Canada is an amazing country with so much to be proud of. Locals are known around the world as some of the most giving and polite people in the world and have a reputation for being peacekeepers and are respected on the international level. Over the years, Canada has produced some amazing things that have set it apart from their neighbors to the south and made some of the people in the United States jealous of what Canada has been able to produce. But they would never hold it over them and would be more than willing to share in the success they have and the products they have invented.
In this list, here are 25 things Canucks are extremely proud of, including some amazing inventions, some great places, and some things that make Canada stand out on the international scene. People look to Canada for many things and this list has plenty to make the people of the US jealous of all the things their neighbors to the north have. They share one of the longest borders in the world, are great trade partners and friends, but that still doesn’t people from the United States from wishing they had some of the things in Canada.
25 Poutine
Who wouldn’t love French fries with melted cheese curds and gravy? Poutine is a local delicacy to some, as the dish originated in Quebec and has become a national food statement. According to cottagelife.com, no one really knowns where the idea for the poutine came along, but the story is it originated in the 1950s in a restaurant called Le Lutin qui rit.
There is a pretty good debate if a poutine without cheese curds is actually a poutine, and some locals may stick their nose up to non-curd poutine lovers.
But whatever the case may be, people in the United States don’t know what they are missing with this signature local dish.
24 Free Healthcare
Healthcare is a hot topic, but in Canada, it’s a pretty easy one, considering it’s free. That’s right, citizens of Canada can go into their doctor or emergency room and come out without having a massive bill to pay. There are plenty of horror stories of the bills some United States citizens get for medical services, but in Canada, everyone has access to free universal healthcare. According to the University of British Columbia, Tommy Douglas, a local politician, lobbied the government to have health care covered by the federal government.
By the 1950s, the government of Canada was funding health care across the country.
Sure, there are always stories of long waits at the emergency room, but those in need still get to see a doctor without the bill at the end.
23 Low Population, Big Area
Canada is the second largest country in the world, in land area, after Russia but is only 38th in the world in population. According to worldometers.info, Canada’s population is just over 37 million people, which means there are four people for every square kilometer of Canada. To put that into perspective, the United States has a population of 327 million, the third most in the world, and has 36 people per square kilometer. In Canada, most people do live near the US-Canada border, leaving so much untouched wilderness to explore and see, especially in the north. Canada definitely doesn’t have the population issues other countries do.
22 Mega NHL Stars
The NHL may not be the largest sport in the United States, but in Canada, it’s the biggest game around. So it’s no question that the largest professional hockey league, the NHL, is filled with local talent and many of the game’s biggest superstars are from Canada.
Players like Sidney Crosby and Conner McDavid are the current faces of the NHL, while the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens are two of the most profitable franchise in the entire league.
According to quanthockey.com, last year 446 players in the NHL were from Canada, which was 45.3% of the league’s players. They scored a total of 3310 goals and 9,045 points, which was 45.1% of all points scored.
21 Fresh Water
Canada has some of the best fresh water in the world. In fact, Canada has 9% of the world’s fresh water resources, according to tappwater.co. Locals enjoy a high quality water that would make people from the United States jealous.
Canada is one of the highest consumers of water, which seems pretty obvious when you have a huge abundance of it, especially in the Great lakes region.
It’s that reason that they don’t need to drink out of bottles as often, because tap water is perfectly fine to drink due to the freshness of the water. Studies have shown that no bottled water is safer for your health than what comes out of the tap.
20 Santa Claus is from Canada
There will be plenty of debates about where Santa Claus is from, but as of 2018, he was made an official citizen of Canada when then Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney, according to the National Post, held a citizenship ceremony for the jolly man from the North Pole, making him an official citizen of Canada.
Canada has laid claim to the North Pole, which puts Santa Claus’ home on Canadian land, and every year when kids send letters to Santa Claus, they are sending it to Canada, with the postal code H0H 0H0.
That postal code alerts Canada Post that the letter is for Santa.
19 Hawaiian Pizza
Anyone would think that Hawaiian Pizza would be from the United States, but the pizza with Pineapple on it was actually created in Canada.
It was created in 1962 by Sam Panopoulos in his pizza joint in Chatham, Ontario according to Time.com.
The Greek who lived in Canada decided to give pineapple, which is definitely not a native fruit to Canada, a try on his pizza and it became a huge success, becoming a regular pizza around the world. Now, many will disagree about pineapple on a pizza, as some will say a fruit doesn’t belong on there. But others love the fruit and ham combination and Canucks are proud to call it their own.
18 Kraft Dinner
One food that would seem to be more loved in the United States is Mac N’ Cheese, but those hailing from Canada have them beat handily, especially when it comes to Kraft Dinner, the box version of the cheesy pasta dish that sells like hot cakes at the store. In fact, according to the Walrus,
Locals eat on average, 3.2 boxes each of Kraft Dinner per year, which is 55% more than people from the United States do.
If someone from the United States were to call it macaroni and cheese, they would be corrected in Canada, as the Kraft brand has a large monopoly on the mac n’ cheese market in Canada, so much so, it’s always just referred to as Kraft Dinner.
17 Great Cities
Canada has some great cities to visit if coming up from the United States, or down from Alaska. But based on quality of life, Canada has some of the best in the world. According to the latest Global Liveability Ranking, published each year by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Canada has three cities in the top ten, second only to Australia who has four.
Those cities include Calgary at number-four, Vancouver at number-six, and Toronto at number-seven.
The cities are ranked based on assessments of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. With Toronto at seven, it’s actually the first time the country hasn’t had three in the top five since before 2015.
16 The Locals Are Scary
Those hailing from Canada are known for being polite people, but they are also scary people. According to Smithsonian Magazine,
the first time ‘Trick or Treat’ was used was in Blackie, Alberta way back in 1927.
Now, when thinking about it, that expression is as local as it can be. It gives the option to the person that they can be scared or give a treat. It’s the Canuck way of being polite, even when trying to scare someone with a costume or mask on. Trick or treat is now a universal expression when kids go door to door, and that’s all because of a little hamlet in Canada.
15 Canucks Are Educated
The locals are very smart people and have done a lot of great things in this world. And that is all thanks to their education system, which is considered one of the best in the world. According to a Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report,
Canada has the highest proportion of college graduates, with 51% of the people having been to college.
That’s actually the highest in the world, at least according to the study, which has made Canada not only a great place to live, but allowed the locals to invent some pretty cool things that have changed so many lives.
14 Invented Basketball
Canada isn’t really known as a basketball country, as they only have one professional team in the NBA, the Toronto Raptors, and lost their other team, the Vancouver Grizzles to had to move to Memphis.
But if it wasn’t for Canada, LeBron James and many people in the United States wouldn’t have a sport to love and cheer for.
James Naismith, from Canada, actually invented the game, though he did invent it in the United States while working at a YMCA. It was invented as a game for football players during the off-season and has turned into one of the major sports in the world.
13 Discovered Insulin
One of the greatest discoveries in the history of Canada was the discovery of insulin, which has helped millions around the world. According to medicalnewstoday.com,
insulin was discovered n 1921 by Toronto doctor Frederick Banting and further developed at the University of Toronto by Banting, Charles Best, John Macleod and Bertram Collip.
They would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine two years later and sold the rights to the University of Toronto for a dollar so that more research could be funded. It has helped millions with diabetes and is often considered the greatest discovery in Canuck history.
12 Maple Syrup
One of Canada’s greatest exports is probably maple syrup. Okay, it probably isn’t that high on Canada’s export list, but the sweet syrup is definitely something people from the United States think of when they think of their neighbors to the North.
Maple syrup is such a natural treasure to the country that it’s imperative that Canada doesn’t run out.
Seriously, Canada has put measures in place to ensure they always have maple syrup for pancakes. According to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers have a supply of over 220,000 barrels of maple syrup in reserve, just in case there is a national shortage.
11 Niagara Falls
So, technically, Canada shares Niagara Falls with the United States, and even they have their own falls just a short distance away, but the horseshoe falls are two-thirds in Canada according to the U.S. Geological Survey maps of Niagara Falls, making them mostly a part of Canada. And the view from the Canada side is amazing, as anyone can get the entire view of one of the most amazing natural landmarks in Canada. Both countries enjoy them and share in the beauty, but for the best views, head to the Canada side and take a peek through the mist at the horseshoe shaped falls and maybe see a barrel or two going over.
10 Banff National Park
Sure, the United States has national parks with some amazing views, but Banff National Park is considered one of the best in the world, let alone the country. Not only are their beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains, but the hot springs are a great way to spend the day in Banff, in the middle of nature, snowy mountains and forest.
Many people have Banff on their bucket list of places to visit, and Canada takes pride in having this beautiful national park to show off to the world.
According to Statistics Canada, 4.1 million people visited Banff in 2017.
9 Coffee Crisp
Those Canucks sure do love their coffee, despite the fact they don’t produce any of it. But one thing they do produce very well is chocolate and coffee candy, better known as Coffee Crisp. The candy bar originated in Britain, but it was those hailing from Canada who put the coffee in it and started to sell it under the Coffee Crisp name.
Nestle acquired the signature candy bar and for a while, the bar was very hard to come by outside of Canada.
In fact, people from the United States have to go close to the border to get their hands on the coffee chocolate treat, as it still isn’t being sold in the United States like other candy is.
8 Tim Hortons Coffee
Speaking of coffee, Tim Hortons coffee is more like a way of life in Canada than anything. Every local knowns what someone means when they say “Do you want a Tims?”. According to mentalfloss.com, Tim Hortons actually sold burgers first before becoming the donut shop we all know and love today. The real Tim Hortons was, of course, a hockey player from Canada who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the classic order, the ‘double-double’ is actually in the dictionary, entering the Canadian Oxford dictionary in 2004. The chain represents 76% of baked goods sold in Canada, so needless to say, they have a monopoly.
7 So Sorry
The locals say sorry a lot. It’s not that they have done anything wrong, it’s just part of who they are as they seem to say sorry all the time. They are very polite people, so much so that Canada actually has an Apology Act, which according to the CBC, was introduced in 2009 so that an apology in a court can’t be framed as an admission of inadequacy, weakness or guilt. So if a person ever were to cut in front of a local, chances are they would be saying sorry, even if they didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just part of their charm.
6 More Holidays
Canada sure does love to give their people time off. While the United States has 10 federal holidays, Canada has 11 of them, as the newly added Family Day, which is celebrated in February, was added first in Alberta back in 1990, and then in Saskatchewan back in 2007.
There is one more long weekend off in Canada than in the US.
Ontario would add it in 2007 and British Columbia and New Brunswick would follow. Other provinces have a holiday on the same day, but it’s called different things, such as Louis Riel Day in Manitoba, Islanders Day in Prince Edward Island, Heritage Day in Nova Scotia and the Yukon. It pretty much gives Canadas a long weekend every month.