1. Canadians have a prime minister, not a president, as per the traditional British system of government. The current prime minister is Stephen Harper, of the Conservative Party. Liberals in Canada sometimes consider him to be their George W. Bush.
2. Canada is the United States’ largest trading partner, and the two share the world’s longest land border. In my own experience, the border security is actually tighter going into Canada than going into the USA.
3. Canada did not have a written constitution until 1982. They received their (peaceful) independence from Britain, which still does not have a written constitution, in 1867, with the passage of the British North America Act. Their independence day is appropriately called Canada Day, and is celebrated on July 1. Despite being its own nation, the Queen is still the Canadian Head of State, is depicted on Canadian money, and is represented in Canadian government by her Governor General, currently Michaelle Jean.
4. Before the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Canada had never won a gold medal on home soil (Montreal Summer Games 19 76, Calgary Winter Games 1988). As of Wednesday night, they have won 6 gold medals, and 12 medals total.
5. Canadians have a publicly-funded health care system, as written into the Canada Health Act of 1984. Health care providers are still private entities, but the government helps cover health care costs. Medication is often covered by public funds for the elderly or indigent. A 2008 CTV/The Globe and Mail poll found that 91 percent of Canadians prefer their health care system to Americans’, and that 70 percent of them found the system to be working either “well” or “very well.”
6. Canada is a bilingual country, though French is mostly associated with Quebec. Canadian children can sing their national anthem in both French and English. Consumer products typically have one side in English, and another in French.
7. Canadians spell like the British, for the most part. Sometimes they follow their American neighbors, but more likely than not, they’ll write Britishly. They put the “u” in “colour,” and the “e” in “judgement.” They don’t find it odd that “centre” ends in “re,” or that “programme” looks like it came out of Ye Olde English Shoppe. I had a good chuckle in one Vancouver Starbucks, where the sign read, “savour the flavour.”
8. The Canadian parliament legalized gay marriage in July of 2005, two years after the first provincial court ruling in Ontario ruled that opposite-sex only marriage laws were unconstitutional. Despite being more liberal than the Americans, Canadians are capable of being conservative (see fact #1). The most conservative province, their version of the American South, is Alberta.
9. Canadians call their aboriginal population “First Nations.” Americans seem to vacillate between calling our aboriginal population “Indians” or “Native Americans.”
10. Canadians have always been good at hockey. At the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix (the first ever winter olympics), Canada outscored its opponents in hockey 110-3. Canada went on to win the gold in hockey at six of the first seven Winter Olympics.
