GSB Mennonite

I'm interested to hear more about this conversation, particularly regarding the differences between Canadian and US Mennonites. (I assume you meant that you discussed the differences between Canadian Mennonites, and mainstream US Mennonites, and not that US Mennonites are more 'mainstream' than Canadian ones?)

I don't know a lot about the Canadian perspective, but from what I was told the perception of Mennonites in Canada is very similar to the Amish...but then again that kind of misunderstanding is fairly common here too.

I think it's true that a lot of people in Canada hold misunderstandings about Mennonites. These vary by region, too. For instance, when I was living in Toronto, I met people who associated Mennonites with the Amish. I suppose this wasn't entirely baseless, as there is a healthy Old Order Mennontite population in the nearby Waterloo area, who tend to be quite noticeable, given their distinctive dress and use of horse and buggy. I found it funny when people were confused because I didn't fit that type.

In Winnipeg, my home, a lot of people are familiar with Hutterites, and some confuse them with Mennonites. I was surprised to encounter this in a fourth-year/graduate university seminar on the history of the province. The Mennonite population in Manitoba is not insignificant: 73,450 , in a province of 1.1 million! I don't encounter this often, but the misconceptions do exist.

I guess link tags don't work in comments? The number of Manitoba Mennonites was from http://www.mhsc.ca/index.asp?content=http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/M3650ME.html .

That's a really interesting point about regions. The person I was talking to last week was from Toronto so what you said fits perfectly with the associations they had.

As for the links, I'm not sure...maybe I have html disabled in comments?