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CanuckThrowAwaylast Tuesday at 6:31 AM6 repliesview on HN

It was used in the recent budget documents.

> Canadian English has been the standard in government communications for decades. But eagle-eyed linguists and editors have spotted British spellings — like "globalisation" and "catalyse" — in documents from the Carney government, including the budget.


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thomassmith65last Tuesday at 10:19 AM

I should clarify.

My assumption is that any instances of British spelling in the document(s) were accidental.

The petition, otoh, implies that Carney's office has adopted a policy of using British spelling.

The 'new policy' explanation is more surprising than mine.

It makes a difference.

If the conventional explanation is the right one, then this fuss is over a few minor spelling mistakes, as opposed to Carney exercising poor judgment.

jamincanlast Tuesday at 1:47 PM

Apparently it was acceptable to use s or z in words like catalyse or analyze in British English until Microsoft Word came out with a British English spellchecker that picked the s spelling as its standard. Whether this is just myth or fact seems to be a point of controversy.

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mikestorrentlast Tuesday at 6:37 AM

The entire world has already wasted enough calories on caring about this.

triceratopslast Tuesday at 4:54 PM

So "colour" and "centre" are ok but "catalyse" is where the line is drawn?

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JumpCrisscrosslast Tuesday at 7:48 PM

What are the most notable differences between Canadian and American English?

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IAmBroomlast Tuesday at 2:25 PM

My pearls, they are clutched!