History Main / CanadaDoesnotExist

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed''. The movie is explicitly set in Toronto, Canada.

* In the opening theme for ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'', the globe shows a ''huge'' map of the United States and no Canada nor Latin America.

The trope arises from the peculiarities of producing television in Canada. Let's face it -- Canada is not a big place compared to its [[{{Eagleland}} massive, culturally influential southern neighbour]] (well, a ''big'' place yes, just not a ''populous'' place), and it would be very easy and convenient for Canada to just import all of its shows from the U.S. As a result, Canadian government provides a great deal of federal tax incentives and production grants to encourage TV and movie producers to make their productions in Canada, but these often depend on there being a certain amount of "Canadian content". Ordinarily, this can be easily satisfied with a fully Canadian production -- even something as mundane as a news broadcast -- but it's not so easy to put together an ''entirely'' Canadian production, so producers seek help from across the border. And they're allowed to do that -- as long as the show is still "Canadian". This trope is therefore quite narrow, and falls into a bizarre situation where the American and Canadian partners each want to broadcast the show in their respective countries -- Americans aren't going to tune in to watch something that's [[CanadaEh obviously Canadian]] without risking their audience, and Canadians won't show something that's [[{{Eagleland}} obviously American]] without risking their funding. Therefore, the show has to avoid showing or mentioning anything that could place it in ''either'' country.

* It's perhaps not a well-known fact that ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'' was really a joint Canadian-American production that intended to invoke this trope. Early press releases describe the show as being set in an "unnamed North American city". Likewise, scenes of money were re-shot for the US version. Although this trope was intended, hindsight shows it kind of backfired as various Canadian places are still mentioned and various actors have obvious Canadian accents, and to this day "classic" Degrassi is considered prime CanadaEh and most written works that mention the show just say it took place in Toronto. ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' is claimed to have averted this, which is ironic as it was the version that really blew up stateside. In ''TNG'', generic North American terms are still used when discussing things like driver licensing and standardized tests. The early 2010s seasons after ''Next Generation'' show signs of EaglelandOsmosis, though as generic Canadian universities are replaced with very specific American universities (NYU and Yale, to be specific), and characters regularly reference studying for the [=SATs=] - which is not a requirement for Canadian students ''unless'' they want to attend an American university.

* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' is explicitly set in Toronto, the CN Tower is shown in the TitleSequence, and the characters talk about Canada often enough, but other aspects are downplayed. Canadian flags and photographs of Queen Elizabeth can be seen, but are not emphasised. The police force is simply the "Metropolitan Police". Police uniforms and badges are made to look generically American, with the distinct features of the Metropolitan Toronto Police uniforms (such as the red trim on the hats and red stripes on pants) left out. This is probably a more "Canadian" version of the trope: there is enough Canadianness left in the show to show that it is unmistakably taking place in Canada, but downplayed enough to distinguish it too much from some generic place in "America." Perhaps it might be called "Canada is just like Anywhere, USA"?

* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' is explicitly set in Toronto, the CN Tower shows in the TitleSequence, and the characters talk about Canada often enough, but other aspects are downplayed. Canadian flags and photographs of Queen Elizabeth can be seen, but are not emphasised. The police force is simply the "Metropolitan Police". Police uniforms and badges are made to look generically American, with the distinct features of the Metropolitan Toronto Police uniforms (such as the red trim on the hats and red stripes on pants) left out.

* Series/Goosebumps1995: Toronto, Canada was one of the series' primary filming locations, but most episodes were set in a vaguely North American town. The "Don't Go To Sleep" episode had a shouty hockey coach that Canadian audiences will immediately recognize as [[Series/HockeyNightInCanada hockey commentator]] Don Cherry. To Americans outside of border regions in which a CBC station is present on cable, however, he's simply a weird red-faced man who keeps yelling.

* ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': Toronto, Canada was one of the series' primary filming locations, but most episodes were set in a vaguely North American town. The "Don't Go To Sleep" episode had a shouty hockey coach that Canadian audiences will immediately recognize as [[Series/HockeyNightInCanada hockey commentator]] Don Cherry. To Americans outside of border regions in which a CBC station is present on cable, however, he's simply a weird red-faced man who keeps yelling.

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': The show keeps the location of Schitt's Creek ambiguous, never explicitly referencing its location either in Canada or the United States. The official reason is so the characters stand on their own and do not represent the real-world denizens of any specific region. Eagle-eyed viewers, however, will still spot "Canadian Content" such as Canadian style railroad crossing signs, police wearing Canadian-style uniforms with red cap bands and trouser stripes, and Roland wearing a Commonwealth-style mayoral collar. In 2018, Eugene Levy stated that the town is technically in Canada due to the show's obligations to domestic content rules.

The trope arises from the peculiarities of producing television in Canada. Let's face it -- Canada is not a big place compared to its [[{{Eagleland}} massive, culturally influential southern neighbour]] (well, a ''big'' place yes, just not a ''populous'' place), and it would be very easy and convenient for Canada to just import all of its shows from the U.S. As a result, Canadian government provides a great deal of federal tax incentives and production grants to TV and movie producers, but these often depend on there being a certain amount of "Canadian content". Ordinarily, this can be easily satisfied with a fully Canadian production -- even something as mundane as a news broadcast -- but it's not so easy to put together an ''entirely'' Canadian production, so producers seek help from across the border. And they're allowed to do that -- as long as the show is still "Canadian". This trope is therefore quite narrow, and falls into a bizarre situation where the American and Canadian partners each want to broadcast the show in their respective countries -- Americans aren't going to tune in to watch something that's [[CanadaEh obviously Canadian]] without risking their audience, and Canadians won't show something that's [[{{Eagleland}} obviously American]] without risking their funding. Therefore, the show has to avoid showing or mentioning anything that could place it in ''either'' country.

The trope arises from the peculiarities of producing television in Canada. Let's face it -- Canada is not a big place compared to its [[{{Eagleland}} massive, culturally influential southern neighbour]] (well, a ''big'' place yes, just not a ''populous'' place) and it would be very easy and convenient for Canada to just import all of its shows from the U.S. The Canadian government provides several incentives to Canadian producers to make Canadian content, but Canadian federal tax incentives and production grants are usually predicated on there being a certain amount of "Canadian content". Ordinarily, this can be easily satisfied with a fully Canadian production -- even something as mundane as a news broadcast -- but it's not so easy to put together an ''entirely'' Canadian production, so producers seek help from across the border. And they're allowed to do that -- as long as the show is still "Canadian". This trope is therefore quite narrow, and falls into a bizarre situation where the American and Canadian partners each want to broadcast the show in their respective countries -- Americans aren't going to tune in to watch something that's [[CanadaEh obviously Canadian]] without risking their audience, and Canadians won't show something that's [[{{Eagleland}} obviously American]] without risking their funding. Therefore, the show has to avoid showing or mentioning anything that could place it in ''either'' country.

* Both of Rick Siggelkow's AdaptationExpansion series, ''Series/ShiningTimeStation'' and ''Series/TheNoddyShop'', are filmed in Canada but appear to take place in the United States (in the latter case, the titular store was based on a real antique store in upstate New York). However, in some cases they do mess up-one episode of ''The Noddy Shop'' had a scene where a character pronounced the letter Z as "Zed", instead of the American "Zee".

Canada Does Not Exist is a strange, location-based trope distantly related to WhereTheHellIsSpringfield. It's where a cross-border production between Canada and the United States refuses to acknowledge that it's set in ''either'' country, and therefore appears to exist in some bizarre generic North American location.

* ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'' reshot scenes involving money for the US version. Later, ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' became a notable subversion although generic rather than Ontario-specific terms are still used when discussing things like driver licensing and standardized tests. More recent seasons of ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' are showing signs of EaglelandOsmosis, though, as the generic Canadian universities of the early seasons have been replaced with very specific American universities (NYU and Yale, to be specific), and characters regularly reference studying for the [=SATs=] - which is not a requirement for Canadian students ''unless'' they want to attend an American university.

The trope arises from the peculiarities of producing television in Canada. Let's face it -- Canada is not a big place compared to its [[{{Eagleland}} massive, culturally influential southern neighbour]] (well, a ''big'' place yes, just not a ''populous'' place) and it would be very easy and convenient for Canada to just import all of its shows from the U.S. The Canadian government provides several incentives to Canadian producers to make Canadian content, but Canadian federal tax incentives and production grants are usually predicated on there being a certain amount of "Canadian content". Ordinarily, this can be easily satisfied with a fully Canadian production -- even something as mundane as a news broadcast -- but it's not so easy to put together an ''entirely'' Canadian production, so producers seek help from across the border. And they're allowed to do that -- as long as the show is still "Canadian". This trope is therefore quite narrow, and falls into a bizarre situation where the American and Canadian partners each want to broadcast the show in their respective countries -- Americans aren't going to tune in to watch something that's [[CanadaEh obviously Canadian]] without risking their audience, and Canadians won't show something that's obviously American without risking their funding. Therefore, the show has to avoid showing or mentioning anything that could place it in ''either'' country.

Compare CityWithNoName, WeAllLiveInAmerica, and NoCommunitiesWereHarmed. Contrast WeAllLiveInAmerica, HollywoodProvincialism, EaglelandOsmosis, and BigApplesauce (Toronto's been known to pretend to be New York).

* A notable ''aversion'' may be ''Private Eyes'', a 2016 DetectiveDrama and [[Creator/{{ION}} Ion Original]], in the USA, centering on a retired sports star using his remaining clout and fame to get where his actual PrivateDetective partner can't. His sport? ''Hockey''. Their city? Actually, ''obviously'', Toronto, skyline, flags, and all. The fact Ion imported it is rather baffling.
* The CBC courtroom drama ''Series/ThisIsWonderland'' made a point of not doing this, being pretty unambiguously set not only in Toronto, but in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City_Hall_(Toronto) Old City Hall Courthouse]]. It did, however, provide subtle ExpoSpeak for some very regionally-specific things, like when Elliot, despite being a lawyer, didn't know that a [=G1=] driver's license was equivalent to a learner's permit. This may have been more for the benefit of viewers in other provinces than in the States, though.

* ''Series/{{SCTV}}'': Melonville is never explicitly stated to be in Canada, and most of the television/film they parodied was familiar to both American and Canadian audiences. The Great White North segment, created specifically on orders to add more Canadian flavor to the show, intentionally plays as a parody of Canadian stereotypes and could ironically be interpreted as a foreign lampooning of Canada.

* Applies to most "tax shelter films" of the 1970s and '80s, if not outright [[CaliforniaDoubling Canada Doubling]]. These films intended audiences were primarily American, so at best the films would be set in a CityWithNoName filled with allusions to American popular culture to create a suitably generic "North American" urban setting. This extended to the practice of dubbing local actors with strong regional accents, particularly those from Francophone regions. See ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' and its sequel ''Film/ScannersIITheNewOrder''; both of them were shot mostly in Montreal and adhere strongly to this trope.

* A version of this trope appears in the Irish film ''The Brylcreem Boys'', VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory about Allied and German military personnel who were stranded in neutral Ireland during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and held in adjacent internment camps. One of the main characters is an officer of the RCAF and [[InformedAttribute explicitly stated to be Canadian]], but, other than a few obligatory lines inserted to establish his nationality, he consistently acts like an American and all other characters treat him as such (he talks about American isolationist politicians with a telling "we," the other main character, a German patriot but no Nazi, insistently laces his lines with "you Americans" in conversations with him, etc.). This might be because of CriticalResearchFailure by filmmakers who failed to appreciate that Canada is not the same as the US. Or, this might be because the character is intended to be an AudienceSurrogate for American audiences to whom Canadian perspectives on UsefulNotes/WorldWarII would not be familiar.

* ''Film/PromWars'': The film is a Canadian production but the characters act like they're in the average American teen movie, and the only thing to explicitly imply the movie is set in Canada and not the U.S. is that the schools have prefects and head girls, student government positions that exist in the Commonwealth of Nations but not the U.S.

* ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': Toronto, Canada was one of the series' primary filming locations, but most episodes were set in a vaguely North American town. The "Don't Go To Sleep" episode had a shouty hockey coach that Canadian audiences will immediately recognize as [[Series/HockeyNightInCanada hockey commentator]] Don Cherry. To Americans outside of the border region in which CBC stations are present on cable, however, he's simply a weird red-faced man who keeps yelling.

The trope arises from the peculiarities of producing television in Canada. Let's face it -- Canada is not a big place compared to its [[{{Eagleland}} massive, culturally influential southern neighbour]], and it would be very easy and convenient for Canada to just import all of its shows from the U.S. The Canadian government provides several incentives to Canadian producers to make Canadian content, but Canadian federal tax incentives and production grants are usually predicated on there being a certain amount of "Canadian content". Ordinarily, this can be easily satisfied with a fully Canadian production -- even something as mundane as a news broadcast -- but it's not so easy to put together an ''entirely'' Canadian production, so producers seek help from across the border. And they're allowed to do that -- as long as the show is still "Canadian". This trope is therefore quite narrow, and falls into a bizarre situation where the American and Canadian partners each want to broadcast the show in their respective countries -- Americans aren't going to tune in to watch something that's [[CanadaEh obviously Canadian]] without risking their audience, and Canadians won't show something that's obviously American without risking their funding. Therefore, the show has to avoid showing or mentioning anything that could place it in ''either'' country.

* ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'' reshot scenes involving money for the US version. Later, ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' became a notable subversion although generic rather than Ontario-specific terms are still used when discussing things like driver licensing and standardized tests. More recent seasons of ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' are showing signs of EaglelandOsmosis, though, as the generic Canadian universities of the early seasons have been replaced with very specific American universities (NYU and Yale, to be specific), and characters regularly reference studying for the SATs - which is not a requirement for Canadian students ''unless'' they want to attend an American university.

* ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': Toronto, Canada was one of the series' primary filming locations, but most episodes were set in a vaguely North American town. The "Don't Go To Sleep" episode had a shouty hockey coach that Canadian audiences will immediately recognize as hockey commentator Don Cherry. To Americans outside of the border region in which CBC stations are present on cable, however, he's simply a weird red-faced man who keeps yelling.

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': The show keeps the location of Schitt's Creek ambiguous, never explicitly referencing its location either in Canada or the United States. The official reason is so the characters stand on their own and do not represent the real-world denizens of any specific region. Eagle-eyed viewers, however, will still spot "Canadian Content" such as Canadian style railroad crossing signs, police wearing Canadian-style uniforms with red cap bands and trouser stripes, and Roland wearing a Commonwealth-style mayoral collar.

* ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': Toronto, Canada was one of the series' primary filming locations, but most episodes were set in a vaguely North American town. The "Don't Go To Sleep" episode had a shouty hockey coach that Canadian audiences will immediately recognize as hockey commentator Don Cherry. To Americans, however, he's simply a weird red-faced man who keeps yelling.

* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' was filmed in Canada, but had the same portrayal as the ''Goosebumps'' example below.
** In an episode involving a ghost train, however, locomotives and rolling stock with VIA Rail Canada and Canadian National lettering and paint schemes feature prominently; in addition, a soldier on board the ghost train wears an ambiguous khaki uniform that isn't quite American ''or'' Canadian.

* ''Series/{{Fortitude}}'' might be a rare non-North American version of this trope, and a weak one at that. Yes, you see the Norwegian flag flying, several major characters are Norwegian and have Norwegian names, there are references to "the mainland", the two fictional communities on the island strongly resemble their real-life counterparts, and lutefisk is mentioned and even eaten at one point. But ... the Norwegian characters almost always speak English, even among themselves, no particular unit of currency is ever mentioned, the research station on the island seems to be run by the British government, and no one ever says "Norway" or any other place name in that country. In short, if you didn't actually know the archipelago of Svalbard or the island of Spitsbergen actually exist, you'd be forgiven for assuming the show's setting is completely fictional and not entirely part of Norway.
** All of which hides the fact that the series was shot in Reyðarfjörður, Iceland. Iceland's Route 92 can be seen entering and leaving "Fortitude" in several shots, to link up with the nearby Ring Road, despite there not being a road network outside Longyearbyen in Svalbard.

* In ''Series/TheTribe'', which was filmed in New Zealand, the show was set in a vaguely-defined place called simply "The City". Most of the characters spoke with New Zealand accents (and those that didn't had British or American ones), the scenery was obviously New Zealand, and the money though rarely shown was British banknotes. But New Zealand definitely did not exist.