Canadians define themselves in terms of not being American. They are forever looking for elements that separate themselves from their southern neighbours. In someways that makes us a country searching for an identity. I don't think it's true that we are 'nicer' or 'less assertive'.. but there are distinctive characteristics that are associated with cold weather climates. So you see more correspondence to the Northern U.S. than southern.
Americans as a group, consider themselves to have a divine and global mandate to evangelize the world to their concept of liberty, which they define as much by libertarian capitalism as by the declaration of rights. Property is as important as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to them. I don't know how many American movies i've seen where the climaxe is the hero standing victorious in the midst of a cheering crowd; That's the way Americans view their mission in the world, as a conquering hero, its engrained on their society.
That gives a ruthless character to their society, and an arrogance as well. They tend to amazingly ignorant of things beyond there borders, have little appreciation of foreign cultures. Most of them would be unable to find Afghanistan on a map, even though they have an army fighting there. But they do tend to see fights through to the finish, and have managed, better than other Western countries to not submerge itself in the post structural ethos that is burying the rest of the West.
