Everyday practical information for Canada

Language

• Canada is officially bilingual, but in practice that means federal services and Quebec. In Vancouver, Toronto or Calgary you will hear French about as often as you would in Manchester.
• Quebec is a French-speaking place and expects to be treated as one. Montreal is comfortably bilingual, but outside it, and especially in Quebec City and the regions, English gets you much less far than visitors expect. Opening with bonjour rather than hello changes the temperature of an interaction more than its literal content ever could.
• Signage law in Quebec requires French prominence, so expect menus and shopfronts in French first.

Cannabis and alcohol

Cannabis is legal, and the details are provincial.

• Up to 30 g in public is the national possession limit.
• Buy only from licensed shops. They are obvious, regulated and everywhere in the cities.
• The age travels with the province, not with you or the product. Fly from Alberta to Quebec at 19 carrying legally bought cannabis and you are committing an offence on arrival.
• Public consumption rules vary widely, from roughly-like-tobacco in some provinces to private property only in others.
• Never take it across an international border. Repeated because it is the mistake that generates the worst consequences.

Alcohol is stranger than the cannabis rules.

• The drinking age is 18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec, and 19 everywhere else.
• Where you can buy it depends entirely on the province. Quebec sells wine and beer in corner shops; Ontario has loosened up considerably but still leans on the LCBO; several provinces sell spirits only in government stores with early closing.
• Open containers in public are illegal almost everywhere, with a handful of recent municipal park exceptions.

The rest of it

• Electricity is 120 V, 60 Hz, with flat two-pin and three-pin plugs, identical to the United States. European and UK appliances need an adapter, and anything not rated for 120 V needs a converter rather than just an adapter.
• Tap water is safe and free, and asking for it in a restaurant is normal.
• Distances and speeds are metric, temperatures in Celsius, and a speed limit sign reading 100 is kilometres per hour. Canadians will still quote their height in feet and their weight in pounds.
• Smoking is banned indoors nationwide and increasingly on patios and near entrances.
• Shops open late and on Sundays in most of the country, with Nova Scotia and parts of the Atlantic provinces more restricted.
• Statutory holidays vary by province. Only a handful are truly national, and the first Monday in August is a holiday in most provinces under a different name in each.