Current Events > I want to know a few things about Canada.

(+) Yeah! (+)

1. Is Ontario considered "special" or something, and if so, why? I remember as far back as the late 90s, it being mentioned on the internet more than other places in Canada.

2. What is Alberta like?

3. What is the weather like in Canada? I know a lot of people have the conception of it being white all year around, but what is it like? What month does snow usually start, and when does it stop and clear? How are the Summers? Quite warm and sunny, right, despite the perceptions of the country?

4. Is Canada really THAT different to America? I suppose plenty of Canadians and Americans would be offended if someone said they were very similar, but I'm not sure if that's accurate or not.

You know, until this week, I thought Toronto was the capital of Canada. I thought this for about 18 years, even since I visited it back in the day. It's actually Ottowa.

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Sunhawk posted...

1. Is Ontario considered "special" or something, and if so, why? I remember as far back as the late 90s, it being mentioned on the internet more than other places in Canada.

It's the most populous province (IIRC something like half the country lives here) and the site of the national capital (Ottawa) and the biggest city (Toronto)

Sunhawk posted...

2. What is Alberta like?

Canadian Texas

No literally

There's oil, conservatives dominate politics there (except for the last few years, for some reason they elected a social democrat government) and the last time I was there I bought a cowboy hat and some boots

Sunhawk posted...

3. What is the weather like in Canada? I know a lot of people have the conception of it being white all year around, but what is it like? What month does snow usually start, and when does it stop and clear? How are the Summers? Quite warm and sunny, right, despite the perceptions of the country?

Warm summers and cold winters (at least where I grew up). Truthfully though, it really varies from place to place. There's desert here. There's rainforest out on the west coast, the east coast is always rainy and wet. It depends.

Farther north obviously it gets freezing.

Where I grew up (Ontario, specifically almost right over the border from Minnesota) there'd be a warm summer with temps hovering around 20C-30C most days, then a breezy fall starting in late September. Then cold/snow usually starting mid November and lasting until around April

Sunhawk posted...

4. Is Canada really THAT different to America? I suppose plenty of Canadians and Americans would be offended if someone said they were very similar, but I'm not sure if that's accurate or not.

Very similar but definitely notable differences in terms of values and politics. Everyone is further to the left than in the US, for instance. People are less nationalistic than in the US. The government is more similar to Britain than the US. People are all spread out more in most of the provinces so it's not as crowded as the US (for example, while there's smaller communities dotted around, my hometown is about a 4 hour drive from the nearest city).

Culturally, yeah there's a bunch of little differences you don't really notice at first. I've mentioned a few already, but yeah. Definitely less nationalistic than the US is a big one I noticed. Everyone's pretty patriotic and everything, but in the US it manifests as this obsession with idols like the flag or anthem or very vocal displays of patriotism. Then there's the attitude of American exceptionalism and "America First!" which when living in the US was a complete baffle to me, since people with that attitude are almost unheard of in Canada.
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Sunhawk posted...

1. Is Ontario considered "special" or something, and if so, why? I remember as far back as the late 90s, it being mentioned on the internet more than other places in Canada.

2. What is Alberta like?

3. What is the weather like in Canada? I know a lot of people have the conception of it being white all year around, but what is it like? What month does snow usually start, and when does it stop and clear? How are the Summers? Quite warm and sunny, right, despite the perceptions of the country?

4. Is Canada really THAT different to America? I suppose plenty of Canadians and Americans would be offended if someone said they were very similar, but I'm not sure if that's accurate or not.

You know, until this week, I thought Toronto was the capital of Canada. I thought this for about 18 years, even since I visited it back in the day. It's actually Ottowa.

1. Ottawa and Toronto are both in Ontario, and it's also the most populous province. It's not technically special but most people know about Toronto and where it's located.

2. I've never been to Alberta, but it's usually really cold in the winter and rats literally do not exist anywhere in the province. I usually describe it as the Texas of Canada for various reasons. They are probably the most conservative province.

3. It starts snowing in Nov or Dec and the snow is usually on the ground until Mar to May. It can go down to like -30 degrees in some parts. Summer-like weather can start in May or June, it usually doesn't get hotter than 35 degrees anywhere.

4. They're pretty different but there are a lot of things that are the same. Depends on what you're comparing.
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In the US, our politicians worship the rich and corporations so much they bend over completely backwards for them, in Canada, the government isn't nearly that willingly to bend for them. Through from what I hear that might be changing
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Employment law is way different in Canada then here in the US. I only know that cuz my company is opening an office there soon.
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Sunhawk posted...

3. What is the weather like in Canada? I know a lot of people have the conception of it being white all year around, but what is it like? What month does snow usually start, and when does it stop and clear? How are the Summers? Quite warm and sunny, right, despite the perceptions of the country?

It's a huge country. The weather varies massively.

Sunhawk posted...

You know, until this week, I thought Toronto was the capital of Canada. I thought this for about 18 years, even since I visited it back in the day. It's actually Ottowa.

Yeah well so do people in Toronto.
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Sunhawk posted...

1. Is Ontario considered "special" or something, and if so, why? I remember as far back as the late 90s, it being mentioned on the internet more than other places in Canada.

it"s the largest province in both area and population. it's also relevant to the US because it contains the country's capital (Ottawa) and largest city (Toronto)

2. What is Alberta like?

dry. mountainous in some parts, very flat in others. lots of rich conservatives. cattle country. oil.

3. What is the weather like in Canada? I know a lot of people have the conception of it being white all year around, but what is it like? What month does snow usually start, and when does it stop and clear? How are the Summers? Quite warm and sunny, right, despite the perceptions of the country?

it varies by region. Vancouver doesn't have winter, but the rest of the country has four definite seasons.

4. Is Canada really THAT different to America? I suppose plenty of Canadians and Americans would be offended if someone said they were very similar, but I'm not sure if that's accurate or not.

it's probably not that different, but I've barely spent any time in th US so idk

I think as a whole, we're less nationalistic. much smaller popultation in a larger land mass too, so we're more sparse. there's definitely a lot of smaller cultural things that americans wouldn't know about. most food labels are in English and French

politically, most people seem to be either socdems or liberals, but our voting system is super fucked and can allow someone to get a majority government with like 30% of the vote. it's quite similar to the electoral college system in that respect
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As a Quebecker who spends a lot of time traveling across US (esp the South) and to other provinces for work, I'd say that there are quite a lot of social differences between Canada and the US, even among the more liberal Northern states.

1. Canada doesn't like guns as much as the US. There are definitely gun nuts and hunting enthusiasts who enjoy collecting them, but there's no 2nd amendment debate here. Gun laws are quite different and more restrictive in most provinces.

2. Religion is not as big, particularly when you compare it to the Southern states.

3. People are not as paranoid about everything. They don't feel like they need guns for protection from criminals or the government. The small government advocates are present but not as big. Maybe it's because you guys have to read 1984 in high school and are taught that this is what happens when the government takes too much control? Like I'm not too sure where this fear of the state comes from. Then again the US government is so big, I guess I kinda understand how people feel it doesn't serve their interest.

4. The whole liherals vs conservatrolls debate seems crazy for outsiders, it's pretty specific to the US although it is somewhat present elsewhere (see brexit).

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Thanks for all these answers. I didn't expect to get such long and detailed answers, and it's pretty interesting. I've learned some stuff. Obviously I knew that Canadian's aren't as gung-ho around patriotism as American's, but there were some other interesting insights into the national culture.

I'm surprised to hear about Alberta. Sounds like the kind of thing a right-wing American (or alt-right wing American) would like a lot, which isn't how I generally think of Canada (although Canada doesn't seem to be like that in general). What is Winnipeg like? And some of the other state capitals? What kind of culture do they have? Are they nice?

I think Canadians are generally cool people. That whole stereotype about them being friendly and pleasant seems to actually be true. I feel bad that their country sometimes has snow until May or whatever, though. And there's definitely too much dead space, which also probably leads to isolate settlements, especially when you push further up North.

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