Isn't it always cold in Canada?

It's happening again.

"Where are you from? America?" asks the woman sitting across from me. She's a friend of a friend and she has seized on the fact that my accent is not the one she's used to hearing. I smile and politely reply, "Actually, I'm Canadian."

"Canadian? Oh I've always wanted to go to Canada, it looks so beautiful. Where in Canada are you from?"

"I'm from Halifax...Nova Scotia."

Blank stare.

This is not an uncommon response and fair enough. I would hardly expect someone from the other side of the world to know all the Canadian provinces, territories and their capitals. I take a deep breath, then attempt to clarify. "It's on the east coast of the country", I say.

At this point I'm hoping that she has a vague picture of North America in her head and will realize that I'm from somewhere on the eastern seaboard. Not a very accurate description but at least she'll get the general idea. Yep, I can see a spark of comprehension in her eyes now. "Oh that's the really cold bit, isn't it?"

Heh? Did I say "east coast" or "north pole"? As my notions of cold and warm have always had a general north/south orientation, her logic has me a bit baffled.

But I don't tell her this. Instead I reply,"Well yes it can get cold. But only in the winter."

She bursts out laughing.

I'm perplexed for a moment because I hadn't meant it to be funny; just a statement of fact. Then I realize she's not laughing because it's funny. She doesn't believe me. It's an ah-ha-ha-very-funny-but-you-can't-fool-me sort of laugh.

Then she asks me what I do here in New Zealand and the conversation moves on.

I'm sure this is not an unfamiliar story to many Canadian's who've been abroad. But where does this image of Canada come from? Sure Canadian winters are cold and admittedly there are places in the far north where temperatures only reach the single digits in the middle of July. However the fact remains that many places in the country get fabulous summers.

Is it all the adverts for ski holidays in Whistler? All those pics of Victoria glacier at Lake Louise? Perhaps our obsession with ice hockey?

Whatever the cause I desperately wish someone would fix it. I hate having to explain that I've never been ice skating in the summer because there's no ice.

I'm not asking for much. Just believe me when I say that I spent much of my childhood swimming and sun-bathing on a Nova-Scotian beach. Is that really so implausible? For the woman sitting across from me at least, the answer would seem to be yes.