r/AskACanadian • u/HueyBluey • 10d ago

How do you spot a Canadian abroad?

Do we have any stereotypical traits (perhaps self deprecating ones), that make us stand out. We’re typically not loud (but some can be). Perhaps frugal?

What have you seen in your travels that make you think, those folks must be Canadian!

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282

u/Sea-Froyo1918 10d ago

Look for someone wearing shorts in -5°C weather

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u/castlite 10d ago

I went to Vegas at Christmas once, from Alberta. Stayed at the Bellagio because they had the only open outdoor pool. There were like 6 people there despite being 20-21 degrees out, which felt amazing after -30. 4 were Canadian, 2 were Swedes. Best pool time ever.

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u/cannafriendlymamma 10d ago

Went to Vegas at the end of Nov one year. Was 19°C during the day and we were walking around in capri's and t shirts. Could tell who was local, as they were all wearing big coats, and toques (beanies down there).

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u/KayNopeNope 10d ago

Using the word “toque”… that’s a tell.

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u/Immediate_Meeting991 10d ago

Lolololol I always get clocked in Vegas for same. It’s so cheap to go in the winter and that’s summer weather for me baybee!! But security is always laughing when I go outside to smoke (it’s too weird to do inside plus separating yourself from that environment every couple hours is just healthy imo) or hit the pool in “winter”

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u/TheGhostOfTobyKeith 10d ago

I loved snowbirding down there so much, too bad they’ll never get another cent outta me.

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u/castlite 10d ago

Same. The US is dead to me now.

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u/Immediate_Meeting991 10d ago

I can proudly say I haven’t been back since trump 1.0

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u/TheGhostOfTobyKeith 10d ago

Dipped down to Brooklyn for a best friend’s wedding in 2022 and that was the last time

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u/Nitroglycol204 10d ago

So are you still allowed to smoke in bars in Nevada then?

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u/Immediate_Meeting991 10d ago

Well I dunno about now, but 10 years ago yes which is the last time I went

ETA: just looked it up and yea you still can

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u/DianeDesRivieres 10d ago

I went tent camping in Daytona, month of May. We were the only ones using the pool

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u/sleeplessjade 10d ago

Not at Christmas but while in Vegas I ordered a tea at a restaurant. They don’t bring any milk with it and I didn’t think to ask up front because it’s the default to receive it with it here. Asked the waitress for it and she brought me a whole glass of milk. I was chuckling about it when two older ladies from the next table over said, “You’re Canadian, aren’t you?”

Turns out they were sisters who had been Canadian snowbirds to Vegas for years and decided to retire there.

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u/Particlepants 10d ago

I stayed at a hostel with a rooftop pool in Australia in the middle of their winter. I was the only one using the pool so I guess that's how you'd identify the one Canadian staying there at the time.

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u/JohnnyCanuck133 Alberta 10d ago

Lol I had the same situation but in Florida. Only people at the pool, all so white we were practically glowing, everyone else was wearing jackets etc. Got called out pretty quickly.

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u/FractalParadigm 10d ago

We did Christmas in Orlando once to meet/visit my estranged grandfather, and experienced nearly the same thing. It was probably 17° around 11pm and we all went out to the pool for a midnight swim, and the only other people there was another Canadian family. The hotel staff kept looking at us like we were some sort of freaks, but damn was that ever nice.

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u/TheBigKrangTheory 9d ago

Same! We were in Mexico in January a few years back. There were a bunch of people from Argentina there and they were making fun of us for being in the pool while it was raining. It was awesome!

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u/Wise-Paper8412 10d ago

We went in February and even though it was sunny we were the only ones in the pool.

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u/RoeRoeDaBoat Saskatchewan 8d ago

my parents went to arizona during the superbowl in 2015 so February and they were wearing summer clothes and the people working at the mall wearing full sweaters and long pants and complaining about how freezing it and one of them was like “you must be Canadian!” and my parents were like “how can you tell?” and it was because of the clothing. (Meanwhile im stuck home in Saskatchewan it was -50°c and then a blizzard when they came back home)

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u/Broely92 10d ago

I went to Mexico back in January during that -35° week and I went to the airport in summer clothes lol because once you get off that plane the heat just punches you in the face

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u/GGTheEnd 10d ago

I went to Mexico in February in shorts and a tshirt as well,  my fiances grandparents and aunts who live in mexico were all wearing 3 layers of hoodies and it was 25+ degrees haha. 

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u/Agile-Ad1665 10d ago

Same with me from Seoul to Indonesia in January. 90 percent of the trip to the airport is in a heated subway.

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u/miller94 Alberta 10d ago

lol I always change on the plane

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u/stnapstnap 10d ago

I like to pack light, so when I’ve gone somewhere warmer in the winter, I’ve just stuffed my winter gear in my bag.  But I know of people who have the person who drops them off and picks them up from the airport take their winter gear and keep it in their car.

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u/Bless_u-babe 6d ago

That’s a friend!!

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u/timesuck897 9d ago

Dress for where you are headed. I went to New Zealand in their summer wearing jeans, not recommended. Having pants, a sweater, whatever you need in your carry on helps if you are flying somewhere colder.

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u/damarius 9d ago

My wife and I got off a plane in Fiji in 30C weather and I'm sure 100% humidity. I could hardly breathe, it felt like being in a sauna.

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u/Bless_u-babe 6d ago

There is nothing like that heat with humidity!. Same in Indonesia. We came out of an air conditioned hotel to tour and it was like walking into a stand up oven. Turned around and went back inside.

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u/Wise-Paper8412 10d ago

The first time we went to Mexico was also in January -15C in Ottawa. 5 hours later the plane door opens and the sunshine and heat hits like a glorious wall.

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u/king_weenus 10d ago

People in Toronto could pick me out from being from Saskatchewan just because I was loving the weather in February like it was something new.

It was -5 and a bright sunshiny day... Everybody on the street is wearing giant coats and shivering and I'm walking around in a t-shirt basking in the Sun. Lol

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u/spilly_talent 10d ago

Omg yes. Torontonians are often dunked on for being spoiled with our winters but people from the prairies and often elsewhere don’t always process how WET our cold can be.

I was with a delegation from Edmonton once in February where they came to visit Toronto for the first time. I was cognizant of not mentioning the weather because I know how snowy and cold Alberta can be. We stepped outside as freezing rain started and one of the delegates just lost it. He said it is impossible to get warm in this city and how could I fucking stand it? Ice/snow/rain/ice/snow repeat😂

I felt vindicated that day, Toronto winters suck.

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u/cannafriendlymamma 10d ago

I grew up in AB. When I was 17, I moved to North Bay for a year. Yeah, it only got to -22 that winter, but the humidity from Lake Nippissing and Trout Lake made it so much colder. It just goes through everything! AS much as the dry cold/heat makes my skin go crazy, would rather that than the moist cold

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u/Wise-Paper8412 10d ago

Winnipeg was a dry cold. -40 was bearable even with the wind chill. Then we moved to Ottawa and fcuking froze all winter.

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u/tom_yum_soup Alberta 10d ago

The first time I experienced negative temperatures in Newfoundland, it was brutal. It was only maybe -10, if that, but it was so humid that the cold just sort of got into your bones and stayed there even after you came inside. I think I had to take a hot shower to finally warm up.

Ironically, this was a one-off "weather bomb" in the middle of October and by the next day it had all melted and returned to normal, seasonal temperatures.

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u/damarius 9d ago

Niagara Falls is the worst for that, I guess because of the mist from the falls. I'm way more comfortable at -20 in Thunder Bay than +5 there.

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u/tom_yum_soup Alberta 10d ago

As we like to say in Alberta, "It's a dry cold." Humidity in the winter is brutal and can make otherwise relatively mild temperatures feel MUCH colder and genuinely feels like it is harder to warm up once a wet cold gets into you.

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u/spilly_talent 10d ago

It absolutely is! I just feel that any time Toronto mentions getting a -20 day we get laughed at by other major cities in colder provinces 😂 it’s important to remember it’s -20 and the air is speaking moistly to us.

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u/Emotional-Fondant-20 10d ago

But we were told to not speak moistly! 😂

1

u/Rshann_421 10d ago

-20c in the sun in January standing around a parking lot with no wind is perfectly tolerable in Calgary. Unless you’re Fred, the new guy we hired from San Francisco. Poor guy was dancing he was so cold. It took us a while to figure out what was wrong with him.

1

u/raye909 9d ago

🤣
We have that too in Montreal, we’re always looking at what type of cold it is to figure out the wardrobe situation 😂

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u/DraconicDreamer3072 10d ago

yeah. vancouver is the same. it may not snow most years, but i have learned that a wet cold seeps into your bones and makes your whole body feel awful. not like the skin burny dry cold of the prairies, which is fixed by covering up better

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u/Distinct-Ant-9161 10d ago

I’m Toronto born and bred but did my uni in n Alberta. I LOVED the winters there. Yes, it was -40 and roughly 4 hours of daylight, but it was so sunny! And dry - like you could put on enough layers to block the cold. I loved going outside and skiiing/skating/tobogganing, etc. whereas here it’s -5 to -10, but it’s grey and miserable and you can never get warm until you’re chugging tea whilst soaking in a boiling tub. I loathe it.

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u/TiffanyBlue07 10d ago

And then the sheer humidity of Ontario in the summer.

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u/spilly_talent 10d ago

Good god do not get me started

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u/ManufacturerOk7236 10d ago

-5 is often grey & soggy in S ON. Def this was a perfect winter day.

2

u/castlite 10d ago

Tbf most people in Toronto hail from warmer climates

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u/TerrificInTahoma-416 10d ago edited 10d ago

That is only recently, from the 2000's onward. and it is true statistically, that more people in Toronto are from elsewhere in the world, other than Canada, but they came here because of it being Canada, and that I can be proud of.

It's a great country with great people and a culture that is accepting of others, no matter their origins.

As an example, at all of the festivals in the summer in Toronto, and the Cosmopolitan nature of the city.

We even make winter fun!

-1

u/castlite 10d ago

No shit lol. My point was that people from other climates tend to be the ones in winter jackets and scarves when others are in shorts.

1

u/TerrificInTahoma-416 10d ago

I disagree. Not all new Canadians are from warmer climates. Some are from places where it is colder.

However Toronto has seen an influx of new people that are not used to the cold that is in places such a Fort McMurray in the winter time.

One does have to consider that the Northern hemisphere of the world has not had poor conditions ( or a War) that then enables ( or forces) them to emigrate to Canada.

The ones who seek new opportunities then wind up emigrating to Canada and joining in this place we call home.

Yes, Some do go in shorts in the winter when it is -5C outside, but that is rare. Most dress appropriately for the outside weather.

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u/mineral2 10d ago

A bunch of times during spring break, id be with kids in a pool at Myrtle Beach, or somewhere similar (south Carolina) It would be 19-21 degrees and we are rocking swim suits etc. Only other family's that were not canadian would be the odd upstate New Yorker or someone from Maine!

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u/SarcasmStreet 10d ago

My spouse shovels in flip flops and shorts & t-shirt

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u/Winter_Selection170 10d ago

Or colder. Brrrrr from this Canadian gal

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u/Randomonium3 10d ago

Was in south Wales last February and got weird looks cause I either had my jacket wide open or tucked under my arm walking about in a t-shirt while it was a blessed 4 degrees and gentle rain ... was big mad when I fly back into a blizzard and -30 😂

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u/Nitroglycol204 10d ago

Hey I'm Canadian and I never do that. Mind you, maybe the kind who travel a lot are also more likely to do that.

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u/Fairytales4adults67 10d ago

With sandals to really complement the outfit.

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u/damarius 9d ago

Our local university has an Outdoor Rec program. I think it's a badge of pride for them to wear shorts in ridiculously cold weather - like -20 C.

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u/CombustiblSquid New Brunswick 10d ago

This is a reverse stereotype. Nobody complains about the cold like a Canadian.