Bata, Blackberry, and Bombardier

Yesteday my new Polish friends, who are quite curious about Canada, asked me if Canada had any big name brands that they would recognize. I struggled to think of any, naming Air Canada, Petro Canada and Roots, none of which they had either heard of or were impressed by. (When I suggested Air Canada, they laughed and said LOT, which is the Polish airline).

I explained that Canada's main exports were wheat, lumber, oil, and hockey players, along with many other things that I either forgot about or don't know. Being a Canadian representative makes me realize I don't know alot about my own country - on Friday one of my writers asked me if Mount McKinley (the highest mountain in North America) was in Canada and I answered yes, only to discover it's actually in Alaska. Yesterday, my friends asked me how long unemployment was paid for in Canada, and again I had to guess (in Poland you get it only for 6 months, regardless of how long you have worked for, or how much you have made).

Last night I thought of many Canadian brands (Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, Molson, The Bay), many of which aren't Canadian owned anymore, but don't really exist outside of Canada.

My dad came up with Blackberry and Bombardier as examples that non Canadians might be familiar with. And I mentioned Bata shoes to my friends, as I have seen Bata stores all over Krakow. They thought it was a Polish brand.

I guess we aren't really a manufacturing country. If you can think of any others, let me know.