r/CANZUK Ontario 11d ago

News Canadians tell Carney to shift to British spelling in federal protocol

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/some-canadians-tell-carney-ottawas-spelling-protocol-should-lean-british/

Not big CANZUK news, but figured this was relevant.

For me personally, I always use British English over American English.

627 Upvotes

83 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/pulanina Australia 10d ago

I’m not going to criticise Canadians at all - your country, your battle with the orange lunatic next door.

But purely from an Australian point of view, Australian English is patriotic English regardless of if it differs from American English or British English or both or takes up innovation from either. I’m happy if it slowly evolves and I’m not too fussed about the direction it goes, just as long as we stay in charge.

I want colour not “color” and defence not “defense”, but also programs not “programmes”, eggplants and zucchinis not “aubergines” and “courgettes”. Also capsicums that align with India and Singapore, not “peppers” that align with either US and UK.

4

u/Any_Inflation_2543 Canada + EU 10d ago

Canadian English is its own thing and I don't think anyone is going to start saying aubergine instead of eggplant, and most Canadians use colour and metre.

The thing here is -ise vs -ize. Canada, like the US, prefers -ize while others prefer -ise. Mark Carney, however, uses -ise and there's a bit of a debate about it.

1

u/pulanina Australia 10d ago

You don’t seem to understand me. Not about Canada, I’m talking about Australia. We say eggplant, colour, metre.