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> Most definitely we have Canadian spelling, always have had.
Actually, there is no such thing as Canadian spelling -- or American or
British. There is only the spelling recorded in specific dictionaries or
used in specific publications at specific times.
For example, while there may be a general tendency to use -er endings in
the U.S.A. versus -re in Canada, the U.S. is full of Theatre Centres
(sic) from Massachusetts and Connecticut (Harvard and Yale) to
Minneapolis (The Guthrie Theatre) and even in small towns in Utah and
Arizona. As for -or versus -our, the Toronto Globe and Mail used
"colour" from its beginnings until about 20 years ago when they changed
to "color" only to revert to "colour" recently. And, since dictionaries
base their entries on what they find in publications like the Globe and
Mail, what are they going to list? Obviously both, as, I believe,
several American dictionaries do too.
Perhaps in countries with an official "academy" that issues a dictionary
(Portugal, Spain, France) we can say that there is a national spelling,
but not necessarily that everyone follows it.
So it comes down to a question of general tendencies or "preferred"
spellings. And in my experience in technical writing it is usually what
the Sales department prefers that determines what we use. And that, of
course, is based on how they perceive customer sensitivities.
Incidentally, I have both the Gage and Oxford "Canadian" dictionaries,
and I think the Gage is more complete in many ways (I couldn't find "pig
latin" in the Oxford, for example.) The Oxford, on the other hand, is
valuable for its encyclopedic entries.
But that's just personal preference. Like spelling.
