I've decided "polite" is completely a cultural construct. It's based on all kinds of assumptions that people are brought up with about what is polite and what is not polite.

So what I'm sayin' is (I can hear you now, "Get to the *point*, Ingrid")... what I'm sayin' is... there is definitely a distinctly Canadian types of politeness that I miss very much and is not particularly prevalent in Dutch culture.

(See that? That was polite.)