Yeah I love the Newfie dialect, it has so much character! It’s almost like its own language sometimes. I definitely hear that “Scottish” type accent in British Columbia too, it’s a bit less prominent in Toronto.
The BC border guards are total dicks. I’ve actually had two vacations ruined by them because they didn’t allow me into Canada. They had no reason to reject me aside from their own whim; their excuse was I didn’t have enough money, even though I had more than I needed. I had $200 for a very brief 2 day trip, and my roommate I was traveling with had way more money than I did. One of the border cops even put his hand on his gun when my roommate hesitated to hand over his iphone! And they ruined a nice backpack of his when they were searching his stuff. You have no rights when you’re crossing into Canada; they could get away with murder probably.
The first time I got turned away from Canada I actually had to walk all the way to Bellingham in order to catch a train home. They stranded me in Blaine, Washington just over the border even though I had no means of getting home, and had a return bus ticket back from Vancouver.
I’ve never had an issue crossing back into the States, and the border guards in Ontario are much nicer, probably because they have a lot more traffic to deal with. They don’t have time to pick on young travelers. B
But yeah seriously, crossing into Canada these days feels like going over Checkpoint Charlie sometimes.
I’ve spent a good amount of time in Toronto, some in Windsor, done some canoeing in the Ontario wildernesses, spent a week in Quebec a few years back (okay, more than a few). I’m hardly an expert, then, but I’m not a novice either when it comes to Canadian visits.
Other than the speaking French thing, the Monopoly-style money :), and a handful of other very small things* what has always struck me about Canada is how indistinguishable it is from the USA, or at least the northern parts of the USA where I’ve always lived.
I haven’t crossed the Ambassador Bridge in many years, but IIRC it used to be that the first thing you saw in Windsor after crossing from MI was…a Mobil station, or maybe it was a McDonald’s–something American and multinational anyway. Sort of set the tone.
*The one thing, to me, that consistently distinguishes a Canadian from an American is the way they say the grade a child is in school. In the US, with the only exception being people involved in educational publishing (like me, and limited to educational publishing contexts), the absolutely standard way to say it is first grade, second grade, third grade, etc. In Canada, the standard way is Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, etc. I at least have never heard an American say Grade X (other than in educational publishing, see above) and never heard a Canadian say Xth grade. --I’m sure I’ll now hear from millions of people who will provide counterexamples!
Hmm, that wasn’t my experience at all. Going into Canada they asked if I was carrying any weapons, mace, etc. and I said no, only to immediately catch myself and tell them that yes, I had pepper spray on my key chain. They had me pull over and go into their office building where I gave them my pepper spray and they gave me a sheet saying that I did indeed give them my pepper spray and sent me off on my way to Montreal. Then on the way back the guy asked us a few questions and when he asked if we were bringing anything back with us my husband held up a box of Tim Horton’s and said, “Donuts!” which got a laugh from the guard. All in all it was much more pleasant dealing with the border guards than it was dealing with my MIL on that trip.
I drove into Victoria BC from Port Angeles. Driving off the Ferry through customs in BC consisted of this:
“Hello, Passports please.”
“Here ya go.”
“Are you guys here vacationing?”
“Yes.”
::hands back passports:: “Do you have any weapons in the car?”
“Nope.”
“OK! have a nice visit!”
Apparently the United States is the last major country still using magnetic strips. And American credit card companies have announced they’re going to start switching over this year.
Doughnuts are usually not consumed on-premesis. They’re usually taken somewhere else to eat them, such as the office. Maybe if you get them fresh out of the grease, they’re good. But in the half-hour or so it takes to get them into the break room, they’re pretty nasty.
Anyway, I like raised cake doughnuts.
The Cuban cigars. The second I crossed the boarder they were selling them EVERYWHERE. It seemed like every gas station, Walgreens and roadside stand had a giant “CUBAN CIGARS” sign in the window.
I guess it makes sense, it’s just not something I thought about before I went up there.
Nothing much has surprised me there but I’ve often found myself thinking, “If we just cleaned up the U.S., we could *be *Canada.”
Some years ago the smoking laws here were tightened and you weren’t allowed to advertise tobacco anymore. So sometimes you’d walk around and see the word “Cuban” on store signs, where the word “cigars” had been removed.
Not only that, the machines they use in restaurants will typically offer to calculate a tip for you; you say whether you want it based on a percentage or just a specific value and how much is it to be, and it does the arithmetic for you. Handy for people (like me) whose arithmetic skills suck.
I didn’t have any trouble with Canadian border guards, but the American guards got kind of suspicious when we told them we hadn’t bought anything in Canada (we were just up to Victoria on a day trip from Seattle). He disbelievingly said “You didn’t buy anything?” The wife and I looked around the car and finally found two post cards. That seemed to settle his nerves.
The main difference I noticed in Victoria is that we had gone up on a Sunday, and lots of shops and restaurants were closed. That’s un-American, I say!
We actually had a chipped credit card (Chase Sapphire Preferred, no foreign transaction fees). But since it was just a credit card every purchase required a signature, which confused the hell out of every single local vendor that encountered us. 
What surprised me was the “walk” pedestrian signals at intersections. In the USA, the stick-figure guy is leaning forward urgently, like he’s late to work or has an important meeting. In Canada, the “walk” guy is kicking his leg out jauntily and looks like he’s on his way to a fun party.
Two things – OK, four.
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You really are that freaking polite and friendly. We were treated so nicely and smiled at so much I thought it was some Stepford Wives plot but covering all ages and genders. It was actually unnerving.
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The racial and all other forms of diversity. And again, no visible signs of conflict or anything.
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Fairly low buildings and odd layouts to the shopping districts; what Americans would call the “Miracle Miles”. Seeing three or more different brands of cars being offered in the same block, three jewelry stores next to each other, clusters of clothing stores. US merchants spread out so comparison shopping or bargain hunting is a chore; in Canada it almost seems a national obsession to keep it as easy as possible.
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Relates to money. In the US, like Canada, almost every coin or bill printed is still legal tender and we still get “wheat pennies” and sometimes a silver certificate or two. Most of us think nothing of it. Nickels back into the 50s turn up in my pocket every week. I had some older Canadian money I got well below exchange from a couple shops I know. Nothing freaky but some 2, 5 and 10 dollar notes, some 1s, some clad/nickel bucks from the 90s – the first time I used a couple to pay for dinner the folks at the next table almost died. Could they please check through my pockets and pick some out? “We’ll even pay you extra if you want.” “I’ve never seen anything like that!” It’s a freaking Voyager dollar – they were your national standard for how long? I did it to save a little money; what I became was almost a spectacle. What the freak do you people do? Destroy every piece of money you have after 5 years? Sheeesh!
Yeah actually. That’s how the loonie and toonie were able to take hold; the respective bills were taken out of circulation.
The penny is out of circulation now, and I believe the paper bills are being taken out as the polymer ones supplant them.
Traveled through Ontario with cwSpouse, who is of the same gender and sex as myself. I was frankly amazed at how people DIDN’T have to shift gears, mentally, when we said we were a couple. This was at a time when, at home, we routinely had to explain to hotel and car rental desk staff that yes, we’re a same-sex couple, and yes, your corporate policy DOES give us the family discount, etc.
The 80/90/100 [del]mph[/del] kph signs caught me off guard as well. Like some of the other things, I guess I just didn’t think about that until I saw the first one. “hey, I can go 80…oh, nevermind”.
Gay marriage was made legal in all of Canada back in 2005.
Sunday shopping was still kind of a novelty in Ontario the first few times I was there. It had only been made legal recently and it was still common for even places like grocery stores to close at 5:00 or 6:00 on Sundays, IIRC.
I think Ontario still requires retailers to shut down on lots of holidays, which was also a surprise the first time I encountered it.
It’s the same in the US. We just don’t change the design of banknotes as frequently or as radically, so it’s not as obvious. A 1965 $1 bill and a 2015 $1 bill are almost identical.
If you spent an Eisenhower dollar or $2 bill in the US, I bet you could get some reactions. (I’m not sure, but I don’t think the nickel Voyageur dollar was ever a “national standard” except on paper.)