Talk:Canada/Archive 2003-2012

Sample Cities

I've reduced the list of twenty cities down to just nine since that is our standard max for the number of cities to list at any level. If you make changes to the selection, please note your reasoning here and also remember that NINE IS THE MAX. -- (WT-en) Colin 20:32, 29 October 2006 (EST)

Question ... in the USA page there is "Other Destinations" after Cities - in which they lost several National Parks ... may we PLEASEZZ do the same for the Canada page?? —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) GregGH (talk • contribs)

Sure, it's a useful bit of information. Just keep it to a handful of the most popular non-city destinations. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 13:11, 31 March 2007 (EDT)

I've ordered the cities by population, the order before was arbitrary and not necessarily in order of tourists' appeal. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) 209.183.20.61 (talk • contribs)

Not arbitrary at all - the site standard is capital first, then alphabetical. I've restored the order, but removed most of the obsession with population statistics it had before. - (WT-en) Dguillaime 15:52, 26 July 2009 (EDT)

It is currently at eleven. I think we could lose Hamilton, but would be reluctant to delete any of the others. I suppose White Horse might be debatable, since it is fairly small and off the beaten path, but I'd say keep it since it is the only Northern city listed. (WT-en) Pashley 05:52, 9 November 2009 (EST)

Hmm, it did creep back up. I'd actually like to include Whitehorse for that exact reason, but I just cut it back out again since it was never suggested here despite the huge warning in the page test, which brings us back to the usual nine for the time being. I'm suggesting it now, though! We really should have at least one city for each of the six defined regions. Still, I'm undecided about what to suggest as a replacement -- I think the Prairies may be overrepresented at the moment, with three cities, but can't point at one in particular. — (WT-en) D. Guillaime 22:53, 16 April 2010 (EDT)

Technically, the Prairies is just a large region geographically. If you included Quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes, the the East would be overrepresented too. Whitehorse makes no sense, if you want a Northern city, let it be Yellowknife. (WT-en) edmontonenthusiast [ee] ^.T.A.L.K. 23:05, 16 April 2010 (EDT).

There's not much to do in Yellowknife, it's a mining and government town. Whitehorse is at least a tourist destination of sorts, so in the absence of other comments in the last ten months, I gave it a slot for the reasons already stated. — (WT-en) D. Guillaime 20:56, 12 February 2011 (EST)

Clearly there is more to do in Edmonton than Winnipeg. West Edmonton Mall is world famous. —The preceding comment was added by 72.172.114.146 (talk • contribs)

That's not the only factor to consider, though. Edmonton is pretty close to Calgary, while Winnipeg is located almost equidistant between Calgary and Toronto, providing better geographic distribution. (WT-en) LtPowers 13:06, 21 January 2012 (EST)

But to say those 9 cities are the most popular is untrue. Look at the last table on the last page of this report. http://www.tpr.alberta.ca/tourism/statistics/docs/summary09.pdf 44% of American visitors to Alberta stay in Edmonton, compared to 9% in Calgary.

Sorry, if you had a problem with the specific wording, you should have said so, or just fixed it yourself. I've removed the phrasing to which you objected. (WT-en) LtPowers 20:13, 22 January 2012 (EST)

Vancouver

I removed the line stating Vancouver is the economic capital of western Canada, since Calgary has many more corporate head offices, is home the oil industry, and is growing much faster than Vancouver.

Regions

Would it make sense to break the country's regions into provinces, rather than cities? I guess this is a problem with the idea that Wikis are not generally hierarchical ... but geography is. Doesn't anybody else feel that this is a bit of an issue? It relates to some other discussions in the travellers' pub, like for example the one about article naming conventions. Or is hierarchy just something we won't worry about until later since this is a Wiki?

We have a beginning crack at a geographical hierarchy. Your input welcome. -- (WT-en) Evan 09:29, 22 Sep 2003 (PDT)

Personally I think that the 'state' (or 'district' or whatever conventional geographical subdivision the country is organised in) element of the heirarchy is very important (as well as the more general 'regions') because you can't list EVERYTHING at a country level. But you CAN list ten or twelve or even forty-five states without being overwhelming, and then people can refer down the list to get to the individual cities they're interested in. The exception for this is the Capital, and any other extremely major city that everyone will know about... But that's just MHO. (WT-en) KJ 20:47, 22 Sep 2003 (PDT)

Ok, reading the page on geographical hierarchy more carefully, I agree with the paragraph on regions. Here for example, it seems to make sense to break Canada into 6 or 7 regions rather than the 10 provinces + 3 territories. That keeps things from being overwhelming without being overly faithful to artificial/political boundaries. (WT-en) CL 01:20, 23 Sep 2003 (PDT)

So, what do you guys think? Do those regions make sense? A concern I have is for the uniqueness of names. For sure many places have something that could be called the West Coast. Does using the provinces make more sense then? Or should be just say "West Coast of Canada" and "Canadian Rockies", etc? Anyways, when I get a better sense of how best to do this, I will edit Victoria (Canada) and other entries to point smoothly back up the hierarchy (as San Francisco does ...) (WT-en) CL 01:40, 23 Sep 2003 (PDT)

It didn't make sense to move this talk page away with the CIA world factbook information, so I left it here with the new article. This is probably a good start for a proper travel article on Canada. Although it could probably be a bit more informative on background, culture, etc., I believe it covers the main points. Please comment, edit, or otherwise dissect ... --(WT-en) Ctylemay 12:56, 6 Oct 2003 (PDT)

Really nice content happening here. Great work! (WT-en) Majnoona

w/r/t the region names: I'm starting to get a little less happy about these. What about this?

Canada
- West Coast (Canada) -- BC West
- Rocky Mountains (Canada) -- BC East, Banff, etc.
- Prairies (Canada) -- where they have guns. But isn't there another name for these?
- Ontario -- just Ontario
- Quebec -- just Quebec
- The Atlantic Provinces -- I think the APs is a common enough term to capitalize the second word
- The North (Canada) -- Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut.

The main difference with the current scheme is that a) we use "________ (Canada)" instead of "_____ of Canada" or "Canadian _____" as the disambiguator, which is more in line with the article naming conventions, and b) Central Canada is split into Ontario and Quebec. I think this is actually more reasonable, as these are the two most populous and densely-settled areas, and really deserve their own top-level regions. Barring objections, I'll make these changes. -- (WT-en) Evan 09:37, 8 Nov 2003 (PST)

I think that West Coast (Canada) is a poor choice for the region name. I think it would make a lot more sense to simply call it British Columbia. From what I can tell West Coast (Canada) is a region basically defined by what it is not. That is it is the part of British Columbia not part of the Rocky Mountains. This creates confusion as most of central British Columbia would not generally consider itself to be on the 'west coast'. I think that it makes a lot more sense just to call the region British Columbia and accept that there will be some overlap with Rocky Mountains. Wikivoyage is not a heirarchical system and there is no reason that the regions have to be entirely distinct. The fact that the town of Fernie (British Columbia) would be within both the Rocky Mountains and British Columbia region is not a problem. Whereas having both British Columbia and West Coast (Canada) does create a lot of confusion as to where new information about these areas should be added. Probably once I get a little better at this, I will try to fix this up a bit. -- (WV-en) webgeer 11:05, July 21, 2004 (PST)

Hmm, I'd buy this. It seems like Quebec is both a province and a region so the same could go for BC, but I also see how "conceptually" BC West and BC East are different destinations. I think I'd defer to folks who know the area better than me, but it seems like people will end up in the right place if they look for BC or West Coast. Err, now that I think of it the "Coast" part is a little confusing since BC is technically a "coastal" province but parts of it are way the heck far away from any coast... geography is hard! (WT-en) Majnoona 14:24, 21 Jul 2004 (EDT)

I think the main problem is that having two separate regions (British Columbia and West Coast (Canada)) that are virtually identical will start creating divergence between the two, as they are separately edited. --(WT-en) Webgeer 14:58, 21 Jul 2004 (EDT)

I think I agree with the original suggestion that the pages should be divided into provinces. One good reason for doing this is the fact that in Canada, tourism is a provincial responsibility, and the provinces have already done the work of dividing their provinces into tourism regions. Why re-invent the wheel by making up our own regions when we can use theirs - it would make linking to goverment provided tourism information easier too. They probably already have had smart people figure out what makes sense to call a region in their province as the governments spend a fair bit on tourism information. --(WT-en) kmh 20:39, 08 Sep 2004 (EDT)

From a Canadian perspective, there are three, possibly four, acceptable ways to subdivide Canada dependant upon the context of discussion.

By Political Divisions (generally alphabetical)

Provinces

Territories

By Geographical Location and Terrain (often confusing, and in no particular order)

The Atlantic Region - All Atlantic islands/penninsulas and the easternmost small provinces Newfoundland (but NOT Labrador),P.E.I., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the South-East corner of Quebec (also Known as the Appalacian Region).
The Rocky Mountain/Pacific Coastal Region - from the Eastern Foothils of the Rockies in Alberta to the Pacific Coast and the Yukon Territory and MacKenzie Mountains (also entirely known as the Cordilleran Region).
The Great Plains Region - West from the 100th Meridian up to and including the North end of Lake Winnipeg, due West from there through the southern half of Saskatchewan, most of Alberta, and North through the central part of the North West Territory to the Beufort Sea.
Hudson Bay Lowlands - The Eastern James Bay Area and South-West Hudson Bay area covering the Nort-easternmost corner of Manitoba and the majority of Northern Ontario.
The Canadian Shield Region - Most of Baffin Island, Labrador, approximately 90% of Quebec, the majority of Ontario, Eastern Manitoba up to Lake Winnipeg, Northern Manitoba, Northern Saskatchewan, and the continental sections of Nunavut.
The St. Lawrence Lowlands - from the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence River valley until it arrives at sea level.

By Transportation and Common Regional Identity (tricky, yet accepted)

The Maritimes - Also known as the Atlantic Provinces in this context, they include Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

As a maritimer, I have to comment - this is incorrect usage of this term. "The Maritimes", in local usage, specifically does not include Newfoundland and Labrador. This is the difference between the "Atlantic Provinces" and the "Maritime(s) (Provinces)". As such the current regioning on the main page is correct IMO.

Eastern Canada - Ontario and Quebec, although there has been discussion in the past 15 years about North-west Ontario (from Sudbury West) joining Manitoba as one political division. This may be because of their low population combined with the resource wealth they hold is often viewed as providing the economic stability for Ontario while recieving much less by way of services and infrastructure due to geographic isolation.
Western Canada - Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta
British Columbia - Separated by the Rockies, British Columbians have (in a very vocal minority) often discussed a seperatist movement of their own.

By Population Base

Southern Ontario- The metro Toronto Area and the rest of Southern Ontario up to Ottawa-Hull.
The Rest of Canada - With seemingly little say in the decisions of the Federal Government, the rest of Canada glares at Southern Ontario while they look up from their cappuchinos and say, "What?"

As you might guess, there are some real simplifications to design the Canadian hierarchy based on provincial boundaries? There are relatively few National Parks in Canada, in comparison with the number of Provincial Parks. Check up on the list next door at Wikipedia. Tourism is valueable industry here. In some regions, it is the only industry. My thinking is that we should follow the most logical and simplistic means of organization.

Did you know that the Province of Manitoba is itself divided into between 3 and 6 regions?

But this of course, is just the thoughts of one geek way up at the end of the road in Northern Manitoba. --(WT-en) Weaponofmassinstruction

Whoops, forgot to add The Arctic to section 3 - Transportation and such. They are generally anywhere from the 63rd-66th paralell north. (WT-en) Weaponofmassinstruction

As a Yank driving across southern Canada, I was impressed by long stretches of quasi-wilderness to be crossed east of the Vancouver metropolis as far as the resorty parts of the Canadian Rockies. Even more quasi-wilderness to be traversed east of Winnipeg and north of Lakes Superior and Huron. Western Ontario mainly.

I was surprised to find French spoken more than English in Western Ontario, although most people were bilingual or even trilingual considering aboriginal languages. I came away with the impression that English-speaking southern Ontario must be a fairly recent overlay on a French-speaking hinterlands actually much larger than Quebec. (WT-en) LADave 16:03, 21 September 2007 (EDT)

Can we also have a map showing where each province is? As somebody who doesn't live in Canada I only know where Ontario and Quebec lie, it might be helpful for potential visitors. 161.12.7.4 06:55, 18 October 2007 (EDT)

Canadian dollar (CAD) also known as ...

Canadian dollar (CAD) - is also known as the loonie? Is there any truth to this suggestion. I know Americans call their currency the Greenback and a number of other Dollars have their own nicknames, what is the CAD called? - (WT-en) Huttite 16:43, 6 Jan 2005 (EST)

The Canadian Dollar is known as a "loonie" after the bird printed on the dollar coin. I'm not sure it's infobox material, but it's not really graffiti. -- (WT-en) Colin 16:40, 6 Jan 2005 (EST)

Add to Buy section -- (WT-en) Huttite 16:48, 6 Jan 2005 (EST)

And just for reference, WikiPedia:Loonie. -- (WT-en) Colin 17:02, 6 Jan 2005 (EST)

Yes, the CAD is known as the "loonie". Yes, it's for the bird. The name applies both to the currency unit and to the coin. The two-dollar coin is known as the "twonie". Ha ha. --(WT-en) Evan 22:05, 6 Jan 2005 (EST)

A note on the loonie - the loonie refers only to the one dollar coin. I've never heard anyone refer to the currency itself as "loonie". 70.53.126.25 01:42, 16 March 2007 (EDT)

The currency is commonly referred to as the "loonie" in business news. You will often hear journalists say "The value of the loonie plunged today after commodity prices..." It is, however, extremely uncommon outside of this context. --99.241.132.241 09:46, 4 June 2012 (EDT)

It can also be spelled twonie to reflect the value of the currency. --(WT-en) Walter Görlitz 15:37, 24 March 2006 (EST)

Looks like I got here just in time. As a Canadian, I will be offering you folks PLENTY of advice and doing some revising on this page. Scootch on up a bit, and I'll fill you in on how Canadian Schools, News Agencies, and, subsequently, the Canadian People divide the nation into regions. 205.200.51.180 21:47, 20 Jan 2005 (EST) (WT-en) Weaponofmassinstruction

And FYI, the accepted spellings are "Loonie" and "Toonie", both are proper nouns.

heres one for you license fanatics: If I pull a Loonie, Toonie, a quarter (Canadian) and another quarter (American) out of my pocket and scan them, can I release that image to the public domain? 205.200.51.180 21:58, 20 Jan 2005 (EST)(WT-en) Weaponofmassinstruction

Images of Canadian currency are protected by the Royal Canadian Mint, and reproducing them is illegal unless the copy is marked as a sample or facsimilie and is obviously not intended to resemble actual currency (which usually means making the copy a different size)

I don't think this law applies to coinage.... you can't photocopy or print a coin. The law is meant to apply to paper currency.

Another shot at hierarchy

Now that we have Project:Breadcrumb navigation, the hierarchy of countries makes a lot more difference. Canada is a little out of whack, and I'd like to fix it. I'd like to use provinces for 1st and 2nd-level containers, and have a couple of regions at the higher level. From W to E, S to N, roughly:

Canada

Another option is to just leave out the regions, and only use provinces/territories. That's probably easiest; 11 is in spitting distance of 7+/-2. Comments? --(WT-en) Evan 12:12, 8 Dec 2005 (EST)

Credit Cards giving better Exchange rates than banks?

The exchange rates of both pale in comparrison to Currecny Exchanges, which often do the exchange for a flat fee, but generally credit cards do currency exchanges at a premium to bank exchanges. --(WT-en) Walter Görlitz 15:39, 24 March 2006 (EST)

The article say to use credit cards which is usually good advice. I.e. when I use my danish CC in Canada i pay 2% more than the official exchange rate set by the danish national bank. Today that is 5.33 DKK/CAN plus the 2%: 5.44 DKK/CAN.

The Royal Bank of Canada charges 5.87 DKK/CAN plus a CAN 3 service fee for non costumers.

There might the cheaper currency exchanges than that, but they also make money on the exchange rates (they generally do not buy and sell at the same rate) and because of the flat rate, you have exchange large amounts to make it worth it.

On my VISA card there is no fee for withdrawing cash so credit/debit cards is the cheapest option in most cases. Plus I do get air miles or cash back on some cards. --(WT-en) elgaard 21:07, 24 March 2006 (EST)

Canada is not Australia

So, I think that Canada is much more likely to be confused with its former colonial power, and its nearest neighbor, than it is to be confused with Australia (even by Australians). I just don't think that this is a "respect" issue for Canadians; there are very few ill-informed visitors here who expect kangaroos and Paul Hogan. There are, however, a number of visitors who think that Canada is "practically" the US, or that it's still subject to British rule. --(WT-en) Evan 16:40, 26 May 2006 (EDT)

I think we prefer to compare ourselves to Australia over the US or UK. Canada and Australia have very similar populations (in terms of numbers), ethnic makeups, geographical sizes, governmental systems, international roles, and social/ethical beliefs. Not to mention that Canadians hate being compared to Americans, and work hard to forge and maintain a national identity idependant of the UK. The Statue of Westminster and the new Canadian Constitution (1982) exist for this very reason. 74.110.71.97 19:08, 6 May 2007 (EDT)

From a political science perspective, Canada and Australia are very similar. From a traveler's perspective, not any more than the rest of former British colonies. (WT-en) Padraic 09:49, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

Gay marriage

Latest comment: 12 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

I would think that voicing opposition to gay marriage would be OK in canada, afterall, we are no Turkmenistan, we can express our political opinions, besides which much of the country is opposed to gay marriage, regardless of what the "majority thinks" there is a substantial minority opposed to gay marriage, especially in the west. Therefore I removed that caution.

You might be able to get away with that... one "Go, Leafs!" in Habs territory, on the other hand, sera à vos risques. :) K7L (talk) 15:22, 12 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

New Entry Rules

So apparently under the new tighter entry rules between the US and Canada, the guys at the Canadian border can pretty much see an American's entire criminal record including minor decade-old convictions. Maybe we need a note? -- (WT-en) Colin 00:53, 23 February 2007 (EST)

I've heard of people being turned away from the border several years ago because of minor criminal infractions. I'd been under the impression that the border patrol always had some kind of access to a travelers' criminal history. Anyhow, I'd support a note. -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 01:17, 23 February 2007 (EST)

Getting There - By Air

The section on air travel to Canada still shows Air Canada as the only national airline in the country, which is a matter of dispute since Westjet carried 11 million passengers last year (mostly domestic) while Air Canada carried 34 million (deomestic, transborder and international). Furthermore, the section makes reference to "Air Tango", which is not only an incorrect title of the Air Canada subsidiary, it no longer exists as an entity.

Edmonton is Collaboration of The Week

I thought it was worth flagging here in the hope of bringing it to the attention of one or two people with relevant knowledge. (WT-en) Tarr3n 11:45, 7 August 2008 (EDT)

Other destinations

Can someone with reasonable knowledge of Canada hack down that huge list of OD's to 9 or less of the most popular, and hopefully pick 9 that are somewhat spread throughout the country and not concentrated in one area? Thanks! – (WT-en) cacahuate ^talk 18:16, 27 November 2008 (EST)

Sure. (WT-en) edmontonenthusiast [ee] ^.T.A.L.K. 18:27, 27 November 2008 (EST).

Done. (WT-en) edmontonenthusiast [ee] ^.T.A.L.K. 18:37, 27 November 2008 (EST).

Cool, I removed a couple of cities/towns, which we don't really allow in the OD section... it should be nat'l parks, islands, etc. Thanks! – (WT-en) cacahuate ^talk 18:47, 27 November 2008 (EST)

No problem. I was quick, eh? (WT-en) edmontonenthusiast [ee] ^.T.A.L.K. 18:52, 27 November 2008 (EST).

How is it that Niagara Falls is missing from the Other Destinations list? (WT-en) LtPowers 09:29, 4 November 2010 (EDT)

Respect

I've removed the section on not talking politics from the Respect section. My experience is that Canadians are generally happy to talk politics. Of course, like most people, they often don't wish to hear ignorant or closed-minded views, but this is self-evident for all people. I don't think politics is off-limits in Canada any more than it would be in any other country of the world, and therefore it doesn't merit a special mention here. --(WT-en) Inas 00:09, 11 May 2009 (EDT)

I have re-inserted the sentence on use of the word "Eskimo". Unclear why deleted. This is important, because most canadians, not just those of First Nation heritage would be very very surprised to hear the word in polite conversation. In England (where I am from), people may not appreciate this. There is, therefore scope for embarrassment and offence where none intended. —The preceding comment was added by 82.5.227.41 (talk • contribs)

There's nothing in the article about the word Eskimo, and your IP has no other edits other than this talk page. Are you sure you did what you think you did? (WT-en) LtPowers 21:05, 3 January 2011 (EST)

Along with this regionalism is a question of Quebec and its distinct society.

This is incorrect and confusing. Quebec's distinct society derives from cultural differences not regionalism. Furthermore, I'm not sure what a traveler would find useful about this aside from being wary of discussing Quebec's desire to separate from the rest of Canada, so I removed it and replaced it with something I felt was a little more precise. (WT-en) Chymali 06:21, 16 April 2011 (EDT)

Regarding Drinking

Latest comment: 11 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

It is illegal in Canada to have any open alcohol in public, unless you are at a licenced establishment, or private property.

You may want to mention this on the main article, since a number of countries around the world do allow consumption of alcohol in public. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) 24.68.146.100 (talk • contribs)

Please feel free to plunge forward and add it yourself! --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 23:29, 28 May 2009 (EDT)

actually a few country's do NOT permit this ;-) --(WT-en) Swissbelg 00:19, 17 October 2009 (EDT)

The demon rum and its attendant evils are a matter of provincial jurisdiction, so this may (like minimum drinking ages and "last call" times) vary between provinces. This is on the books in Ontario and has been used to harass university students who start large, rowdy street parties but I'm not sure if all ten provinces are the same in this regard. K7L (talk) 15:12, 12 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

Ontario tends to have very conservative laws in such areas. The first large batch of settlers were "United Empire Loyalists" (or "Tory traitors" depending on your point of view) fleeing the US during or after the Revolution, mostly New England Puritans. The next big bunch were Scottish soldiers given land in Canada as a sort of pension after the Napoleonic wars, mostly Presbyterian Calvinists. Between them, they set the tone and it has not changed much.

As of the 80s, it was technically illegal to sit on your front porch with a beer. I don't know if that has changed.

Sunday shopping was illegal in many areas until fairly recently.

Toronto had a law making it illegal for a man to wear women's clothes, except on Hallowe'en. The drag queens had a parade on Hallowe'en. I do not know if that still goes on. Pashley (talk) 01:31, 18 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

Automobile Insurance Requirement

Latest comment: 11 years ago5 comments2 people in discussion

Half a million dollars seems a little excessive to me, are you sure that's the right amount? My state (Virginia USA) only requires a tenth of that. I also saw no insurance requirements on any Canadian migration website that I've seen.

I'm Canadian and that matches what I recall. It may vary by province; many things do. Canadian courts aren't quite as wild as US ones in handing out large damage awards, but if you have any sort of serious accident and it is judged your fault, getting hit for half a million is certainly not impossible. Insurance gets cheaper the more you buy, though; the company know they are quite unlikely to have to pay off on the higher amounts. At one point my job involved often having other people's kids in my car and the employer required me to carry $2 million in PLPD (public liability & property damage) insurance. That only cost about $50/year more than the standard $500,000. (WT-en) Pashley 08:20, 29 November 2009 (EST)

Are we certain that this "Canadian Non-Resident Insurance Certificate" is required? I've gone to Canada every few years for my entire life and neither I nor my parents have ever had any such certificate. This is the first I've heard of it. I've never been asked for it at the border. (WT-en) LtPowers 09:44, 28 April 2011 (EDT)

Proof of insurance for the required minimums is definitely required if requested by the police. Whether border guards can be bothered to check insurance status is another matter, especially considering this is a provincial matter. Also not sure if this absolutely has to be the pink-slip, or if it could just be a copy of the signed policy.. (WT-en) CanadianGuy 03:06, 6 May 2011 (EDT)

If an motorist deals with the police for any reason (for instance, if ticketed for some minor infraction, or hit by another vehicle, or just broken down and asking an officer to notify a tow truck) it is standard procedure to ask them to ask for vehicle registration, insurance and drivers license. I've never heard of customs asking for insurance papers. K7L (talk) 15:15, 12 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

Well, yes, of course... but this is the first indication I've ever seen that my usual insurance card isn't sufficient. LtPowers (talk) 21:59, 26 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

I'd be surprised if a reasonably-standard insurance policy issued in NYS didn't cover trips to Canada. México, on the other hand... ¡no, señor! The actual legislation (at least in Ontario) doesn't mention "Canadian Non-Resident Insurance Certificate" by name, it just requires an insurance card be in the vehicle. K7L (talk) 22:54, 26 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

Well that leaves the question, then, of whether the text in the article is accurate. LtPowers (talk) 00:07, 27 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators says "Though not required in every province, a U.S. driver can prove to the police that his or her insurer has filed a PAU by presenting a card that is known as the Canada Non‐Resident Inter‐Province Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Card (the Yellow Card). Insureds should contact their insurers to obtain the Card."

The AAA says "U.S. motorists should obtain from their own U.S. insurance companies a yellow Non-Resident Inter-Province Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Card (accepted as evidence of financial responsibility throughout Canada)... The minimum liability insurance requirement is $200,000 in all provinces and territories except Quebec, which requires $50,000."

The text needs to be corrected to replace "Canadian Non-Resident Insurance Certificate" with "Canada Non‐Resident Inter‐Province Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Card", indicate that proof of insurance must be in the vehicle and the provincial minimums on liability insurance but acknowledge that this specific yellow card, while valid throughout Canada, isn't required by every province as laws vary between Canadian provinces. K7L (talk) 01:04, 27 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

Politics

The Politics section is really boring. Should we be mentioning names of Governor-Generals and party leaders? The United States of America does not even mention Obama. And who outside Canada knows what the Vimy Ridge Memorial is? The length of this section could easily be reduced by more than half without any loss of important content. (WT-en) Shep 11:26, 22 January 2011 (EST)

Agreed. I trimmed it down. — (WT-en) D. Guillaime 20:49, 12 February 2011 (EST)

Admissibility

Latest comment: 12 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Recent changes to the "Get in" section describe a much stricter border crossing process than I've ever experienced. Is it, perhaps, written from the perspective of a non-North American, with U.S. citizens getting an easier pass? Or is my information out of date? (WT-en) LtPowers 13:20, 25 May 2011 (EDT)

I haven't been to Canada recently so I can't speak to the question of how accurate the info is, but since it is becoming extremely detailed it might be worth considering splitting this info into a separate article. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 17:34, 25 May 2011 (EDT)

The "Get In" section is absolutely out of control!. Mostly so by having way too much detail that is going to be 100% irrelevant to 99% of travelers visiting Canada. For example, the Character Concerns section could be trimmed down to a two or three sentence paragraph like so:

"Be aware that you can be denied entry if you have a criminal record and that the test for this is whether the past violation would have been an offense under the Criminal Code of Canada. Note that many travelers (particularly from the US) are caught by this rule each year due to previous drunk driving violations, which is considered a criminal offense in Canada. See the Canadian Immigration and Custom's (CIC) website for more info *link to appropriate CIC page*".

This way it's kept short, points out the common pitfall, and links to current information (ie: the actual authority on the subject). All of the information about rehabilitation, etc is just noise since almost no one visiting this site will have a use for it. A lot of the rest of the section could be handled the same way. There is also some suspect information as well , for example I really doubt everyone visiting Canada gets a credit check done on them. (WT-en) CanadianGuy 02:08, 28 May 2011 (EDT)

The suggestion to radically shorten it seems right to me, but I'm another Canadian. Can anyone who is not Canadian and has visited recently comment? (WT-en) Pashley 07:15, 28 May 2011 (EDT)

Once upon a time, when I was growing up, the process was about as perfunctory as possible: they asked for your citizenship, purpose of your visit, how long you were staying, and whether you had anything to declare. That was it. I was last in Canada in October 2009, a short two-day trip to Niagara Falls to attend a wedding. The questioning was only slightly more rigorous; he asked for our passports (which is standard now, I guess), and asked some more pointed questions, looking for inconsistencies or suspicious mannerisms. I don't think we even had to tell him where exactly we were staying, let alone need a letter of invitation or proof of financial status. (WT-en) LtPowers 15:34, 28 May 2011 (EDT)

I'm at a loss what to do here. The information being placed in this section -- especially the stuff about needing a detailed itinerary, address of the hotel, and a letter of invitation for tourists -- strikes me as very very wrong. But I don't know what to replace it with. (WT-en) LtPowers 09:29, 6 June 2011 (EDT)

It looks wrong to me... especially the bit about debtors being treated as criminals in some part of the Middle East. To be an issue at the Canadian border, this really needs to be both a crime in Canada and unlawful in the jurisdiction in which it occurred. There'd likely be info on www.cic.gc.ca as "la migra" here. DUI *is* an issue because Canada criminalises drunk drivers, this is alluded to but should be explicit. K7L (talk) 15:01, 12 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

Non-national chains

Latest comment: 12 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

As someone pointed out in a recent edit summary, there is a huge list of Canadian chains. I removed the following because they are not really national chains and should therefore be dealt with in regional articles and not here.(WT-en) texugo 23:55, 5 November 2011 (EDT)

Earls is a chain of casual full service restaurants found only in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba (although there are also two locations in the western United States). A location has recently opened in Toronto. Like Boston Pizza, it also opened its first restaurant in Edmonton.

Country Style is a chain of coffee shops operating in Ontario, which serves donuts, soups, sandwiches, salads, and coffee.

Coffee Time is a chain of fast-serve doughnut restaurants. The company claims to be the main competitor of Tim Hortons chain in the Greater Toronto Area.

White Spot offers burgers, pasta, and "west coast style" cuisine, but only in British Columbia and some locations in Alberta.

Humpty's specializes in its all day breakfasts but also serves dishes for lunch and dinner as well, and is one of the few chain restaurants to feature pirogies. Mostly in Alberta, but also some locations in the other 3 western provinces; many are open until after midnight, some 24 hours.

Jimmy the Greek is a quick service restaurant franchise serving Greek cuisine which has 37 locations in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.

La Belle Province is one of the most popular fast-food restaurants in Québec, especially among teenagers and young adults. They serve cheap hot-dogs, hamburgers, poutine etc...

Lone Star Texas Grill , started by a Texan who played pro football with the Ottawa Roughriders, offers Tex-Mex food and now has locations in Toronto, Ottawa, Etobicoke, Kingston, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Sault St. Marie, Halifax, and Moncton. Lone Star is famous for fajitas served on a sizzlin' skillet and makes fresh homemade tortillas throughout the day. The menu also offers other Tex-Mex classics and American favourites.

Mary Brown's can be found in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Nunavut in addition to Newfoundland, where they can be found in nearly every community. Offering unique chicken and famous for its taters, it would be considered a fast-food restaurant. "Mary Brown's got the best legs in town"

St-Hubert is a French-Canadian restaurant with a cuisine similar to that of Swiss Chalet, popular for its roasted chicken and coleslaw. It has many locations throughout Quebec, and a small number of locations in Ontario and New Brunswick. You can also buy their sauce mixes in some grocery stores.

Pizza Pizza is a chain of pizza restaurants mainly located in the province of Ontario. Other locations operate in western Quebec, in western Canada (chiefly Alberta) under the name "Pizza 73", and in non-traditional locations such as university campuses and movie theatres throughout Canada. It has over 500 locations, including over 150 non-traditional locations. Pizza Pizza is well-known in Toronto for it's phone number, 967-11-11, which most Torontonians have memorized.

Pizza Pizza has locations in six provinces from Nova Scotia to BC; I think they qualify as nationwide. The text, though, was copied directly from Wikipedia (except the last sentence about Toronto) and needs to be re-written if we re-add it. (WT-en) LtPowers 14:42, 6 November 2011 (EST)

Some of these do cross regional boundaries and likely do belong here, although the list needs to be split between national chains vs. entities active in just a few provinces. A one-province entity belongs in a provincial article. K7L (talk) 15:37, 12 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

Churchill Manitoba

Latest comment: 12 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

This was in the introduction to "Do" but belongs in a more local-level article: K7L (talk) 14:49, 12 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

Bear Watching, Whale Watching and Wildlife Viewing

In Manitoba, Churchill is known for its Polar Bears and Belugas and Riding Mountain National Park and adjacent Parkland area for its abundant population of Black Bears that vary in color from blond, cinnamon and chocolate to black. Riding Mountain National Park is known for its "watchable" wildlife.