I work for a private radio broadcasting company right smack in the middle of the Southern prairies in the middle of Canada. By some standards I am young, impressionable, and often the subject of many debates as a young female with career aspirations that could take me out of my city, my province, or even out of the country. 

And when it comes to "out of the country," I, like many of my other fellow classmates, tend to look south to the Uniited States for opportunity.

I wish I could say that looking to the United States is something of a rarity and that we are happy Canadians who stick to our own. I mean, there are some people who do happily exist in the realm of Canadiana, but for some reason as Canadians we have a Southern obsession, especially when it ocmes to politics.

When the candidates for the next American election were working their way through the delegates and each state, Canadian news media followed the whole process. Obama wins this state, Clinton wins that state. Unfortunately for McCain the excitingness (yes, a new word, just for today) of the democratic nomination meant he got very little coverage North of the American border.

While this is all good and fun, a type of reality television almost, is that Canadians hardly follow their own government so closely. And maybe it's a Western Canadian thing (I cannot speak for Eastern Canada), but as a whole I would be that we spend more time covering American elections and American politics than we do covering Canadian ones. Is this because the American goverment is a little more forceful and has a little more power because of their military? Perhaps. Are we concerned that they are going to turn on their quiet neighbours to the North? Hardly. Yet it seems that as Canadians we are far more educated about their country than they are about ours.

Ask me where a state is, I can give you an approximate geographical location in the United States. If I tell people I live in Saskatchewan they require a specific description based on the states below it.

Do I only notice this because I work in the media? Does this have to do with education as children? Does this have to do with social and political media? Or are the Americans really just that much more interesting than Canadians?

I'd like to think we've got some pretty neat stuff going on up here. What do you think?