Canadians aren’t usually a hateful bunch. In fact, even just writing this article was a difficult exercise in trying to come up with public figures that many Canadians might seriously consider not holding the door open for. But there are definitely a few people out there who are less than popular in many households, so let’s have a look at who they are.

A little known fact is that Canada has very strict laws written into our federal constitution regarding being a polite and upstanding citizen, punishable by years in a correctional etiquette institution. Justin Bieber has broken these laws a thousand times over with his bad boy attitude, and has largely tarnished the well-mannered reputation of our fine country. Although it is hard to be hateful as a Canadian, least of all to one of our own kind, most Canadians would agree to make an exception for our international export.

While this one is more of a joke, many Canadians do carry lightly in their minds a general semblance of the obnoxious, ignorant American stereotype. In actuality, both government and public interactions between Canadians and Americans are quite amicable, though we do sometimes like to poke fun at them for being like a loud and annoying big brother.

Many hockey fans carry an intense loathing for the current commissioner of the national hockey league, and it’s become a tradition for fans to boo him at any hockey arena he makes an appearance at. Throughout his 25 year career with the NHL, he’s made a lot of questionable decisions that many Canadians feel have been anti-Canadian. Most notably,expanding teams into non-traditional hockey markets like the American south,while passing over Canadian and northern American cities with a stronger hockey interest. Worst of all, over a twenty-year period he’s been responsible for 3 NHL labor lockouts, which fans make sure to remind him of whenever he’s forced to present on ice.

Another example of an embarrassing Canadian music export, Nickleback was our national shame before Justin Bieber came to the world stage. Despite also being one of our most commercially successful artists, the band has received immense criticism for epitomizing the stereotype of a formulaic and repetitive pop music band. Internationally, their music has led them to be ranked as both the 2nd highest foreign band of the 2000’s on the U.S. Billboard rankings behind the Beatles, and the 2nd worst band of the 1990’s by Rolling Stone magazine. The disparity between their commercial success and critical reception makes them a highly controversial band to say the least.

Despite an international perception of Canada being a multilingual country that embraces both its English and French heritage,there is a strong amount of both support and disdain surrounding the Quebec separatist movement, whose goals are for Quebec to abdicate the rest of Canada and become its own sovereign state. In reality, French is largely only spoken and used in the province of Quebec, and many parts of the rest of the country feel that it’s useless and annoying to require documents, signs and labels to be written in both English and France. Consequently, there are some in Quebec who feel discriminated against, spurring a long and drawn out separation movement that’s been dragging on for nearly 50 years now.