Depending on where you’re coming from, you might have a different idea of what friendly is. While nearly all Canadians will treat any foreigners with kindness and respect, we don’t tend to go out of our way to talk to and be hospitable towards strangers as much as people in a lot of other countries do. Especially in big cities.

Remember… “planning on traveling to Canada” is like saying you’re planning on traveling to Europe… it’s a BIG place that spans four time zones and has all sorts of people.

So you’re likely to spot some bigots, but there’s also plenty of welcoming people. Part of it depends on where you go. In general, cities are more multicultural and a little of more rural areas used to be very white, with indigenous reservations in the most unexpected places.

Beside that, Alberta is “Little Texas” and BC isn’t that different from Washington and Oregon states. Manitoba is really friendly, Quebec tends to be welcoming in the cities and culturally insular in many of the rural areas. All the east coast provinces tend to be really friendly. The territories are very sparsely populated, so other people are treated like a gift OR like something the person is trying to avoid — race doesn’t tend to come into it.

Can you give me more opinions on more states/regions racism chances?

Generally, in cities you won’t have really any problems. My fiancee is Turkish and we live in the prairies and she’s never had anything happen. Folks stumble on her name sometimes but it’s not really racism.

If you go rural, you always up your chances of encountering more racism. Rural PEI/NB will be accidentally racist, rural AB/SK will not care if they’re racist. Generally this is true unless you’re camping/hiking, when you wrap back around to people who are generally just happy to see fellow outdoorsmen.

Much of North American racism isn’t from individual people but in systems. My fiancee’s experience is that European systems are more likely to be equitable but the people will be racist. In general, if you visit Canadian cities from Vancouver to Montreal, I wouldn’t expect you to have any racist encounters.

We have provinces, not states, and it really depends on what you are wanting to see.

Not really; racism in general isn’t the issue. Canada’s been multicultural from the beginning. Bigger issues are things like cultural sovereignty— indigenous and French mostly. Skin colour really doesn’t come i to it.

Might help to know what you’re comparing it to though.

Also, it might help to watch “Race Across The World Series 3” if you’re from the UK — and a good interview is here: https://www.canadianaffair.com/blog/canada-advocate-q-and-a-trish-and-cathies-race-across-the-world-adventure

That show did a pretty good job of capturing the highs and lows of interpersonal relations in Canada.

6 time zones

Call it 5.5

I doubt appearance will factor significantly in most places. Where in Canada were you planning to travel to?

Also, which country are you from? We’re rather cross with America right now so if you’re from there then there might be some additional coaching I’d suggest.

Not saying you can’t find openly racist people in the country, especially some very rural areas, but the chance of running into people who aren’t friendly to visiting foreigners of any appearance is extremely low. Canada is quite multicultural, especially in the major cities where you wouldn’t even garner a second glance from people.

Lol as a minority that’s born here and lived in cities across the countr: Canada definitely has racism still. We are very diverse; especially in the bigger cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

I recently travelled to NB and witnessed some racism. Wasn’t anything too bad. I’ve had worse. But you’ll find more ignorance than hate. Hate looms it’s ugly head depending on where you go and what minority you are. I think for the most part, you’ll be okay, you might get weird comments here and there, but most people will be nice as a general rule of thumb.

In Toronto you’ll find Canadians that are all sorts of colours names and sizes, and a restaurant somewhere that serves your home country’s cuisine. Most people in the city don’t care.

The closer to the urban centre you are the less you are likely to be judged for looking foreign, though that chance is very small to begin with. If something racist gets shouted at you in public here, people are going to look down and walk away, look with disgust at the person making that remark, or tell them off.

Outside of the city, bigots are still the vast minority, but there may be more subtle ways you could be looked at differently, well-intentioned but largely due to the unfamiliarity with outside cultures.

In my experience, foreigners are so ubiquitous there the locals barely notice

Maybe you’ll be treated differently if you struggle speaking English (or French if visiting Quebec) but your post implies that’s not an issue

Of course, if you’re moving instead of visiting the answer a bit more nuanced as the cost of living crisis there is very real

I’ll say depend on where you’ll go

If you go in most major cities you’ll probably be fine

Thanks buddy

The only times someone might give you a hard time is when refusing to learn even basic french words in Quebec. *Ofc disregarding the dumb shit that is not specific to Canada.

Stay away from Alberta and you should be safe.

Not all of us are jerks

The majority are though. I didn’t feel safe when I last went there.

alberta politics is awkward but people are friendly in larger communities. Some remote small communities may be awkward but not always.