U.S. tourists in 1960 liked our 'fresh air' and cigarettes

When an Ohio tourist in Toronto was asked how he likedCanada, he replied, "we've learned more in this day and a half than we had our entire life," adding he didn't know Canada had different money or cigarette brands than the United States. Theyear? 1960.

In theclip above, host Gil Christy of the CBC-TV show Tabloid conducts on-the-street interviews that reveal how little the popular American perception of Canada has changed over the years.

And they show that Canadians have been obsessed by what Americans know about them since well before Rick Mercer began his popular "Talking to Americans" segments on CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Mercer on Talking to Americans

13 years ago

Duration 3:42

Rick Mercer talks about how he stumbled into the Talking to Americans segment and why he doesn't plan to ever do a sequel to the popular special.

Mercer has saidthe long-running feature came about almost by accident as he was conducting on-the-street interviews for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a show he helped create in 1993."On the fifth or sixth try, I worded the question differently: 'Excuse me, do you have a minute for Canadian television?' "You have a TV station in Canada?" he replied.