Australian PM's ‘Canadia’ gaffe the butt of jokes on social media

mentalfloss

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Jun 28, 2010
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Australian PM's ‘Canadia’ gaffe the butt of jokes on social media

Crossing a hemisphere and more than a dozen time zones for his first official trip to Ottawa, Australia’s Prime Minister briefly mixed up the name of the country he was visiting – and social media pounced on him for it.

Speaking at the Canadian War Museum on Sunday, Tony Abbott was asked about his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper’s harsh condemnation of Russia's intervention in Ukraine. “They’re very forthright remarks,” Mr. Abbott said, “and I think that they’re perfectly appropriate remarks for the Canadian Prime Minister to make. Canadia, Canada, probably has more involvement in the affairs of Europe than Australia often does ...”

Though Mr. Abbott quickly corrected himself, “Canadia” soon became a trending term in Australia.

Australian PM's ‘Canadia’ gaffe the butt of jokes on social media - The Globe and Mail
 

Praxius

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I personally don't like him nor think he's doing a good job as PM (I can't vote so it doesn't really matter what I think) That little mixup isn't really a big issue.


Seems like he was going to say "Canadians" again and got it mixed up.


Both Australia and America have and are pronounced with "I's" in both the names of the countries and identifying the people. Canada isn't like that and if you don't deal with Canada a lot, it could get mixed up.


He did quickly correct himself and it would have been funnier if he didn't. Kind of like Bush and Mr. Poutine
 

Praxius

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wtf is that?

I don't even know... never seen that before.

The beer, yes, but not that slop.

Anyways, I don't see why so many are making a big deal over a half second slip up that he corrected right away.

Do you guys even know how often people in North America screw up the names of places in Australia?

Melbourne isn't pronounced "Mel-Born" it's "Mel-burn"

Canberra, the Capital of the country is commonly pronounced by NA'ers as "Cam-bear-a" when it's actually pronounced "Cam-Bra"

Similar to how Newfoundland is commonly pronounced "Newfen'lnd" not "New-Found-Land"

Dartmouth is pronounced "Dart'myth" not "Dart-Mouth"

Kejimkujik isn't "Kefiggle-ma-jiggle"

What's my point?

I don't have one with the above beyond that these sort of slip ups happen and the worst situations are when people simply don't bother to correct themselves (thinking they're right) or asking how to properly pronounce certain things.

During his trip to Canada he's probably been saying "Canadians" and "Canada" a crap load of times and the one moment where he slipped up, everybody jumps on him..... over nothing.

It was a slip of the tongue, he knew it, he corrected himself.

Big whoop.
 

Blackleaf

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Most Australians, like most Europeans and Americans, probably don't know that much about Canada. They just see it as the pointless, frozen bit on top of America which gives us crappy music and cringy political correctness. They probably think that Canada's capital is Toronto, like most people outside of Canada do, but struggle to find where Toronto is on a map.

Meat pie, pea soup and ketchup.........yuk
Upside down like Australia......


Is it Heinz?


That looks delicious. What's wrong with it? Don't you have meat pies, pea soup and tomato sauce in Canadia? Or is everything you eatd renched in maple syrup?
 

Praxius

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Crappy Music?


You guys got The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.... That's it..... Nothing new since. (and both aren't that great & mostly drug induced jibber jabber)


Oh wait, David Bowie is good.


Oh and then there's James Blunt.... Pfft. *snickers*


Don't worry Blackleaf, you're still beautiful...


You're beautiful
You're beautiful it's true.


There must be an angel with a smile on her face, when she thought that we should put up with you.
 
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Nuggler

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Most Australians, like most Europeans and Americans, probably don't know that much about Canada. They just see it as the pointless, frozen bit on top of America which gives us crappy music and cringy political correctness. They probably think that Canada's capital is Toronto, like most people outside of Canada do, but struggle to find where Toronto is on a map.




That looks delicious. What's wrong with it? Don't you have meat pies, pea soup and tomato sauce in Canadia? Or is everything you eatd renched in maple syrup?

How does one "rench" something ? Or is that typically a Brit thing ?:p

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tompost in a popot. eh wot.


(no idea what that means)
 

taxslave

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How does one "rench" something ? Or is that typically a Brit thing ?:p

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tompost in a popot. eh wot.


(no idea what that means)

I think that is suposed to be compost, not tompost. Easy mistake what with British cooking and inability to speak their own language.