I found it very amusing that Canadians commented on how obnoxious it was that in the post 9/11 days, Americans splattered US flags up *everywhere*. While I don’t necessarily disagree with that statement, it is quite hollow coming from a Canadian. This is because the Canadian Maple Leaf is more a part of the Canadian culture than the US flag will ever can be part of the US culture. Canadians don’t fly as many flags as Americans do, but the damn maple leaf is *everywhere*! Just because the locals don’t notice it anymore, doesn’t mean it is not there…

I get the impression that it’s almost as if Canadians are scared that their cities will be mistaken for American ones… you know if say, you just crossed the border and look out… “Hey where are we, are we still in the US? Oh wait, there is a maple leaf, nope we must be in Canada.”

Visually, this is one of the few obvious signs that differentiates a Canadian city from an American one.

Below is a small sampling of Maple Leaves in Canadian life. These pictures were all taken in a single afternoon and are located in Powell River and near YVR (Vancouver airport). These are a tiny subset of the vast number of leaves that I saw there…

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