Throw out any preconceived notions about Canadian culture. Even we poke fun at some of our cultural clichés. (To see what I mean, go on YouTube and check out the giant inflatable beavers, moose and Mounties as Canadian crooner Michael Bublé sings at the closing ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.)

For instance, there’s nowhere in the world—except Haida Gwaii in Canada—where First Nations artists carve mythical creatures out of yellow cedar while sitting under ancient totems. And Canada is the only place on the planet where Inuit artists sculpt international treasures from whalebone, Arctic serpentine and elk antlers. It’s where the east coast culture of Irish, Scottish and French settlers still rocks through Celtic fiddling, Gaelic storytelling and maple-sugar bush parties that go back 300 years. We’re the birthplace of iconic Canadian impressionists the Group of Seven; baby-faced singing sensation Justin Bieber; “King of the World’’ and “Avatar” director James Cameron; the red carpet ride known as the Toronto International Film Festival. Here’s where you can discover firsthand Canada’s authentic culture and true artistic soul.

The Atlantic & Maritime provinces
Canada’s Atlantic-side and Maritime provinces (Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island) are famous for their rollicking “kitchen parties” and neighbourly ceilidhs—Gaelic for “a gathering of people.” Maritime fiddling, Celtic dancing and the age-old art of storytelling are handed down from generations of British, Irish, Scottish and French settlers. Spinners, handweavers, kilt-makers and rug-hooking artists display traditional fibre arts in galleries and gift shops around the Maritimes, including at Gaelic College, which is dedicated to the preservation of Celtic arts and crafts.

Musically, expect to hear the melancholy strains of bagpipes at Nova Scotia’s Halifax Citadel National Historic Site and stories of the antics of Cape Breton Island fiddler Ashley MacIsaac pretty much anywhere in Nova Scotia. Visit lively George Street in St. John’s, NL, reputed to have the most pubs in North America per square foot, and site of the 2010 Juno Awards, Canada’s home-grown version of the American Grammies. Other arts and cultural attractions in the region include:

• The East Coast Music Awards, the showcase for Atlantic Canada’s top artists.
•  L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, NL, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where visitors can see the remains of a 1,000-year-old Viking village.
• Kings Landing Historical Settlement, NB, a “living history’’ British Loyalist village.
• Cruises on the Bluenose II schooner and 18th-century Maritime culture in Old Town Lunenburg, NS, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Lucy Maud Montgomery’s characters from Anne of Green Gables brought to life at the Avonlea storybook village on PEI.

Francophone Regions
Acadian culture thrives in Quebec, the Maritime provinces, parts of Ontario and Franco-Manitoban areas like the St. Boniface district of Winnipeg, MB. Early spring kicks off the annual round of sugar-bush parties, celebrating the 300-year-old tradition of tapping the maple trees for their syrupy sap with traditional French-Canadian food and folk music. In Quebec, skilled woodcarvers working in maple are famous among Canada’s artists and crafters. Other attractions in French-speaking Canada include:

• The Ramparts in Québec City, QC, the only fortified city walls north of Mexico and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• A diorama of the 1750 Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Musée du Fort, Québec City, QC.
• The Canadian Museum of Civilization (Musée Canadien des Civilisations) in Gatineau, QC, showcasing Canada’s prehistoric, First Nations and 1,000 years of groundbreaking social history.
• The French Quarter in St. Boniface district in Winnipeg, MB, home of the landmark St. Boniface Cathedral. 

Urban Centers: Toronto, ON, Montréal, QC and Vancouver, BC
Canada’s three largest cities are high-energy centres of fashion, film, theatre and gourmet food. You’ll catch a distinctive Parisian vibe in jazzy, high-style Montréal, QC, Canada’s centre of design and fashion. Sophisticated, multi-culti Toronto, ON, is home to museums, concert halls, the star-studded Toronto International Film Festival and some of Canada’s most innovative (albeit controversial) architecture. Vancouver, BC, astounded the world during the 2010 Winter Games with its glitzy Euro-Asian vibe, mountain-seaside setting, celebrated high-end restaurants and array of top ethnic eateries—from French crêperies to Asian noodle houses to trendy Italian coffee bars.  

• Toronto, ON, is Canada’s largest city and home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada and Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). The city is renowned for its extraordinary culinary scene and celebrity chefs, dynamic nightlife and national sports teams. In the pedestrian-only Distillery District, North America’s best-preserved collection of Victorian Industrial Architecture buildings house boutiques, galleries, theatres and cafes. Tour the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), Canada’s largest museum of world culture and natural history. When its angular “Michael Lee-Chin Crystal’’ entrance opened in in 2007, critics pronounced it alternatively a “monument’’ and one of the 10 ugliest buildings in the world. You decide. 

• Montréal, QC, is the world’s second-largest French-speaking city after Paris and is Canada’s fashion capital. Its charming mix of old and new world architecture spans from the 19th-century Notre-Dame Basilica to the Galerie Place Ville Marie, an elegant fashion mall built by I.M. Pei. In 2006, Montréal was recognized as a UNESCO City of Design, one of only seven appointed cities in the world. Parc Jean-Drapeau displays sculptures and pavilions from the magical heyday of Expo 67.

• Vancouver, BC, is home to the neoclassical Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Opera and Ballet BC. In gritty Gastown, cobbled streets and courtyards are lined with antique shops, funky clothing boutiques, bistros and First Nations art galleries, including Hill’s Native Art, North America’s largest Northwest Coast Native art gallery, housing a large and varied collection of Inuit and First Nations arts and crafts. On Granville Island, one of the city’s most popular spots for tourists and locals, meet the artists in their studios and browse their works from blown glass to printmaking and woodcarving; buy fresh seafood, produce and tasty vittels at the colourful Public Market. Vancouver’s extraordinary culinary scene has been known to blow away critics from some of the biggest foodie publications in the world, and has recently attracted several celebrity chefs who have opened restaurants in this city of bon vivants (read more).

The Prairies
The "Old West“ meets Ukrainian food, dance and music in Canada’s fun-loving, multicultural Prairies. Arts and culture in the Prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta is a rich mélange fuelled by centuries of immigration. Many cultures thrive in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, from First Nations and Mètis to Ukrainian, German, French and Scandinavian. Alberta is Canada’s version of the Wild West and is famous for a hospitable, home-grown cowboy culture. Highlights of the Prairies region include:

• Manitoba’s world-famous Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
• The Burton Cummings Theatre for the Performing Arts in Winnipeg, MB, named after the lead singer/songwriter of The Guess Who.
• Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan held outdoors under a tent on the lazy South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, SK.
• Alberta’s world-famous Calgary Stampede, rodeo, exhibition and parade.
• Murder mysteries at Edmonton, AB’s historic Fort Edmonton Park, Canada’s largest interactive historic park.

West Coast/British Columbia
First Nations drums and dancers sound a cultural beat in British Columbia. The works of one of BC’s finest carvers, the late Bill Reid, can be seen at the Bill Reid Gallery, at the Vancouver International Airport and at the UBC Museum of Anthropology. In Alert Bay just off Vancouver Island, U’mista Cultural Society is Canada’s longest-running First Nations museum and cultural centre. The village is also home to the world’s tallest totem and is the birthplace of First Nations artist Corrine Hunt, co-designer of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Medals. Nearby in Port Hardy’s Fort Rupert Village, meet artist Calvin Hunt in residence at the Copper Maker Gallery to marvel at his carved Kwakiutl totems, masks and canoes.

Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, reveals 10,000 years of Haida habitation through culturally modified trees, archeological sites and ancient original standing totems. Famous west coast artist and writer Emily Carr was fascinated by First Nations culture and many of her paintings feature Native villages and totems. See more at the permanent Emily Carr exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery or visit Emily Carr House in Victoria, BC.
 
Canada’s North
The living culture of the Inuit in Canada’s North includes 1,000-year-old stories of gods, beasts and hunts. In Canada’s three northern territories of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, traditional drum dancers and throat singers interpret their stories of the Arctic through music. At the Cape Dorset co-op, known locally as Kingait Studios, the works of renowned Inuit sculptors, printmakers, jewellery-makers and painters have been exhibited for more than 50 years. See the captivating images of Inuit art ambassador and 82-year-old graphic artist Kenojuak Ashevak, whose print Enchanted Owl became a Canadian stamp in 1970. Ashevak’s own life has been the subject of a film by the National Film Board. Other collections of Inuit art and artifacts can be found at Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, NU. In Canada’s North, visitors can also spot art in the wild: genuine inuksuit, the Arctic signposts that symbolized the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Related stories on Canadian arts & culture:
Alberta: ‘the enterprising kid’
British Columbia: ‘the dreamy kid’
Manitoba: ‘the artsy middle child’
New Brunswick: ‘the bilingual cousin from back east’
Newfoundland and Labrador: ‘the yarn-spinner kid’
Northwest Territories: ‘the kid who dabbles in magic’
Nova Scotia: ‘the chosen kid’
Nunavut: ‘the moon child’
Ontario: ‘the valedictorian’
Prince Edward Island: ‘the country-kitchen kid’
Quebec: ‘the kid with style’
Saskatchewan: ‘the git-er-done kid’
Yukon: ‘the wild child’
Canada’s inuksuit, an ancient symbol for ancient games.

Read more on Canada’s culture and the arts.

video:
Quw'utsun Cultural Center
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udXnjaPPJoQ

Edmonton International Fringe Festival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDSq3J4hpVI

Connecting to Gimli's Icelandic Heritage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rL0oDsfuHE

New Life in Old Buildings: Distillery District
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGGctSxRGmo

Quebec UNESCO Heritage Site
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpTP5UfUiXQ

L'Anse aux Meadows (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzzAs1noEcA

Halifax Citadel National Park in Halifax
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toMbPGoBrqk