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I love Canada. I'd live in Quebec City if I could get a job. I make it a point to visit once every year. I've also been to New Brunswick, Montreal, Toronto, Saskatchewan, Calgary, etc. Love all of it. I also like the fact that many of those places are "off the radar."
Given the limitations of the weather, this would have to be a late Spring/summer/early Fall trip.
The only area I still hope to see one day is the Atlantic provinces.
When I lived in Minneapolis I always regretted not satisfying some insane curiosity in seeing Winnipeg.
I took a train from Thunder Bay to Montreal one time, but a good portion of the time (the drawback to taking a train) it was dark, couldn't see a whole lot. Wasn't really impressed with Toronto, but that was back in the mid-70's and the Yonge Street Mall had opened up recently.
I was in Victoria a year ago on a day trip and wasn't very impressed with it.
When you live in Michigan all your life its hard not to pay some attention to Canada. For many years I lived so close to the border I could see Canada from my front door. Ontario plates are very common in Michigan, and almost all people in Michigan have been over to Canada. I guess our accents sound Canadian to the rest of the nation too, since I have been called a Canadian by people out east, and by people in California. The guy in California heard me talk, read my jacket which said Michigan on it and told me in a rude voice " Michigan huh, you canucks should go back to Canada!" Amazing how dumb some people are lol
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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To be honest Cap, I have been to Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, & the Niagara area. I haven't seen the rest of Canada.
But Canada never has been or will be on my radar though. No disrespect, but I don't ever see any place outside of the USA, besides Melbourne & Hong Kong. The thing with Canada is, its a great country a prosperous one at that and its underrated too, but USA in general is just my kind of place.
The diversity in landscapes, weather, people, architecture, cities, regions, nature is just something I love about the USA, cant and never will give that up! Oh and Canada doesn't have any NBA teams (other than Toronto).
I think one reason Canada isn't high on American's radar screens is that after visiting the country, people don't come back and gush about having been to foreign and exotic Canada. The Canadian experience doesn't strike Americans as being a truly 'foreign' experience where you feel like you've been someplace truly different from home.
I like Canada a lot. However, the country seems to keep to itself and doesn't generate a lot of international headlines. Maybe that's why it is not on most Americans' radar.
I think kettlepot has a better bead on why it's not on many Americans' radar. With the exception of Montreal/Quebec, Canada isn't a significantly different experience from just going to some similar part of the U.S. where you don't have to worry about possible problems with border crossing. Canada sure is trying though, they've been running tourism ads seemingly nonstop for months.
Probably depends on where you are in the US. Here in Chicago nobody gives much thought to it, and certainly not where I lived in California. When I lived in Cleveland it was more on the radar though, being that it's across Lake Erie from Canada. Some port towns in Ohio will also wave Canadian flags and you can get Canadian radio stations there. Labatt and Molson are also very popular in Cleveland, and are usually on-tap at bars.
I will say that Canada has some nice cities. Toronto and Montreal are the top 5 for me in N. America. I think Quebec City is probably the nicest small city as well.
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