Is tomorrow [with A/Q] possible in Canada?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZqofcN41zU

Listen to this forecast.
At 1:15 she pronounces TOMORROW with stressed [A/Q] and not with an [or] (in General American ORANGE])...So, there are Canadians with more American[ized] pronunciation, and vice versa [some Americans don't have [A/Q] in tomorrow, sorry]. That is, we cannot generalize.

That's interesting. I don't think I've ever heard a Canadian use [A] in 'tomorrow'. However, Atlantic Canada is a clearly separate accent than the rest of Canada; I think Central/Western Canada always has [or\] in 'tomorrow', 'sorry'.

Well, it's a forecast, duh. Many Canadian broadcasters traditionally aimed for a "General American" accent, the same as people here in the Northwest aim for a "General American" accent--a sort of neutral accent. But, the problem is that "General American" is very poorly defined, and no one can agree on what it constitutes. For example, on the Wikipedia (yeah I know, not a very authoritative source, but...) article on GA, it says that in General American "tomorrow" gets an [A] vowel. Now, when I first read that, I thought that the article was simply in error, because I assumed that because I speak a "neutral, accentless" accent--Pacific Northwestern English, General American would naturally be modelled on my speech. It was not until I took my first trip down to the Southwest that I noticed that people speak a little differently than I do, and lo and behold, they do say "tomahrrow" down there. From what I've read, and from the people I've met from the Southwest, parts of the Midwest, Northeast, and South, it does seem like [A] is a more common pronunciation (for tomorrow, however words like "horrible" don't) after all.

So... what's most likely was that the broadcaster aimed for what she thought was the General American, neutral pronunciation. When I listen to the radio or tv here in the Northwest, it seems like about 60% use local pronunciations like "tomohrrow", and 40% use the General American form--some even unmerge cot and caught. I've read that Canadian broadcasters aim for/used to aim for General American pronunciations, so anything on the radio or tv doesn't always represent the local pronunciation.

While Canadian English is very close to General American, there are a few key differences. I don't think CBC broadcasters are aiming for GenAm; in fact, they use some pronunciations, like 'new' [nju], 'schedule' [SEdjul] that are less American than most Canadian accents. Don't recall ever having heard unmerged cot-caught here either, so it certainly isn't GenAm. I really don't know why she would use [A] in 'tomorrow' though. Maybe she is originally from the US?

I know a lady here that is originally from Alberta who says "tomahrrow", which is quite strange, as we say "tomohrrow" here. She also had quite a heavy Southwestern accent. I could never figure out why, until she said that she had lived in the Southwest for a year, and had obviously picked up the accent. So it doesn't take long to aquire a new accent.

I have always said "tomohrrow". It seems that "tomahrrow" is more common in Oregon than in Washington. However, from what I have noticed, younger people in the Seattle area seem to use "tomahrrow" more often than "tomohrrow". I am not sure about Eastern Washington, but I have never heard an Eastern Oregon native say "tomohrrow". It also seems that many younger people in both Seattle and Portland pronounce "bag" the Californian/Southwestern way. But then again, I shouldn't get myself started on how much I despise the way many teenagers and young adults speak. I literally cringe when I hear a Portland or Seattle native speak with a stereotypical surfer/valley girl accent.

>> It also seems that many younger people in both Seattle and Portland pronounce "bag" the Californian/Southwestern way. <<

The last time I went to California, I heard one man (who was born and raised there and lived there all his life) pronounce "bag" more like "bayg". I wonder how he picked that up. However, everyone else that I ran into just pronounced it [bæg].

I’m surprised like Josh to hear Canadians pronounce the word TOMORROW with the stressed [A/Q]. Most anchors in our local TV stations in Western Canada utter [or\] in TOMORROW!

<<The last time I went to California, I heard one man (who was born and raised there and lived there all his life) pronounce "bag" more like "bayg". I wonder how he picked that up. However, everyone else that I ran into just pronounced it [bæg].>>

He was probably just weird. Mental disorders can cause strange speech habits.