As a through-and-through American who spent his formative years in close proximity to Canada, I feel qualified to comment.
I always felt that the differences between the two sides of the border were pretty cosmetic. At least as far as everyday life was concerned. Little details like currency, the metric system, accents and all that were fun and novel, but the overall culture was pretty similar, at least between Southern Ontario and the Northeastern US (aside from NYC, that's a unique place all its own.).
The politics of course are pretty different, I disagree pretty strongly with the direction of the Canadian government's domestic policies, but then it's really none of my business, except when my own representatives look north for an example.
As for whether Canadians were more like Americans or Europeans, I always had the impression that they were more like Americans, but always strived to be more like Europeans, and thought of themselves that way. Then I once saw on a British TV show, where an English couple had relatives visit from Canada, and the Canadians were portrayed as boorish, obnoxious, overweight....exactly how I would expect them to portray Americans! After that I suspected that, while Canadians were trying to be as European as they could, actual Europeans would always view them in the same vein as Americans. Hence the Canadian identity crisis that you guys have talked about. So I guess Canada is just Canada, perched in a unique cultural position somewhere between America and Great Britain. Not a bad position to be in overall.
I always thought that the US and Canada sharing the longest undefended border in the world was something to be really proud of. Also, I highly recommend the Friendship Festival held every summer on both sides of the Niagara River, celebrating the long-standing friendship between the US and Canada.
I guess if we were talking about a family, with the US and Canada as brothers, and England as the mother, then Canada would be the well-behaved "favorite" brother, and the US would be the brother who gets bad grades and is always in trouble. Of course the "bad" brother always gets the chicks.