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The whole Niagara Falls/St Catherines area is basically a spillover of Buffalo. Most people from Ontario are well aware of that. .
I'm from Niagara Falls, Ontario originally and currently live in St. Catharines, Ontario and honestly, I don't get that statement. I've never noticed any residents here having the opinion that we are a "spillover of Buffalo." To be quite honest, it's an area I'd say most of us avoid like the plague as well unless there is somewhere in particular we need to go that happens to be in that area.
What i notice coming back to the States from Canada is the amount of flags.
You don't really notice it if you live hear but i always wonder what Canadians think or if they even notice?
Oh ya, we notice. My family thinks it's funny and we have a running joke when over there, "Wait, what country am I in again?" (Because everything is done in the stars and stripes, including panties and boxers we saw in the stores.)
It seems overdone to the point of being a bit nuts.
Does it immediately feel like you've entered another country when you've crossed the border? I'm from Australia but haven't been to Canada. I plan to go on a working holiday there soon though. I've been to the States, and it struck me as pretty different to home but familiar in some ways. Kind of like a bizarro parallel world, like I'd stepped into the TV!
What are the things you notice first/the most? Is the urban form much difference? On streetview Canadian cities look a bit more familiar than most American cities except San Diego.
With the exception of Quebec Canada is more or less exactly the same. Whenever I'm there for a couple days and I exchange money pulling that out is a reminder but really no different. When I'm close to the US border I just keep using US money since everybody it's still accepted there as well. Many of us in the states call Canada the 51st state which I'm sure pisses off Canadians but it's really that close. Back before you needed a passport to cross the border I used to go up there all the time. Nice place, real clean.
Ever been to Philadelphia? What about South Florida? The U.S. is big. Just because you ran into some rude drivers in Montreal or Toronto doesn't mean the entire country is like that.
This made me LOL and say Yepper especially mentioning Montreal. I lived there when first started to drive..however, even prior to getting my licence..I use to refer to the dangers of walking down a sidewalk..Car's would come up on side walk to avoid the "Stop" sign or red light..pedestrians had the habit of contently doing the head swivel Can you imagine if we talked around with are ears plugged with headsets or earbuds... yikes
Anyway..Driver's there used their horns constantly..and would pull moves that baffled me.. Resulting in me becoming a very defensive driver and able to read the "Body Language" of drivers for the rest of my life! My kids were incredulous how I just knew what a certain car behind, beside or in front would be doing. Hoping to pass on my wisdoms ..would point out..Watch kids,, that car is going to do this that or the other thing ....Yep..Had to lift their jaws as they dropped to chest in wonderment....LOL Thought I'd share this little trivia
There are rude drivers but the trick is always how to avoid them..Most problems come when car/van is full of people..heads and jaws a wagging..and NO eye's on the road. SMH was my common response..and avoid at all costs!
a few for me (but have spent alot of time in Canada so am more aware of the differences):
- smaller freeways (except Toronto) and hardly any (if any) flyovers, less development/ billboards alongside the freeways
- less master-planned and manicured communities as well as the other extreme of less ghetto-ized areas
- less extremes of social strata (less flaunting of wealthy but also less poor)
- less obese people of all variations
- far more British or British-influenced old people
- people are less likely to be preppy and more likely to be "granola"
- French on packaging of consumer goods
- less displays of patriotism, military affiliations, religion- no megachurches
- more cosmopolitan feeling in big cities vs US counterparts (hard to describe until you visit)
- more expensive
Pretty good assessment!
Also:
Less flaunting of politics, political leanings etc. and election campaigns don't get anywhere near as nasty as the American ones!
I don't find the people as warm and friendly (and I'm Canadian).
Canadians aren't quite as into consumerism (just ask Target).
Not quite as much decorating for special holidays.
No guns, and no gun culture - no drive up "liquor and ammo" stores!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We drive up to Vancouver BC several times a year. It's hard to forget that you are in Canada when all of the speed limit signs are in kph, and they don't take U.S. debit cards so we have to use credit, but other than that it doesn't really seem like another country at all. Very much like Seattle and Portland.
My observations.....part of an editorial on what it means to be an American. Circa...1973.
Foresters always have a strong attraction to blank places on a map. Canada had a lot of blank places. Canada felt like the frontier country that America use to be. Friends who had moved to Canada to go to school all spoke well of the country.
Confused and unsure of America's future and my own, I decided to move to Canada to attend graduate school.
Canada, while appearing to be similar to the United States, is a very different country. The first clue was when I changed my greenback dollars to the multicolor Canadian bills. There on the front was a picture of her, the Queen of the Commonwealth. When I went to the post office, there she was again beaming down behind the postal clerks. I remember thinking, "Who elected her queen?"
I was thinking like an American.
In response to the kidnapping of government ministers, the Liberal government in Ottawa imposed press censorship throughout the country. I read the Vancouver Sun with big white spaces on the front page where articles had been pulled.
Nobody complained or demonstrated. It dawned on me the First Amendment did not apply north of the border.
I had a hard time adapting to Canadian society and even a harder time with Canadian higher education. As I walked into a seminar on forestry research, little did I know this presentation would change my life.
A graduate student spent 10 minutes talking about the historical differences between Canada and the United States. He pointed out that Canada was founded by a corporation - the Hudson's Bay Company. There was no revolution in Canada and its independence was at Britain's insistence, rather than Canada's. He joked that the reason Canadians have socialized medicine is it began as a corporate benefit. Like most businesses, the emphasis is on fitting in with the corporate culture. Creativity and individualism are not encouraged, but solid contributions to the existing state are.
This is why Canadian research is focused on practical application and also why scientific breakthroughs tend happen in the United States.
An individual will take more risks than groups or committees.
The United States was founded by revolution, brought on by the overriding principle of individual rights. People of this "new world" feared government would impinge on their rights as individuals. So the United States became a country where people felt pride in their government, but also kept guns to use against that same government if their individual rights were trampled. When people became fed up with their government, they headed for the frontier to live their lives as they saw fit.
During that brief lecture, I realized I was never going to fit in Canada. Being born in one country, raised in another culture, and educated in a third, you are always sure of being different. I needed to live in a country where individuals are valued and given the opportunity to make a difference.
America requires only that you believe in the social experiment that was started over 200 years ago. As a naturalized American once said, "I could live in France for a lifetime and never become a Frenchman. But here in America, after five years I can become an American complete with a accent."
You just have to believe in America and the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Shortly after that lecture, I packed my truck, stuck Allman Brothers into the tape deck and left Canada playing "Southbound" at maximum volume.
My observations.....part of an editorial on what it means to be an American. Circa...1973.
And your feelings now, 42 years later? Because I see so much wrong with your post, I don't know where to begin.
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Yes we notice
Can you imagine if we talked around with are ears plugged with headsets or earbuds... yikes 
