I grew up with various images of Britain. Being a child of immigrants, I was struck from an early age by the different fonts used in UK documentation. Something stouter and jolly about it. Apparently, The NYT thinks that British fashion ain't what it used to be:

Even the grouchiest grumblers agree that old-fashioned mailboxes are among the most popular symbols of Britain, and share many characteristics of the country’s other design icons. One is that they come in a rousing shade of red, like the K2 telephone kiosk and Routemaster double-decker bus. Another is that they have the gutsy, no-nonsense engineering aesthetic of the K2, Routemaster and other national design gems, including the Concorde and Spitfire fighter jet. (The French tend to favor elegant icons, like the delicate Art Nouveau ironwork of the Paris subway and those dainty blue and white enamel street signs, but the pretension-phobic British prefer theirs to look pragmatic.) And like so many other jewels of Britain’s design heritage, the postbox is not what it used to be.

Does Canada have a style? Sure you can put out a about Canadian design from decades ago but is there any such thing today? Does the look of a VIA rail engine define how we like out loaves of bread to look? Doe up and coming businessmen seek to copy the hair style of Mr. Harper? Does the CFL set the standard for logo design in all things otherwise Canuck? Or is it all still about plaid shirts and canoes?