Canada's Carney called out for 'utilizing' British spelling
48 comments
·December 15, 2025kens
breve
> For example, the "Headingley Gaol" near Winnipeg.
Why is that inexplicable? It would have originally been called that with that spelling.
joshdavham
> For example, the "Headingley Gaol" near Winnipeg.
Fellow Winnipeger here! I remember driving by that sign as a kid and being baffled by that word.
Waterluvian
Canadian English is what you get when a country moves out of England’s attic to attend university and ends up with America as a roommate.
thomassmith65
I've never heard anything about a change to British spelling. Sounds like nonsense.
Carney is the most popular politician Canada has had in decades. The opposition party is starting to fall apart (two members defected, which means Carney's party is one seat away from a majority).
Whole thing sounds like an attempt to manufacture an 'Obama beige suit' moment.
CanuckThrowAway
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.
thomassmith65
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.
mikestorrent
The entire world has already wasted enough calories on caring about this.
eru
> Carney is the most popular politician Canada has had in decades.
All thanks to Trump's silly tariffs. There's a silver lining to everything. I hope that the association makes protectionism politically taboo for decades to come.
vkou
> All thanks to Trump's silly tariffs
The tariffs were just half of it, the attacks on national sovereignty were the other, and Pierre being his usual shallow and despicable self on the campaign trail were the third.
If Carney (or almost anyone but PP, really) were the head of the CPC, they'd have had a majority today. But looking at where the party's going, it's doubtful that the CPC will ever again elect a leader who can both read and write.
canadiantim
Trudeau was more popular at his start, but we saw where that led us…
thomassmith65
The press wrote more about Justin Trudeau, but his peak approval rating was lower than Carney's.
samdoesnothing
> Carney is the most popular politician Canada has had in decades
That's just blatantly untrue?
thomassmith65
I'm basing that on the Prime Ministers, anyhow.
Jean Chrétien is the most recent Canadian Prime Minister that I remember a wide spectrum of Canadians liking (and by 2000, not as much). Justin Trudeau appealed many American journalists, but only to some Canadians.
If I missed an obvious politician, I will happily concede.
a3c9
By gut feeling I’d agree on Chrétien, and there is some polling on this (which I think backs that up). This article compares favourability after first election for PMs going back quite a ways and Carney looks similar but slightly worse off than Trudeau or Harper.
https://angusreid.org/prime-minister-mark-carney-first-month...
helsinkiandrew
He spent 7 years (2013-2020) in London running the Bank of England though - as the first foreign head in its 300+ year existence - he would have been very careful to avoid using Canadian/American spellings in official documents - has he just got used to it?
SwiftyBug
Is the prime minister typing out official documents himself?
murphyslab
One persistent problem is that there isn't a Canadian English spelling option in most software with spellchecking functionality. Often we are forced to choose between US English and British English spelling defaults, when neither is quite right. I suspect that this was a stylistic choice not of Carney himself, but whoever proofread the document. There has been considerable erosion in Canadian orthography in of late, which has only been made worse with the widespread adoption of UFLI English language learning materials in our schools' elementary curricula, which emphasizes American spelling and pronunciation.
jandrewrogers
The reality is quite complicated. Canadian English is a version of North American English, with a distinctive pronunciation and sub-dialect, but still has vestiges of British English that are lost in America.
I feel like Canada is of two minds, awkwardly and indecisively straddling North American English and British English. It wasn’t until I worked overseas that I realized North America has a very distinctive English that imprints on people, even if they lived there a few years. As in Londoners who spent a few years in North America as toddlers have obvious North American tonality, which is baffling to me.
I have native relatives in Canada and the UK and I find the language dynamics across the anglosphere fascinating.
zzo38computer
I agree that Carney should use Canadian English. However, this does not seem like a major enough issue to me, to worry about much, nor is it important enough to fine or sue anyone or anything else like that.
jandrewrogers
Much ado about nothing.
Due to my somewhat international career, I had to learn to code-switch between American and British English. My default is American but can do British as needed. Spelling, vocabulary, dialect to some extent, etc.
For a global audience, I find American is the best default. Nonetheless, actual Americans barely notice if you use British English-isms in American contexts. They may notice but no one cares. Everyone knows what you mean. Using British dialect may confuse them occasionally but even then no one cares. Canadians should do what is natural for Canadians.
It boggles my mind that someone from a Commonwealth country using British spelling would even warrant a news article. Why is anyone talking about this?
mayoff
Maybe just don't utilize "utilize" or "utilise" at all. There are very few cases where utilizing "utilize" or "utilise" is better than using "use".
pitched
I think they have slightly different meanings where “use” is more direct like a tool and “utilize” is more indirect like a system but that could be more about context than meaning. The words “usage” and “utilization” show this more where I would expect “usage” to be binary or integer and “utilization” to be fractional or percentage. That context and expectation is important for clear writing.
anigbrowl
I agree that utilize is distinct from use, in that it makes something useful in a novel way; you might utilize a flat stone to dig, where you would otherwise use a shovel.
But I also agree with GP that many words like this are chosen just to sound more impressive, in the same way that people say 'at this time' instead of 'now.'
pitched
This helped me understand what I was getting at so I’ll try explaining again now with that.
The words are typically used in two different contexts, one more professional (utilize) and one more casual (use). The words can be chosen to hint at which context we’re in or shift the context locally if needed.
For example, a story about a group of drunk guys could say that one of them utilized a flat stone to dig, to add humour since we’re clearly not in that professional context.
derriz
“Never use a longer word when a shorter one would suffice” - a “joke” repeated many times by one of my high school English teachers.
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mjd
Asked to comment, Carney's office stated that they had told those hosers to take off.
pitched
Asked to comment, Carney's office stated that they had told those buds to mind their own beeswax.
crossroadsguy
And the gen-text-speak will conquer all with 'utlgng'.
> "So far, bless him, he has not resorted to 'gaol' for 'jail.'"
Some parts of Canada inexplicably used "gaol" for "jail" until fairly recently. For example, the "Headingley Gaol" near Winnipeg. The jail has been renamed to Headingley Correctional Center, but the road to it is still Gaol Road, preserving the linguistic curiosity.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headingley_Correctional_Instit... [2] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Gaol+Rd,+Headingley,+MB,+C...