Canadian English has a bunch of britishisms and spellings that are artifacts (artefacts?) of its more recent history as a commonwealth dominion and probably French influence. Colour, neighbour, centre, defence, etc. Our ESL teachers are popular internationally because of our relatively "neutral" accent as well, and a reputation for a level of general agreeableness that aligns with some of the traditions of some other cultures. Maybe it's just the first alphabetical one on the list, but these are other factors. This article is about the locale for text, so maybe it's not a spoken English thing.<p>However, I could see why someone would want to avoid acquiring a southern accent if they weren't from there, or moreso, that rising terminal of the US west coast. (I suspect people in CA tech companies would be a bit less sensitive about others over explaining things to them if they realized that to anyone east of the Sierra Nevada, most of what they they say sounds like a question.)