Canada and the US (or The States as Canadians refer to it) are obviously very similar since we are neighbors, but there are some big differences as well. Socialized healthcare and a ban on firearms are obviously huge ones, but ones I won't go into since I don't know a lot about them. (What I do know is that we are heavily taxed on Austin's paycheck, and have supplemental insurance through his work for medical, dental, vision, and other stuff). I haven't gotten into any of the healthcare stuff yet since we don't go to doctors very often, but we'll have to figure it out eventually.
So what I do know is the things that I'm involved with day to day, mostly grocery shopping, taking care of kids, and financial stuff. And obviously my comparisons are only going to cover where I'm at in Canada (just North of Toronto) and where I've lived in the US (Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, area). First off- the stereotypes of Canadians that say "eh" all the time and love hockey are true! I thought they were just silly things to make fun of Canadians, but I hear people (at least those who are native Canadians) say it all the time and hockey is mentioned constantly. Canadians also pronounce things differently, most noticeably words such as "sorry", and "process" in which they say the long O sound rather than the short O sound and "out" and "about" in which they make more of an "oo" sound than we do. Another stereotype of Canadians being really polite is also true- people are so nice here! From people I've met at parks or stores to people who work at governmental agencies like the drivers license agency (still haven't gotten my license exchanged for a Canadian one though) are really friendly and polite.
There are lots of people here that aren't originally from Canada- which is another major difference from where we've lived in the states. There are people (first generation) from all over the world here and that is pretty well represented in our church ward too. We chatted with an older gentleman from Scotland the other day at the grocery store, attend church with a refugee family from Africa and a family that is Ukrainian/Japanese, have Persian/Iranian landlords, and see people from many different Asian countries all the time. They are lots of other different nationalities and languages here too, but I'm not sure exactly what they are yet. (Rumor has it that Italians live around our neighborhood somewhere, so I need to seek them out and see if I can still converse in Italian-or at least listen to that beautiful language spoken by a native!). Also, French is the national language along with English so everything is written in both languages.
We are still adjusting to the different measurements here too. Temperature is measured in Celsius rather than Fahrenheit, distance is measured in kilometers rather than miles, volume is measured in liters rather than gallons, and weight is measured by kilograms rather than pounds and ounces (although I have noticed that produce is priced by the pound and kilo at most grocery stores). We are also still adjusting to the value of Canadian money vs US money. Canadian bills are colorful and made of plastic rather than paper and their 1 and 2 dollars are coins (much like the Euro). Adding to our money adjustment, is the crazy high Harmonized Sales Tax- 13% on all goods and services except food (unless it's a "pre-made" food- anything from restaurants or a deli, things that are ready to eat like protein bars or snack bars for kids [Clif Z bars in are the ones I've noticed] or even nuts that are already salted are taxed). I've noticed that diapers (but not wipes) are only taxed at 5%, and there are probably other items that fall under that lower tax too, but I haven't found them yet.
Now to food- the food here is very similar to US food, but also reminds me a lot of European food (of course I've only ever been to Italy, Switzerland, and England) but I've loved finding some of the foods from there at Canadian stores. A huge one is Kinder candy. Kinder surprise eggs are expensive and difficult to find in the US and have recently been banned, but they are everywhere in Canada so Austin and I have enjoyed sharing them with our kids (although the little toys from inside them are starting to drive me nuts because the kids leave them all over the house).
This isn't a big deal, just a little difference I noticed- it says Christie rather than Nabisco. Also, graham crackers are expensive and hard to get a hold of. This little box was 5 CA$ at Walmart and is the biggest one I've found anywhere (I'm used to buying huge boxes at Costco, but haven't been able to find them at Canadian Costcos)
Lots of things tend to come in bags around here. Below you will see some yogurt on the left (although it does come in cups too) and a soap refill on the right.
Another difference is in schooling. From what I've gathered talking to other moms in our neighborhood and some internet research, there are no charter schools in Canada. There is public school and there is Catholic school (both of which are free to the public) and there are also some private schools. Kindergarten has two years- junior and senior. The junior year starts the year a child turns 4 and the senior year is when the child is 5. Also, the time to start school is based on the calendar year you were born, rather than having a cut off of sometime in September or October like in the US. So technically, Leif should have been in junior kindergarten this year and starting senior kindergarten this fall, but in the US he wouldn't be starting until the 2018-19 school year. We were planning on starting him as a kindergartener in home school this year anyway, so that works for us. (I'll do a post on my home school room soon).
So, those are the major difference I can think of for now. We love Canada for the most part and are excited to get to live here for a few years (despite the major drawback of not being close to family ):
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