Oh, Canada! It’s the second biggest country by land
mass, and it’s a diverse land with mountains, plains and the most fresh water lakes in the
world. This weekend, 35 million Canadians will celebrate
the nation’s 150th birthday. Canadians are proud of their culture, which
includes two official languages, and their heritage. And the one thing that they want the whole
world to understand is that they are not Americans. 10. Why Do Canadians Say “Eh!” So Often? Many countries around the world use the interjection
“eh” as a replacement for “pardon?” or “huh,” or a question tag, like “right?” In Canada, though, the word is much more versatile. An assistant professor at St. Francis Xavier
School in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, found there are 10 ways that Canadians use the interjection: Statement of opinion: The Leafs are probably
gonna miss the playoffs again, eh? Statements of fact: There’s a Harvey’s
on the corner, eh? Commands: Make my side of fries a poutine,
eh? Exclamations: Roll up the Rim is back at Tim’s,
eh? Questions: What are the Jays doing now, eh? To mean ‘pardon’: Eh? What did you say? In fixed expressions: I know, eh? Insults: You’re a real hoser, eh? Accusations: You took the last maple dip,
eh? Telling a story [the narrative eh]: “So
Gordy’s been drinking Pilsner and pounding CC for a few hours eh? and he goes and gets
the key to the Zamboni… With such a versatile word that anyone can
say, what is weird is that other countries don’t use it more often. 9. What’s the Deal with the Tragically Hip? Canada has given the world a wide arrange
of musical artists like Celine Dion, Justin Bieber, Nickelback, Drake, The Weeknd, The
Arcade Fire, and Bryan Adams, just to name a few. While Canadians aren’t exactly proud of
all those acts, one band that is embraced by a lot of Canadians is The Tragically Hip,
or simply known as The Hip. While they had some success outside of Canada,
like appearing on the Billboard top 200 (but no higher than 129) and being on Saturday
Night Live, outside of Canada they wouldn’t necessarily be considered rock stars. In Canada though, the band was worshiped. Sadly, in 2016, the band’s charismatic front
man, Gord Downie, announced that he had terminal brain cancer. On August 20, 2016, the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC) aired the band’s last show, commercial free, live from the band’s
hometown, Kingston, Ontario. In total, over 11 million Canadians tuned
in. That’s a third of all Canadians. The only recent events that were more popular
were the last two gold medal hockey games in the Olympics when Canada was playing (and
won, which Canadians like to point out). So, what’s the deal? Why do so many Canadians love The Hip? One reason is that The Hip often sang about
Canada and Canadian topics, like hockey, Canadian political figures, the changing Canadian identity,
and small towns that Canadians didn’t know existed until The Hip sang about them. Secondly, the band was a strange embodiment
of Canada. Downie is a humble and soft spoken man, but
on stage, he is quirky, expressive, and passionate. Their music was the same way. It was a mix of rock and folk, nothing too
flashy, but soulful with a Canadian accent. Another reason they were so loved in Canada
probably stems from the fact that they weren’t popular in the United States, which made them
Canada’s band. An ongoing theme you’ll see throughout this
list is that sometimes Canadians look down their noses at Americans and many Canadians
definitely want to be different from Americans, and The Hip is symbolic of that. It’s not that Americans rejected The Hip,
it’s that Americans don’t understand them, just like they don’t understand universal
health care and gun control. Finally, it also doesn’t hurt that they
have some excellent songs. All of this comes together to make The Hip
the ideal band for Canadians. 8. What’s Up Canadian Currency? The Canadian one dollar coin is commonly called
a loonie, because there is a picture of a common loon, which is a bird, on one side
of it. So when the $2 bill was discontinued and the
$2 coin was introduced and it featured a polar bear on it, following the same logic that
a loon appears on a loonie, then a coin with a polar bear on it should be called something
like a bearie, right? Nope! They call it a toonie. No real reason for it; the nickname just stuck. As for what is on the other side of the coin,
it’s the profile of Queen Elizabeth II’s head. The face of the reigning British monarch has
appeared on Canadian coins ever since the Royal Canadian Mint started production in
1908. They do this because Canada and the British
Monarchy have a rather complicated relationship that we’ll get into in the next entry. Another confusing aspect of Canadian currency
is that there are no pennies. It was eliminated in 2013, because it cost
1.6 cents to make every one cent piece. Also, pennies were only used to make change
because the denomination was too small to buy anything. Instead of a penny, the price of something
is just rounded to the closest 5 cent denomination. This is only for cash transactions. If you pay with credit or debit, then cents
still count. Finally, yes, their money is colorful. It’s also see through in some areas, contains
braille, and it is supposed to be unrippable and unmeltable. That is because the money is polymer based
and not made cotton and paper. And yes, on their money they have a picture
of kids playing hockey. It’s found on the $5 bill. 7. Canada Has a Queen? Yes, it does – Queen Elizabeth II. However, the relationship between Canada and
the Queen is quite confusing to many people, including Canadians themselves. Canada is an independent and sovereign country,
as they were granted independence on July 1, 1867, but it stayed in the British Empire. Also, their parliamentary system is based
on the Westminster system that was developed in the United Kingdom. The system has a British sovereign as the
Head of State, so Canada’s parliament followed suit and put a British sovereign as the Head
of State. As the years progressed and Canada continued
to take steps toward sovereignty, they simply didn’t get rid of the British sovereign,
even when they became a completely sovereign nation in 1982. Today, the Queen, or whoever is the reigning
monarch, is a symbolic Head of State and they have no real power. Also, to remove the British monarch as the
Head of State would be a lengthy and ultimately expensive legal process. So unless something really drastic happens,
Canada will probably have a British monarch for the foreseeable future. 6. Why is Milk Sold in Bags? Throughout Ontario and Eastern Canada, the
majority of milk is sold in bags. Usually there are three 0.35 gallon bags sold
in one bigger bag. Bags in bags? Yes, it’s true: Canadians practice bagception. Anyway, the bags are then put into milk bag
holders, often made of plastic, and then either one or both corners of the bag are cut off
(some people think it pours better with two holes). The reason they use bags instead of jugs comes
down to one of the major differences between the United States and Canada, which is that
Canada adopted the metric system in 1970. This was a problem because Canadian products,
like milk, needed to be sold in liters (technically, litres in Canada) instead of gallons. However, major alterations needed to be made
to the milk bottling machines to do liter quantities. A solution to the problem had been invented
in the 1960s, when DuPont discovered a way to inject milk into bags. The milk bagging machines didn’t need much
in the way of alterations, and by 1978, milk in bags was the most common way to buy milk
in Ontario. It grew in popularity because bags are easier
to ship, less fragile, and less packaging is used. All of this saves money, making it the most
economical way to ship milk. 5. What’s the Deal Canadian Sports? In many parts of Canada, it can get very cold
in the winter, and while Canadians will complain about the cold, they often embrace it and
celebrate it. In fact, two of Canadians’ favorite games
are winter games that are played on ice. The first, which should be obvious, is ice
hockey. According to a national poll, 53% of Canadians
are fans of the NHL. Compare that to the Americans and the NFL,
where only 49 percent of Americans consider themselves a fan of the NFL. However, what is odd is that Canada doesn’t
have a national professional hockey league. They do have the Canadian Hockey League, which
comprises of three junior leagues. Junior means that the players are between
the ages of 16 and 21. But beyond that, they don’t have a place
for professionals over the age of 21 to play, like the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in
Eurasia, or even the United States, which has the American Hockey League; a farm system
for the NHL. There is currently only one Canadian team
in the AHL, the Toronto Marlies. Perhaps you’re thinking that isn’t that
weird; Canada only has a population of 35 million people and maybe they can’t sustain
a professional hockey league. Well, that may be true, but they do have their
own professional football league and basketball league. The Canadian Football League (CFL) has nine
teams (that’s not a typo, they have an odd number of teams), and they play a 20 week
schedule. Its rules are similar to the rules of the
NFL, except the balls are bigger, the goal lines are 110 yards apart, the end zones are
20 yards, and they have one less down. As for the Canadian Basketball League, it
was started in 2011 and has 10 teams. The second winter sport that Canadians love
is a game more boring to watch than golf. That is curling. There are a million people in the world that
curl, and 90 percent of them are in Canada. In case you’re wondering, yes, some curlers
are celebrities in Canada. 4. Why Does Canada Have Different Flavored Chips? Yes, some Canadian brands of chips have flavors
based on Canadian food like poutine and maple syrup, but they also have two flavors that
are made by Frito-Lay that aren’t Canadian in nature, but are rarely found outside of
Canada. These are ketchup and all dressed. Ketchup is pretty self-explanatory, except
that they don’t really have an overwhelming ketchup taste. They are sweet, but also very salty. The reason that ketchup chips are popular
in Canada, but aren’t found anywhere else is because, for decades, the bestselling brand
of chips in Canada was the Canadian-based Hostess Potato Chips and one of their most
popular flavors was ketchup. In the 1980s, Hostess teamed up with Frito-Lay,
and eventually the Hostess brand lost its value, and their chips, which included ketchup
chips, were re-branded as Lay’s. The second kind, which was sold for a short
time in the United States in 2015 (and can still be found in stores now and then) is
all dressed. It’s a combination of paprika, tomato, salt,
vinegar, onion, sour cream, ketchup, and barbecue, which gives it a sweet and salty taste that
is hard to explain. Nevertheless, it’s quite popular in Canada. According to Ruffles’ website, all dressed
is the #1 flavor of chip in Canada. Unfortunately, we could not find out why all
dressed is only available in Canada. However, based on speculation alone, it could
be because all dressed has ketchup seasoning and as we just mentioned, ketchup chips are
usually only found in Canada. 3. Why Do They Always “Sorry”? Besides “Eh,” another word Canadians use
a lot is “sorry.” However, that can often be followed up with
an “eh.” Also like “eh,” “sorry” is a versatile
word to Canadians. In the book How To Be A Canadian (Even If
You Already Are One), there is a whole chapter on mastering the word. They identified 12 different ways it can be
used: simple, essential, occupational, subservient, aristocratic, demonstrative, libidinous, ostentatious,
mythical, unrepentant, sympathetic, and authentic. One reason that Canadians apologize is that
it’s part of their culture of politeness, but it’s also a quick way to smooth over
problems and keep relationships positive. Another theory is that Canadians do it as
a way to show that they aren’t Americans. As Joseph Brean from the National Post wrote,
sorry is “…a totem of niceness, with a sly undertone of superiority. It announces both our presence and the fact
we feel slightly bad about it. It also subtly asserts that, cultural appearances
notwithstanding, we are not American.” He also says that it is different from the
empty “Sorry!” that British people say, which is where Canada inherited much of its
language, and it is also much different than the American John Wayne style of forgiveness
being weakness. 2. What’s The Deal With Poutine? To many non-Canadians, or people who have
never tried it, poutine can look pretty unappetizing. When Jay Pritchett saw it on Modern Family,
he said, “Well, it looks like vomit, so I’m not pou-tine it in my mouth.” Fair enough. After all, it’s gravy made from animal fat,
or even better, mushroom and root broth that is mixed with flour, and then poured over
fries with cheese curds sprinkled on it. So yes, it’s crispy fries with a liquid
poured over it, which sounds like a soggy mess. However, if Canadians even see a picture of
poutine, some of them will start to drool like Homer Simpson. Poutine is available at many fast food restaurants
in Canada like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Harvey’s, which is a Canadian
fast food chain. Even Costco serves in at their food court. Of course, there is even a chain of restaurants
that exclusively sells poutine. Oddly enough though, you can’t get poutine
at Tim Horton’s. The origins of poutine is debated, but the
adding of cheese curds to fries and gravy is often credited to Bernand Lachance of Café
Ideal in Warwick, Quebec. In 1957, regular customer Eddy Lainesse asked
for the cheese curds to be added to gravy and fries, and Lachance said, “ça va te
faire une maudite poutine!” (that will make a damned mess!). From there, the popularity of the dish grew
and it has become the most famous Canadian food. As for why it’s so popular, that’s because
it’s delicious. 1. Why Are Canadians So Polite? One stereotype you hear is that Canadians
are always nice and polite. However, if you were to ask Canadians if this
is true, they would deny it, or say the stereotype is overblown. (And then they’d probably apologize for
potentially seeming curt.) So is it true? And if so, why are they so polite? An article by Cassandra Szklarski of the Canadian
Press tried to answer those questions, but the problem is that measuring niceness across
a country is really hard to do. In one attempt to measure it, researchers
compared the language used on Twitter by Canadians and Americans. They found that the words used by Canadians
were gentler, nicer, and more positive. On the other hand, as we mentioned, Canadians
tend to think of themselves as superior to Americans. They may not flat out say it, especially if
there are Americans around, but behind closed doors, Canadians can stereotype Americans
as ignorant, gun-toting, warmongering, religious zealots, who drink weak beer (they even have
a popular country song about the beer part). For example, on a segment on a satirical news
show on the government subsidized CBC, comedian Rick Mercer would interview Americans and
ask them about untrue and ridiculous things about Canada. For example, he would ask Americans to record
a congratulatory message to Canada on building a dome over the national igloo. He even got then-Governor of Arkansas Mike
Huckabee to say it. He also got George W. Bush, who was running
for president, to thank Prime Minister Jean Poutine for his support. The segments were so popular it was made into
a one hour special. Is that nice? So, while it is debatable if Canadians are
nice or not, what is even less clear is why the stereotype exists. One guess is something called the Fragment
Theory, which is when a colonial country keeps some old world sensibilities. This made Canadians conservative and deferential,
which could be construed as polite. A second theory is that the foundation of
Canada was English, French, and Aboriginal people who coexisted with each other using
tolerance and politeness, and those traditions have carried on into modern Canadian society. Finally, it could just be because Canada is
a vast place and the elements can be harsh. Let’s say someone’s car breaks down on
some rural road in Northern Ontario, where cell service is spotty at best, on a cold
winter’s night. The person has to hope that the next car that
comes along stops to help or things could get really bleak. So perhaps Canadians are nicer because the
elements of their country make them more dependent on their fellow Canadian, so being tolerant
and polite to others was, and is, a matter of survival to Canadians because you never
know who the next person coming down the road is.
