Before Game of Thrones there was only one Great North worth noting, and our true king was probably wearing plaid or a Blue Jays baseball jersey.
Canada is a pretty darn amazing country if I do say so myself (speaking as a resident Canadian), and we’ve been known to produce some pretty amazing people to boot. Drake, Justin Bieber, Ryan Gosling, Celine Dion, Mike Myers, Rachel McAdams – all fabulous Canadian faces.
All of these top-notch Canadian celebs started out as regular old Canucks and as a whole, we’re a pretty outstanding bunch. The fact of the matter is, if you haven’t had the pleasure to call a Canadian your friend yet, you should make it one of your life goals to befriend one, marry one, or at least travel with one.
On this glorious Canada Day – a national day of pride and patriotism – it’s only appropriate to highlight what exactly makes us Canadians so special, and why we are THE perfect travel companions in every way possible…
We’re beloved
Not to boast, but we are pretty well liked on an international level. Canadians are known for being polite and accommodating, which works to our advantage when it comes to positive first impressions. So much so that some people even pretend to be Canadian when they travel. Who can blame them?
We come prepared
Chances are if we’re travelling we’re taking it seriously, and we have emergency supplies with us just in case. Need hand sanitizer? A snack? A map? A tissue? A pen? Yes, we’ve got it all and we can absolutely share it with you. It’s almost as if we all went through mandatory wilderness training, but really we’re just prepared and thoughtful people.
We won’t complain about the weather
Canada’s weather is known for being pretty darn cold in the winter, and our summers typically get hot, but maybe not hot by some country’s standards. Basically our temps are pretty moderate, if not verging on too cold. That means that wherever we’re travelling you winters ain’t as bad as ours, whilst your summers champion ours hands down.
We’re content in any climate – excited for some real heat in the summer and commenting “it’s not that bad” in the winter – and we’ll probably have a ‘just in case’ sweater to lend you if you need one.
We won’t complain about the water either
Canada is the land of lakes and you can probably tell from our weather that our lakes are pretty cold. We also have the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at our disposal, another pretty sweet perk. With all of this cold water around us, you better believe that we swim in all of it regardless of temperature, and we will pretty much call anything a “beach” if it can be utilized to access water.
Ever heard of a polar bear dip? Yeah, we do that for fun. So what if the pool’s not heated? So what if it’s windy at the beach? We’ll always go in the water with you, and if we do squeal, it’ll be from excitement and not hypothermia.
We’re a beacon of friendliness
When we travel we usually have at least one Canadian flag on us somewhere. That way we can walk around and be beloved everywhere, without even needing to say a word. Let us lead the way and we’ll help you become beloved by association.
We’re entertaining
Ask us all of the Canadian questions you want about igloos and hockey, have us pronounce a million words and laugh at us every time we say “eh” – we get a kick out of it, and being the accommodating people we are, we really don’t mind. Chances are we have some great stories about violent Canadian Geese that we can tell you, and our poutine love and condiment usage are always other great topics of discussion.
We tip well
Tipping is customary in Canada, and most of us even tip for bad service; just not as much as we would for good service. If you eat with us, splitting the bill will be a breeze.
We’re easily impressed
Our country is a beautiful place, but it’s pretty quaint and underpopulated compared to some places in the world. We’re also a relatively young country with a limited documented history, so the history in some places in the world has a tendency to blow our minds on the regular.
We’re worldly
Our education system is pretty great, as is our world knowledge and geography in generall. International news and issues are widely followed in Canada – not only because of a lack of exciting Canadian news to report, but we actually care about what is happening around us.
We probably know a lot more about your country than you do about ours, and with our big cities being so multicultural, we probably know someone from your country as well. So when you ask us if we ‘know Bill from Toronto?’, we are tempted to ask you if you know Steve from your country as well to be a smart ass, but being the polite bunch we are, we won’t.
We love languages
If you’re ever in need of a French word or two we’ve got your back, and our natural preparedness means we’ve probably learned how to at least say ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’ in the local language, which is better than nothing and actually gets us farther than you’d think.
These rules obviously don’t apply to ALL of us Canadians, but we’re pretty fabulous in general. So the next time you see that beautiful maple leaf abroad, come and say hello. Our geese may bite, but we won’t!
