They believe that we're basically the same as the US
This is probably one of the biggest assumptions I've noticed since moving away. A lot of people see Canada and the US as basically interchangeable.
Same accent, same continent, same culture, same everything. There's definitely overlap — like we consume a lot of the same media, we share a massive border, and depending on where you are in Canada, the similarities can be pretty obvious. But there are huge differences, too, which have been fun and interesting to try to explain while living abroad.
And think Alaska is a part of Canada
This one has come up more than I expected, but I kind of get it. Alaska is just sitting there awkwardly on top of British Columbia and beside the Yukon like it's a part of our map. But no, Alaska is very much American, even if geographically, it does seem like it should belong to Canada.
Since moving away, I've realized that a lot of people have a general idea of North America, but the borders blur once you move past the big, obvious shapes. Canada is already huge and northern, so I guess people just like to toss Alaska in there too.
They can't fathom the size of our lakes
I don't think even I realized how massive Canadian lakes are until I tried explaining them to people who didn't grow up near them. A lot of people hear "lake" and imagine something cute and easy enough to swim across.
But then it's like... some of our lakes legit look and feel like seas, with waves, beaches, ferries and horizons where you genuinely can't see the other side. Growing up around the Great Lakes, especially, it's easy to forget how surreal that is.
Or how far apart our major cities are
This one's always funny to me because people will casually suggest visiting Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Banff in one trip like they're planning a cute little European getaway.
I'm always like… That's not a feasible weekend itinerary, even if you had a private jet. Canada is so massive that distance means something completely different there.
Driving from Toronto to Montreal is already a decent haul, and that's considered fairly manageable by Canadian standards. Meanwhile, whenever I've mentioned driving from Paris to Marseille (which is about an eight-hour journey), I get looked at like I've totally lost my head. Imagine the shock and awe when I told 'em how long it takes to drive from Toronto to Vancouver.
Some don't realize our summers can get super hot
There's this wacky idea that Canada is cold 12 months of the year. Like, of course, winter can be brutal, no argument there. But the summer heat can be next-level, too, and people from elsewhere are sometimes shocked by it.
Canadian summers can be gorgeous — lake days, patios, cottage weekends, long evenings — but they can also be aggressively sticky, humid, or smoky thanks to our annual forest fires. So yeah, we freeze, then we melt. It's all very dramatic.
Many think we all casually speak French
I can't begin to tell you how many times people have been surprised that my French language skills aren't better because I'm Canadian. Yes, Canada has two official languages, so from the outside, it seems reasonable to assume we're all just constantly switching between English and French. But that's really not the reality for a lot of English-speaking Canadians (unfortunately). Unless you grew up in Quebec, parts of New Brunswick, a bilingual household, or a strong French immersion environment — French can feel way more like a school subject than an actual part of daily life.
And some assume Toronto is the capital
This one makes sense, honestly. Toronto is the biggest city and is the one that a lot of people who haven't been to Canada have heard of most. So when people assume it's the capital, I'm never that surprised. But no, Ottawa takes the cake on this one. Toronto may have the skyline, the chaos, the money, the culture… but Ottawa has Parliament.
I do think this misconception says a lot about how people understand countries from the outside, though. The biggest or most famous city often gets mistaken for the capital, especially when it dominates the cultural imagination (like when I thought Sydney was surely the capital of Australia, but nope, it's Canberra).
The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
