Why is Canada so much different from America?

[Holden Caulfield]

My girlfriend is Canadian and I'm American. I live in Canada for about 4 months a year. I'm not sure that there is so much cultural difference Canada and the U.S. B.C. is more similar to Washington State than to Alberta and Nova Scotia and Maine are more similar than Maine and Georgia. The lower rate of violent crime (I think non-violent crime is relatively similar?) is rather mysterious to me but then again some parts of the U.S. have extremely low rates of violent crime as well. I really accept the theory that geography has more to do with culture than does some imaginary line that we call a border.

Violent crime generally has to do with extreme poverty. As a much more "socialist" country Canada does not tend to have as extreme poor and rich areas as the US (although the rich and poor areas are clearly and hugely different it's just not on US level). That goes a long way to defeating crime. I mean Canada is in NO way perfect or even good but they at times do try to address the issues that cause crime rather than just trying it after the fact. I don't think it's geography so much as an attitude towards addressing social issues.