Canadian for Beginners?

So, apparently, i may be going on a cruise to Alaska in a little over a month.  There may be some little stop over in a place called Canada.  i think it might be a country.  The Canadian customs and language seem foreign to me.  Basically all i learned about Canada i learned from popular culture (like Candian Bacon and Strange Brew).


Here is what i know...
* Canada is a country with apporximately the same population as the state of California.  Though it might be a little bigger. 
* There are many films and TV shows filmed in BC (even ones with fake psychic detectives that i don't watch). 
* Canada is a somewhat socialist country - but they are honest aboot it.
* The capital city of Canada is Toronto. 
* Canada is a country filled with permafrost (it is always frozen)
* That is probably why Canadians play so many ice/snow events - skiing, hockey, curling, etc
* Curling seems to be a slow paced game of sweeping (maybe it was an outcropping of them having to sweep their perpetually frozen streets) while trying to get a rock in a circle.  Sometimes they shout "hurry hard"
* Canadians seem to revere hockey as a "sport".  Slightly against their nature, they seem to like violence within the hockey construct.
* Canadians drink a lot of beer (Lake Elisonore, Molson or other).   
* Canadians have police called mounties: they wear red uniforms, ride horses and chase villians with handle bar moustaches who like to tie people to railraod tracks.
* Cuisine: people rarely go out for Canadian. 
* Canadians use this funny thing called the metric system.  They buy litres of gas.

Language:
* Canadians seem to have difficulty pronouncing the letter "O" correctly, especially when paired with a "U".  Example: "What are you talking aboot".  "We live in a hoose."
* Canadians like to end statements with the phrase "eh?"  As i understand it, "eh" is not so much an interrogative statement to test knowledge, but an idiomatic expression (maybe trying to come off softer).   
* Canadians sometimes write "centre" as opposed to the correct spelling "center".

- i'm sure there are other lexicon based things i should know.