It's funny, I was never even aware of the whole "oot" and "aboot" thing until the South Park movie and after that it took me a long time to even truly be able to discern it. I've realized over time that this is because, to a certain extent, it's something I do as well, being originally from New England. We don't do it to the same degree as Canadians but it's there. Plus, I have some northern Maine roots so it might be even more prominent in my family than others.

McDonald's: Why Our Food Looks Better in Ads Than in Real Life - YouTube

You can hear the oot and aboot on this :D

Aboat, oat.

Zack-lee

I think Canadians tend to get touchy about the accent thing because it's something that is consistently ridiculed in a negative way by Americans and American media (hello, South Park). The accent is there, no doubt, but it's not universal across the country. In Toronto and surrounding area, the accent is more like "abAWT" - like when you say bot or bought. When I have visited other areas and cities, and meet people from other places, they tell me this all the time, haha. There is also a tendency to slightly slur words together. Toronto and Canada as a whole is becoming so much more diverse and full of people who's first language is neither English or French, so I think that is starting to influence the way we speak.

People don't notice their own accent or the accent surrounding them, because they hear it all the time. I know my accent is there and would be noticeable to someone who is not from here, but I don't hear it because I'm so accustomed to it.

I'm guessing you're listening to hockey broadcasts from BC? I have definitely noticed the "oot" sound from them.

EDIT: Also, that guy in the video is using Aunt Jemima which isn't even maple syrup, lol. Not even close! It's like if a German person says "Oh, yeah Germans have great beer and we like to drink it" and then proceeds to drink Busch Light.

Scots definitely say it like that. More so than Canadians, I believe.

lol, that McD's is a couple of blocks from where I live. The woman in the video is definitely not from Toronto though, or at least she didn't grow up here.

Well, to be fair, Adolphus Busch was actually German.

@BD: Tune In radio allows me to listen to almost any radio station in the world, I listen to lots of New Jersey Devils games on WFAN New York just because of Sherry Ross, the excellent color commentator for the Devils broadcasts, AFAIK the only woman broadcaster in the NHL. I listen to the Leafs games sometimes (I think it's on TSN, or at least was last season).

There's only one nation on Earth that would feel the need to start a thread like this to tell the rest of us all this stuff.

Yeah, Canada.