Why do most Canadians on TV sound like they are from the US?

Question

No harm intened to our Canadian cousins. I love accents, but I have only been able to detect 3 or 4 distinct accents at the most: Quebec, General Canadian (sounds like American to me), Western provinces (in their country and western music), and Native peoples. I am sure there must be more out there, but it might be like our Western US states, just one big accent. I know that the media personnel have a preferred accent, but I am talking about the every day people I've heard interviewed. I love hearing any foreign accents no matter where they are from and I can not tell the difference!

Answer 1

Listen to somebody from Newfoundland or Cape Breton

Note: The population of Canada is 33 million not the "fraction of Californias' population" as one person said

Answer 2

You're talking about a country w. a population a fraction of California's alone that hasn't really been there long enough to develop more than 2 or 3 accents, this is one area that size really doesn't matter, accents develop out of communities over time. American English is the result of Irish immigration/accent on a largely Anglo Saxon population, Canadian English doesn't have so much of this influence.

Answer 3

There is an accent, even if very very subtle. However, I think what has made our two takes on English so homogeneous is the fact that Canadians watch TV with U.S. actors about 90% of the time.

Answer 4

Canadians sound like dorks and they want to appeal to a large audience.

They are practicing their acting skills.

There really is no Canada.

Well, I live in Connecticut and in such a small state, there are still subtle differences, that I can hear, but for the most part, they say there is no real accent in Connecticut.

Perhaps you haven't listened to enough of them, well enough, to notice subtle differences?

Answer 5

SCTV had some Canadian accents on it years ago. A? I have not heard it since A?

Answer 6

There are not many but Donald Sutherland really sounds Canadian.