Allan:
The Canadian accent largely originated in the United States. After the American Revolution, large numbers of American loyalists to the British crown fled North to Canada because of persecution in the US. They were known as the United Empire Loyalists and form the basis of Canada’s English-speaking population.
There were enough of them that Upper Canada (today Ontario) was split off from French-speaking Lower Canada (today Quebec) and New Brunswick was split off from Nova Scotia to accommodate a large number of English-speaking refugees. Until that time Canada had been mostly French-speaking.
The settlers in Canada were generally very near the American border, people on both sides frequently crossed it, and they both received immigrants from the same countries, so Canadians maintained the same accent as the Americans. There is a stronger Scottish influence on the Canadian accent as a result of the larger number of Scots who immigrated to Canada. However, the modern Standard Canadian accent is very similar to the General American accent which is used on US TV and movies. The US has more regional accents than Canada so many Americans speak something quite different from General American.
US TV and movies have a strong influence on Canadian accents, as does Canadian TV. The American accent that is closest to the Standard Canadian accent is the California accent. Actors from California who want to try a Canadian accent are often advised by dialect coaches to use their California accent because it is close enough.
Dialect Areas of North America. See: North American English - Wikipedia
Dialect Area 1 is Standard Canadian English, and it is very similar to Dialect Area 2 which is Western American English. These are huge dialect regions in which everybody speaks with more or less the same accent, with minor deviations. The California dialect spoken in Los Angeles is similar to the Canadian dialect spoken in Toronto, although the two cities are thousands of miles apart.
Although I live in the Canadian Rockies, I personally have been accused of speaking with an accent closer to Dialect Area 3 (Upper Midwest English) than Standard Canadian English. It seems to confuse people. As it happens, my ancestors moved through the Upper Midwest on their way from Norway to Canada. I really enjoyed the movie “Fargo” because the actors talked just like my old uncles and aunts did (may God rest their souls).
Dialect Area 4 (Inland Northern American English) has been developing a distinctive accent of its own in recent years. The people there don’t seem to realize that this is happening and that their accent is deviating from the General American dialect in what is called the “Northern cities" vowel shift. The trend has not spread to Ontario, just across the border, so they accuse nearby Canadians of having a funny accent. In reality, people in Toronto speak much like people in Los Angeles, and people in the Northern Cities have developed a unique accent of their own. See: Inland Northern American English - Wikipedia
Cities having the Northern Cities Vowel Shift:
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