No offense, but my first response was "typical American".
At its silliest, and this happened in this forum, "Oh, you're from Canada? I have a friend I write to in Halifax, her name is Ann. Do you know her?
Rare in Alberta, maybe. Alberta is about the size of Texas and less than 1 million people, the largest city is under 200,000.
Had you been in Vancouver, you would find Mexican and Chinese, Thai, Greek, Japanese on our grocery shelves, but far more oriental than the east. I have not been to Toronto in 12 years and don't care to go, but traditionally Montreal and Vancouver are seen as among the most culturally diverse cities in the world.
But even Canadians forget we are not really a "nation" in the traditional definition, we were a "cultural mosaic", as opposed to melting pot, that became "an experiment in nation building" in the 1970's, when our constitution was formed over eight or ten years of discussion and debate. It is true that a British Columbian of any race has more in common with a Californian or Alaskan then someone from Toronto.
But you dare not judge the world's second largest country by land mass, and a population of 39 million by a visit to a city of 200,000. It would be like me judging all of the US by a visit to Blaine, WA.