There are numerous regions in the USA that resemble Canada and vice versa. This air of ambiguity regarding the USA vs Canada has a few clues leading to resolution. One key tidbit I use is to look at the pole holding up any form of road sign. Canada normally uses wooden poles, often painted white. Contrastingly, the USA typically has metal poles holding up their signs. Spotting signs showing the speed limit can another clue to determining if you are in Canada or the USA. The USA has signs saying ‘SPEED LIMIT’ and Canada has signs saying ‘MAXIMUM’. Additionally, the USA uses miles and Canada uses kilometres. In general, Canada is colder and has more cold-climate trees. There are swampy areas of land around Saskatchewan and partially neighbouring provinces. The prairie provinces in Canada are: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. These areas especially in the southern parts consist of typically just grass. The western province of British Columbia is very mountainous as is the western part of Alberta. The eastern provinces tend to be flatter and a mixture of grassland and trees. In Canada, if you look up and see a number of white spots floating in the sky and often some large black spots, you are probably somewhere remote in the northern part of the country. Alternately, you may have a dirty computer screen. If you pan down in Canada, you will rarely see the Street View car’s aerial. The Canadian province of New Brunswick is bilingual so you may spot signs in French and English. Contrastingly, Quebec is an only French speaking province. The Canadian highway system is explained in detail in the ‘Highways Numbering Systems’ section further up this article. In Canada, road signs are typically held up by wooden poles that are sometimes painted white. This contrasts poles from the US which are metal. Letterboxes are more of a common fixture in the US. They rarely appear in front of houses in Canada. This speed limit sign is Canadian as is says ‘MAXIMUM’. This contrasts US speed limit signs which say ‘SPEED LIMIT’. A single, continuous, yellow, centre road line on a road otherwise void of lines suggests that you are in Canada. Single yellow, continuous road lines are more prevalent in Canada than the USA where double, continuous, yellow roads lines are more common. Canada will sometimes have double, yellow road lines and the USA sometimes has single, yellow road lines. The eastern parts of Canada have many houses that are made from horizontal pieces of wood. The south-western Canadian province of British Columbia is largely mountainous as is the western part of the next province to the east- Alberta. The Canadian Prairies stretch across much of southern-central Canada, This includes: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Canadian Prairies feature a largely flat landscape with little vegetation other than grass. The eastern Canadian provinces tend to have thicker, green vegetation. In general, Ontario and Quebec tend to have a mixture of grasslands and areas with trees. Manitoba is notable for these trees that look like a miniature forest. The trees are often found in small clusters or lining the sides of the road. These tall trees, that remind me of Christmas trees, are particularly common in the eastern parts of Canada, especially on the far-east island of Newfoundland. Prince Edward Island (the island just north of Nova Scotia) often has a reddish soil that seems out-of-place in Canada. If you see exposed rock in Canada, you will mainly be in either the eastern half of Ontario or the western half of Quebec. The Canadian province of New Brunswick has words on signs in both English and French. On this sign we can see the English word ‘West’ and the French equivalent ‘Ouest’. The French province of Quebec has French as its only official language. You will therefore rarely see English in this province. On the sign above, there is only the French word for North on the sign. Nova Scotia typically has double yellow lines which contrast most road lines in Canada which are single yellow. The French word ARRET appears on stop signs in Quebec. Stop signs in New Brunswick will typically have both words ‘STOP ARRET’ on them. On occasions, they will just display the word ‘STOP’. This checkerboard black and yellow sign is unique to Canada. This version of the sign, on a rectangular backing, is only found in Newfoundland. If you notice a barrel, like the one pictured, near a house, it is a bin from Newfoundland. The back of some (but not all) signs in British Columbia are green. Ontario often has this black section covering 1/5th of the bottom part of the ‘Maximum’ signs. The remainder of Canada doesn’t have this. Within Canada, these red and white chevrons are only found in Quebec. Other than Alberta’s primary bollard that is mentioned above, bollards are fairly rare in Canada. This image shows each Canadian bollard and its location. Ontario and British Columbia both have a number of electricity poles with spirals coming off them making them resemble a person. Most utility poles on Prince Edward Island (the island just north of Nova Scotia) have these small white rectangles on them. Canada uses wooden, cylindrical utility poles (as does the US and many other countries). The hook on top of the pole is quite common in Canada and the US are is rarely seen outside of these countries. If you are tossing up between the US and Canada, then imperial vs metric measurements on signs can be useful. Kilometres= Canada, miles=USA. Pinpointing which Canadian province or territory you are in can be done relatively easily through license plates. A map showing which Canadian states require just rear license plates (blue states on the map) as opposed to both front and rear plates (green states on the map). (Source: bryan89wr, Reddit). Canadian Front and Rear Plates British Columbia: Front and rear plates + white (or small red section). Plates in British Columbia can be only white or white with a small red section. New Brunswick: Front and rear plates + red lettering. New Brunswick plates have red lettering that can be distinguished despite the blur Manitoba: Front and rear plates + distinct green triangles on left and right edges. Manitoba has a green section on the left and right parts of their license plate. Ontario: Front and rear plates + white. Distinguished from British Columbia as British Columbia is largely mountainous. Plates in Ontario tend to be white. Canadian Just Rear Plates Saskatchewan: Just rear plates + green lettering. Saskatchewan plates have green lettering that can normally just be seen. Alberta: Just rear plates + red lettering. Alberta has red lettering on its plates. Quebec: Just rear plates + white plates or slightly blue in the upper left and upper right sections. French makes Quebec stand out in general. Quebec has either white plates or plates with a delicate blue colouring in the upper right and upper left sections of the plate. Newfoundland and Labrador: Just rear plates + red lettering. These areas can be distinguished from Alberta as Alberta is partly a prairie province whilst Newfoundland and Labrador has long sea coasts. (It should also be noted that Labrador- the continental part of this province essentially isn’t covered in Street View so only focus on Newfoundland). Newfoundland and Labrador have red lettering on their license plates. Nova Scotia: Just rear plates + partly blue coloured. Nova Scotian plates typically contain blue. The northern Canadian territories stand out for then environment rather than their plates. 

The English-speaking parts of Canada use British English spelling (e.g. centre; colour). In addition, Canada mostly uses the metric system. For example, speed is measured in kilometres per hour.

This is useful to distinguish between the US, where American English spelling and (usually) the imperial system are used. For example, the US measures speed in miles.

Canada uses unique diamond-shaped T-Intersection signs. 

Some provinces use different designs. You can learn more about those in the region guessing section.

Canada is the only country in the world where you can find these signs. The US, for example, uses rectangular T-Intersection signs.

Canada uses the word ‘maximum’ on speed signs. Because speed is measured in kilometres instead of miles, the numbers tend to be higher than the US which can be identifiable from afar.

The US uses the words ‘speed limit’ on such signs. In addition, speed limits ending with 5 are more common in the US.

Canadian roads usually have single yellow centre lines. However, double middle yellow centre lines are still decently common. 

Double yellow centre lines are more common in the US. This is not a 100% reliable clue, so make sure to use this along with other clues.

You can sometimes find communal mailboxes in Canada. Personal mailboxes are still very common, though. 

Canada Post has a red logo, which sometimes appears on mailboxes. 

HINT: These communal mailboxes are very rare in the US. In addition, the US Postal Service has a blue logo.

Canadian road signs tend to be less wordy compared to their US counterparts. Good examples of this are railroad crossing and yield signs. In the US, these usually have the literal words ‘railroad crossing’ and ‘yield’ written on them, whereas in Canada, these signs are typically blank.

Bollard:

Each Province has its own Unique Bollard. Because of this, it will be shown in the more detailed map (coming soon).

Road Lines:

Canada uses a yellow divider line with white shoulder lines. While Canada does use a lot of double yellow lines, you also find a bunch of single yellow dividers. These are more common in Canada than the USA, so its a good tell. However, a single yellow DOES NOT mean that it can only be Canada.

Highway Signs:

Like the USA, Canada uses Green signs for locations, Brown for National Parks and blue for “hospitalities”.

Road Signs:

This Route number sign has a unique shield for each Province. The example shown is from Ontario.

You can find signs like this on most major highways. They will let you know what province you are in 99% of the time.

Road signs are very similar to the USA. A few big differences comes from the KM sign (Each province has its own unique KM sign) and the stop sign from Quebec (You will only find the French stop sign in Quebec!).

Electricity poles:

Each Province has its own Unique Electricity Pole. Because of this, it will be shown in the more detailed map (coming soon).

License plates:

Each Province has its own Unique License Plate. It’s important to remember that most of these license plates are going to look identical when blurred. You can however make out the Green of the Saskatchewan plate (most of the time)

What we can mention is that 4 Provinces require the use of a Front Plate. The other 9 do not require it!.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Check General Look for now, as we are going to go more in-depth in the more detailed map.

General look:

Each Province can have its own feel, but due to other factors we wont talk about too many different areas.

This is the general feel of the East. That includes Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and New Brunswick.

This is the General feel of Ontario and Quebec.


You can tell its Saskatchewan or Eastern Alberta because they don’t have many trees.

This is the West. It covers the Western part of Alberta and British Columbia.

This is the general feel of the North. That included Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. If you do end up in Nunavut, you will be in a town with Trekker coverage!

