Except for some major differences, Canada is just like Australia. That makes the little differences all the more interesting, in a Pulp Fiction gangster kind of way.

Little Difference #1: The sugar is not as sweet. I put two sugars into a cup of coffee in Canada and I could barely taste it. I think this has something to do with being in the Northern Hemisphere.

Little Difference #2: Consumption tax is not included in the marked price of any items. In Australia we include it, I guess because we’re about finality and making stuff obvious because we’re no good at counting to 15%.

Little Difference #3: The Canadian 5¢ coin (nickel) is larger than the 10¢ (dime). This is alien and foreign to an Australian, whose coin series starts at 5¢ and increase in size to $1 (except that the 50¢ is bigger than the $1, but that’s only the natural order).

When we get into the gold $1 and $2 coins, things reverse.

The Canadian $1 (loonie) is smaller than its $2 (toonie), which makes infinitely more sense than Australia’s half arsed attempt where the $2 coin is smaller than the $1 coin.

As far as I know, Australia has no statues of bagpipe-playing lobsters either

Little Difference #4: Canadian toilet bowls all have way more water in them than toilet bowls in Australia. I don’t know why this is, but it’s probably because there is so much water in Canada that if you walk five metres in any direction you hit a lake. The only problem with this is that the water level is so high in Canadian toilets that your brown submarines float perilously close to your arse.

Little Difference #5: Bacardi, Cointreau and Canada Dry make an excellent mixed drink. I have no idea what it would taste like with an Australian dry ginger ale, but I’m sure it would be a little different.

Little Difference #6: On the roads, we have roundabouts. In Canada they have 4-way stop signs. We have hazard lights, they have “4-way flickers”. From this I can only conclude that Canada is far more into 4-ways than we are, a stance that I have to applaud.

There is a whole contingent of major differences (drive on opposite sides of the road, tipping, language and vocabulary, views on nudity and anal sex), but they aren’t nearly as interesting as the Little Differences.