How to support your fellow Canadians

Buy the real maple syrup

Look for Grade A, and go Dark if you want to taste something. The bottle shaped like a lady is corn syrup wearing a costume. One is a tree, the other is a factory. You will notice immediately.

Learn what a cheese curd actually is

Poutine is fries, hot gravy, and fresh cheese curds. Not shredded mozzarella. Not tofu. If the cheese does not squeak against your teeth, somebody has sold you a plate of fries with extra steps.

Keep ketchup chips in the house

They sound wrong and taste correct. Have a bag ready for the next person who tells you Canadian food is not a cuisine, and watch how quickly the argument ends.

See Niagara from the Canadian side

The American side has an excellent view of Canada. The Canadian side has the view of the falls. This is not patriotism, it is geometry.

Spend a weekend in Montreal

Europe, shorter flight, better bagels. Sit in a park, eat something with too much butter in it, listen to two languages at once and understand neither.

Fly Porter when the route exists

Toronto’s own. Real glassware, a snack that arrives on a tray, and no middle seat anywhere on the aircraft. Somebody in Canada sat down and thought about your knees.

Screen Argo at your place

Ben Affleck’s film about the six American diplomats who got out of Tehran in 1980. A very good thriller, and a slightly generous account of who did the work. Jimmy Carter later put the Canadian contribution at ninety percent, and Parliament held its first secret session in decades to authorise the fake passports. Invite people over. Mention that part afterwards.

Run your store on Shopify

Ottawa, Ontario. Powers a meaningful slice of American independent retail and has done for years without making a fuss about where it is from.

Do your books on FreshBooks

Toronto. Invoicing and accounting for people who did not start a company in order to do accounting. Your bookkeeper will not care where it is headquartered. You can.

Put your team on 1Password

Toronto. You were going to fix your password situation this quarter anyway. Fix it northward.

If you run a law firm, run it on Clio

Vancouver, British Columbia. The practice management software a great many American law firms already bill their hours through, usually without knowing it is Canadian.

Bank Canadian without leaving the country

TD’s American branches belong to Toronto-Dominion. BMO’s US bank belongs to Bank of Montreal. City National, in Los Angeles, has belonged to Royal Bank of Canada since 2015. You may already be doing this and not know it.