Clive, dude, I didn't want to influence the answers, but since you asked...
I think Canadians are more easy-going, maybe less ambitious, maybe more wild, gregarious, and humorous than we are. I don't know, though; that's why I asked.
Actually, Nona, if I can take your joke a little too seriously...I think Americans need the cowboy image to free us up from our orderly German rule-following Puritan heritage, and the Canucks need the Mounty image to keep them in line.