A place where my parents vacationed every summer when I was very small also drew many Canadian tourists.
The kids who I played with there all took off their shoes before coming in (and would remind you if you didn’t).
It’d take an Yank to point this out, but he almost seemed…looks left looks right less-than-polite? :eek: 
First, you are reacting to a joke … 
Second, Canadians know very well that they ultimately pay for their socialized medicare through their tax dollars.
What Canadians also know, is that somehow, paying for socialized medicare through tax dollars actually costs them considerably less, per person, than the same medicare costs south of the border - while most analysts state that it provides overall superior care.
It’s pretty common in my American neighborhood, too, where there is (or was) a large Polish influence. To this day, my instinct is to generally take off my shoes when entering someone’s home.
“Some states” is an understatement – see this map.
Spelling it cheque instead of check is also something a giveaway, old boy. Gone native a bit, have we?
Being on Secretly Canadian Records might be a big clue.
I find that Americans wear their shoes inside. They also take them off before going inside. Or maybe it depends! The point is, I don’t think that there is any big trend to make any generalizations. Entering another’s house usually involves asking or at least observing what other guests are doing. At best, it is regional (isn’t it just necessary to take them off in snow country?), but all expressions exist in the US.
Most Americans I’ve known say bathroom. Restroom is only used if you are asking the waiter or other professional stranger where it is and thus is somewhat euphemistic.
What? Doesn’t British Colum… [Googles]… :eek: no kidding! [Adds all of Canada to places to nuke] I always knew that Minnesotans were secretly Canadian. Oregon, how could you? I’m pronouncing it “Ori-gone” from now on out of spite!
Hey now! I resemble that remark!
Hmmm. Going to have to keep an eye on him.
I have never seen him eat poutine - I think you guys are onto something!
That’s laughable. Of course we know how our health care system is funded.
That’s right - the Queen sends us a bunch of money, it’s matched by the Tommy Douglas Foundation, and hey presto! Healthcare funding!
Where I grew up in West Texas, they said neither “soda” nor “pop.” It seems to be a regional practice. I would hear it on TV or in movies or read it in comic books, but no one ever said them where I was. I doubt the terms were used anywhere in the state. I don’t recall ever hearing anyone in my mother’s family in Arkansas using “soda” or “pop,” nor in my father’s family in California.
What we said was Coke regardless of whether it was a non-Coke drink. “Let’s go get a Coke.” “Okay.” But it could very well be Pepsi or Dr. Pepper you’d be thinking of.
For a more formal term, it was “soft drink.”
Coke is the corn of your beverages.
Those are words that would never had made sense to me if it wasn’t for reading SDMBs. I fear we’ve all become odder.
Edit: wait, I think I used that wrong. Never mind.
How bout them Canadians? Taking shoes off when entering a house. I guess if someone isists on taking their pants off when entering a home they aren’t real Canadians. Probably.
There’s actually a joke I use to figure out how many Canadians are in a crowd.
Just stand on your table and yell “The world will end at ten o’clock. Ten thirty in Newfoundland.” Those laughing are Canadians.
Or Indians. If any Nepalese are around, they’re laughing at you.
Well, Alberta does try to be USA-Lite, so that only makes sense 
In Manitoba, the only person I know who insists that shoes stay on does so because she wishes she was living in New York city.
Shoes come off first, then socks, then pants, and so on and so on. Isn’t it that way in the USA too?
To add my perspective as someone who has lived most of his life in northern Canada, including northern Alberta, this seems to be a rural/urban split. I’ve known people who lived all their life in large cities who wear their shoes inside, but in the smaller towns and in the country you absolutely would remove your shoes/boots.
Part of it could be that the six to eight months of snow every year gets you in the habit of removing outside footwear. Part of it could be that mud is a much more common part of life if you live somewhere that has mostly unpaved roads. Wet pavement is pretty clean to walk on compared to wet gravel or packed dirt. Also, storm drains whisk the water away, while I’ve seen mud puddles take weeks to dry out.
So, IME, rural Canadians almost always remove their shoes, in cities it varies more.
Oh, oh. I remove my pants before my socks. Now what?
Now you’re just a naked guy in socks.
ETA: after typing that, I figured I better look up the quote, and I was remembering it wrong.
Quoted from the IMDB listing of “Coupling”
"My advice is to get them off right after your shoes and before your trousers… that’s the sock gap. Miss it and suddenly you’re a naked man in socks. No self-respecting woman with let a naked man in socks do the squelchy with her. "
How Canadian is that?
