This is Brentt Eads of Line Drive Media…

Yesterday (Friday) ended a long summer softball-focused trip for me of spending two weeks in Southern California for PGF Nationals as well as flying to Toronto this week for the first-ever Canadian Elite Softball Camp, of which I hope there will be many, many more.

I’ve been to Canada before—but it’s been a while, I must admit—and this trip I saw first-hand and heard from Canadian friends that there are some slight (and strong, too) differences in our cultures on and off the softball fields.

I’ve put together a list of 20 of them, but I almost didn’t get to experience the similarities and differences of going to “north of the border” because I naively didn’t think you needed a passport to go to Canada!

Going to, Portugal, yes, I could see… but Canada? Nah, we’re like brother and sister, aren’t we?

Wrong… I needed a passport and got mine just in time, but once IN Canada this week, I learned some things I didn’t know before (or certainly didn’t appreciate or recognize) so here’s my list of differences with some looked at in a not-so-serious light.

If you have others—be you American or Canadian—I’d love to learn about yours! Email me at Brentt.Eads@LineDriveMedia.com.

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1. Driving in Kilometers Per Hour, Not Miles Per Hour

In the U.S., it’s miles as in “speed limit is 55 mph.” In Canada it’s kilometers. I still don’t know what a speed limit of 60 kilometers equates too; I was just going the speed of traffic even though my car rental had a light that would go on when I surpassed the speed limit.

Which was whenever the car was running… even at traffic lights (hmmm, go figure).

2. Driving, Gambling & Tobacco Ages

I was told that in Alberta, Canada, the age for all three of those is 18 years old and elsewhere north of the border it’s age 19. In the U.S., it’s 21, of course.

Guess youth mature faster north of the border.

3. Canadian $100 Notes Smells Like Maple Syrup

OK, I’m NOT making this up… and I have proof (hang with me here for a minute). I was talking to one of the instructors at the Canadian Elite Softball Camp and he said—totally with a straight face, mind you—that the Canadian $100 paper bill has an aroma of… well… maple syrup.

Very appropriately Canadian, don’t you think?  

The dude swears it’s true and he had me do the sniff test and… oh boy… of the five bills I sniffed two of them actually DID have a scent of maple syrup (or maybe that was me just smelling my cologne).

But seriously, one really did have the aroma of maple syrup. However, when I put whipped cream on it and tasted it, it wasn’t so great.

And if you think this minor guy was yanking my chain, check out this article titled New Canadian Money Smells Like Syrup, Melts in Heat.

Also, rumor has it that the next U.S. $100 bill will smell like bacon and eggs and the $50 bill will have the aroma of strawberry jam on toast.

If only…

4. Men’s Volleyball

OK, this was one person’s opinion and I’m just the messenger here, but the opinion of one Canadian is that men’s volleyball in Canada is huge, like the equivalent of hockey and in the 50 U.S. states.

Don’t know if I’ll believe that until I see a pro volleyball league in America.

Still, I’m working on some pro team names like the Sacramento Spikers, the San Antonio Servers and the Boston Brenttsters.

Hey, one can dream.

5. Liquids Such As Gasoline Are in Liters, Not Gallons

We silly Americans had the chance to go metric a long time ago – I want to say in the 1970’s — and be like the rest of the planet, but noooooooo, we had to stick to the gallons system and it’s like being back in junior high again and comparing measurements… like one 1 gallon = 3.78541 liters.

Which is true, I looked it up (thanks Google), although it’s a little harder to look up with one hand when the other hand is pushing the gas pump.

6. School Class Grades Are Either “Class of X” or Grade Y…

The point here is what they DON’T say: in Canada you don’t hear “freshman, sophomore, junior or senior (the last one maybe a bit more, I was told).

What you’ll hear is: “She is in the Class of 2028” or “she’s in Grade 10” which leads to the next one…

7. In U.S. it’s “10^th Grade;” In Canada It’s “Grade 10”

You say “poTAYto,” I say “poTOTo.”

Minor difference but it has been noticed by our neighbors to the North and was pointed out to me.

8. Fun Fact I Found Fascinating About Fresh Water…

OK, not a difference as much as the others but maybe it does accentuate the beautiful country that Canada is… did you know that 20% of the fresh water in world is in Canada?!?

I couldn’t find in my extensive research of five minutes how much America has, but did find this: the U.S. consumes 281 billion gallons of fresh water every day.

Crazy, right? Canada giveth and the USA taketh… or consumeth.

But here’s the one that was really powerful when you stop to think about it: the province of Ontario—the most populous and second largest one in the country—has over 250,000 lakes!

That’s even with Ontario being home to the international city that is Toronto as well as Ottawa, the country’s capital.

So much bass, walleye and trout to be caught; so little time to do it.

9. ESNP is NOT the Worldwide Leader of Sports When It Comes to Canada

Of all the fun facts being thrown out in this list, this one was the most stunning to me.

I spoke with several sports folks native to Canada and they said ESPN is not the sports media juggernaut it is in the States.

A few mentioned that it’s not big at all in Canada and if there’s something of interest you want to watch, you usually have to download and pay for it, and it’s not likely that you already have a subscription to it.

An AI search online reveals this:

“ESPN is not directly available as a standalone network or streaming service in Canada due to broadcasting rights. Instead, ESPN operates through partnerships and local Canadian alternatives.”

Again, a small sample of softball people surveyed, but the consensus was pretty clear that we in the U.S. have a different perspective of ESPN’s reach than those north of the border do.

10. What Do You Call That Grain Group That Spaghetti Belongs To?

Another one in the language comparables… and this one was brought up by a softball mom unsolicited.

In the US of A, it’s pronounced “pahsta” while in Canada it’s ‘passed-ta” in many places….

We won’t EVEN get into the “about” and “a-boot” comparisons…

Continue below to see the second 10 of Canada/USA differences noticed this week at the Canadian Elite Softball Camp…