english-french divides.