Originally Posted by
painintheuk
That said, Canadian publications using American spelling drives me CRAZY! I can sit reading a perfectly good investigative piece until I see color [sic] or center [sic] and I get a jolt and it interrupts my train of thought.
Originally Posted by
Vasco
Agree. You have Microsoft Word's spelling correction to thank for that. Most people can't be bothered to change out of the default US English dictionary setting.
Having worked for a major newspaper and been a civil servant, it bothers me as well. "Or" spellings were actually quite common in publishing back in the days when saving every single letter was important, but it isn't the case anymore. MS Word perhaps played a role in "corrupting" the spelling of the general public, but it is no excuse for a respectable editor or writer in Canada not to follow Canadian OED spelling. The only exception I could think of is if you were writing for a primarily American audience.
The Canadian education system is too lazy to correct kids when they don't use OED spelling and it's created generations (not just one, several) of Canadians who haven't the faintest idea what is acceptable spelling in Canada. If it were up to me, I'd have all Canadian kids learn the differences between British and American spelling (which is a lot more than just "our/or") and which parts from each are acceptable in Canadian usage. That way, kids would be trained to use COED spelling at an early age and be able to switch over to standard UK or US spelling when they are abroad.