I have always found it amusing that Americans don't know that Canada is about the same size as the U.S. (A bit larger in total area, slightly smaller in land area) Somehow people think it should be much smaller. My guess is that people get confused in mentally reversing the flat map projections that make Canada look so much larger and overestimate the percentage of non-land space. The facts of the V shape of the continent and that the northern US border is obviously our longest are clues to the relative sizes. A cursory look at a globe will show the relatively equal sizes.
Huh. I was reading these posts and thinking that Canada was quite a bit larger than the US. I guess it's all those Mercator maps.
I remember reading a comment made by a European just after the end of WWII about how you could tell Brits and Americans - even in civvies - before you ever spoke to them:
"An Englishman walks as if he owns the world. An American walks as if he doesn't give a damn
who owns it."
