Failing to See the Humour

So, I went and done did it, and I appalled at least two upstanding Canadians who happen by here. Uh huh, I spelled "humour" as "humor", thus going against my many years of formal education and aghasting good Canucks everywhere.

My reasoning: lately, every time I wrote "humour" or "honour" or what have you, I have not been pleased with myself. Because there is no reason to write it that way, when we can simply do as the Americans and write "humor", Your Honor. You see, Your Honor, we don't say the "u" anymore — haven't for a long time as a matter of fact. Try it. Say the word "our" or "hour" and then say "humour" or "honour" in the same way. See, we don't say it that way.

I'll have you know that I think I am being very Canadian by making the switch. A long time ago, when we were largely populated by expat Yankee Doodle Dandies, our school children were taught the American way. It was only later changed by fiat, as it were, to keep us more British — stiff upper lip and all that.

Pish tosh, say I. I'm taking Canadian English back. I may even drop those silly "re" endings. I mean to say, do we go to the "theatre" or "theater", I ask you. One thing I will keep is the doubling of consonants as in "traveller" rather than" traveler". I take that stand because my understanding is that if you don't double the consonant, then you should pronounce the preceding vowel as long and not short. And who ever heard of a "traveeler"?

So, that's my rationale. Although it's common sense to me, it was still a tough decision to make. But I figure that our national identity shouldn't hinge on archaic spelling (note the two ll's — pretty sure even American spell it that way).