Canadianisms - Unique Words & Expressions

AnnaG

Hall of Fame Member
Jul 5, 2009
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Only in Canada......Is the Senate of Canada sustained by protocol, alcohol and Geritol
Only in Canada......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in Canada......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.
Only in Canada......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
Only in Canada.....do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet coke.
Only in Canada......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.
Only in Canada......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
Only in Canada......do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.
Only in Canada......do we buy hot dogs in packages of twelve and buns in packages of eight.
Only in Canada.....do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.
Only in Canada......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.
Only in Canada......can you buy Tylenol containing codeine without a prescription. In fact, Jane Fonda was once stopped at the U.S. border for trying to take it home.
 

AnnaG

Hall of Fame Member
Jul 5, 2009
17,507
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Well, could be, in certain parts of Canada...

In the part of Manitoba where I come from, A Red Eye (or maybe Redeye) is beer mixed with tomato juice.
Ooooohhh, a ruddy mary. At least that's what beer n tomato is called here. Variations include adding tabasco sauce or using Clamato juice instead of tomato.
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
39
48
BC
Ooooohhh, a ruddy mary. At least that's what beer n tomato is called here. Variations include adding tabasco sauce or using Clamato juice instead of tomato.

In Manitoba, at least when I was a kid: "Diesel" - rye & coke
 

AnnaG

Hall of Fame Member
Jul 5, 2009
17,507
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Here's more:
Canuck
Kerfuffle
Hoser
Molson Muscle
Kliks
Clawmitter
Fersher
Mickey (13 oz. bottle of booze aka 375 ml)
2-4
rye & ginger
zed ("z")
highway
hydro
butter tart
nanaimo bar
Mountie
Loonie
Twoonie
Toque
Pop
Robertson screws
skidoos & seadoos
lacrosse
Pogey
KD
chip trucks
Timmy's
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
39
48
BC
Here's more:
Canuck
Kerfuffle
Hoser
Molson Muscle
Kliks
Clawmitter
Fersher
Mickey (13 oz. bottle of booze aka 375 ml)
2-4
rye & ginger
zed ("z")
highway
hydro
butter tart
nanaimo bar
Mountie
Loonie
Twoonie
Toque
Pop
Robertson screws
skidoos & seadoos
lacrosse
Pogey
KD
chip trucks
Timmy's

Wow...good list!

Here's an expression that one of my old aunties used to say when things went really wrong:

"Sh*t and carry two!"

No, I don't really know what it means...
 

Chev

Electoral Member
Feb 10, 2009
374
2
18
Alberta
My husband was born and raised in Ontario. He used to say "drier than a popcorn fart" ; "slicker than snot on a doorknob" ; those I remember, there were a few more. Don't know if those were 'Ontario things'. Mine is ordering a drink 'neat'. Most waitresses in Edmonton know what that is, but on a trip to Ontario years ago, the waitresses had no idea what that meant.
 

Nuggler

kind and gentle
Feb 27, 2006
11,596
141
63
Backwater, Ontario.
Speaking of tum wrenches; hubby calls them "knucklebusters". According to him if you put enough pressure on them, they let go of the bolt and your knuckles take a bashing.


They do that:-?, and they do. Never put yer fingers completely around the handle, cause it do smart.:blob6:eek:w ow ow.

jeez, brings back old times.......crawlin around underneath the clunker with bloody knuckles........great fun.:roll:
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
39
48
BC
Overheard somewhere down East...probably Newfoundland, but not sure:

The fog is t'icker than the flies on a hog's back, b'y!
 

AnnaG

Hall of Fame Member
Jul 5, 2009
17,507
117
63
My husband was born and raised in Ontario. He used to say "drier than a popcorn fart" ; "slicker than snot on a doorknob" ; those I remember, there were a few more. Don't know if those were 'Ontario things'. Mine is ordering a drink 'neat'. Most waitresses in Edmonton know what that is, but on a trip to Ontario years ago, the waitresses had no idea what that meant.
We use the same expressions over here. It's ON that's weird. lol
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
39
48
BC
A seasonal note - we have many creative ways to describe how cold it can be in Canada. Any expressions worthy of note here?

A starter - It's cold enough to freeze the nuts off a steel bridge.
 

AnnaG

Hall of Fame Member
Jul 5, 2009
17,507
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Peter heaters:
 

Beekeeper

New Member
Dec 10, 2009
16
0
1
AnnaG---You missed chuck. Very common on this coast. Like skoocum, a word fron the Chinook language we used to speak hereabouts
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
39
48
BC
"Off like a bride's nighty" (nightie?) - referring to something that happened suddenly, I think...
 

countryboy

Traditionally Progressive
Nov 30, 2009
3,686
39
48
BC
"Hotter than the hubs of hell"
(not sure if that's purely Canadian, but I heard it on the prairies)...