Outside of stereotypes, there isn’t all that much to separate Canadian culture from American culture. They eat McDonald’s, drink Coke and have their local businesses destroyed by Wal-Mart on both sides of the border. The prevalence of American music, movies and television programs in Canada far outnumbers local Canadian programming. This dependence on American culture is especially true in large cities and almost crushing in Toronto. It can make it quite difficult to distinguish Canadians from Americans.

So how do you spot a Canadian in this situation? It actually ends up being easier than you would think.

You see, Canadians themselves actually want to be identified and they desperately want to separate themselves from the Americans. However, the closeness between the two nations makes this quite difficult. Therefore, it’s quite common that you will find Canadians trying to prove that they are not American. Whether it be through the strength of their beer, the date of Thanksgiving, or the usage of Celsius, Canadians do not want to be American and they will do whatever possible to prove that they are not from the USA.

Do you think they like hockey just because it’s played on ice? Of course not. The Canadian love for hockey comes from the fact that Americans don’t like it. The same can be said for Don Cherry, Nickelback and world peace. Canadians don’t actually like these things, they only pretend to like them so that you don’t think they’re American.

Those Canadians sure are tricky.

A great way to spot a Canadian is to ask them about something Americans typically hate, like Iraq. A typical Canadian will state how they love Iraq and that they feel the war there should end. But that Canadian doesn’t actually love Iraq, they’ve probably never even been there. They will, however, pretend to like Iraq just because they know Americans don’t. Once you know this spotting a Canadian becomes much easier.