As a Canadian I have always been taught that both spellings are
acceptable and recognized. I have used both and have seen business'
using both spellings.
Bee
The spelling followed by the Canadian Press (news agency) and followed by
virtually every newspaper in the country is "colour". Due to the huge
influx of print media from the States we're very used to seeing "color" and
I imagine that as time goes on the trend will continue to move more toward the
American spelling. I'd say, however, that the "correct" way in Canada is
still "colour".
Steve
Oh, when did that happen? I did some programming work for the Canadian
Press in the mid 1980s, and was talking to someone there about this at
the time. What they told me was that their standard was "color", because
enough of the news that CP distributes comes from US sources that they'd
rather not be adding characters to it. On the other hand, as I recall,
their stylebook did specify "centre" rather than "center", both forms
being the same length.
In my opinion, the most common Canadian practice is:
1 - to use British spellings for certain commonly used words (notably
"centre", "colour", and "cheque" -- though "color" is often seen
in advertisements and in at least some news sources);
2 - to use American spellings for certain other words ("tyre", "draught",
"kerb", "connexion", "gaol", and "shew" are practically unknown --
though to be fair I should note that the last three are also far
from universal in Britain today);
and
3 - to assert that all American spellings are obviously wrong because they
are American and therefore "not English", or "not Canadian English".
--
Mark Brader "[It] was the kind of place where they spell
m...@sq.com trouble TRUBIL, and if you try to correct them,
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto they kill you." -- Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
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