11 signs that you're a Canadian driver

Living in Canada offers up a variety of challenges for drivers. In the summertime, we expect a plague of mosquitos while we run from the car to the house (but the warm weather makes up for it and it doesn’t' seem so bad).

In the wintertime, though, we're faced with enough crazy driving scenarios that it would make a compelling reality TV show… but it's perfectly real and we face it every day. The cold weather, the snow, the ice, the blizzards, the sleet, the snowbanks, the unplowed roads, the snow shoveling, the shivering, the reluctant-to-start cars. It's all part of what we call every day life.

Here are 11 signs that you're a Canadian driver who has faced off against a prairie winter:

1. From just a glance through a window, you can assess whether it's a "dry cold" or a "wet cold"… and that determines whether you leave 5 minutes early or not.
2. Once the snow falls, you navigate highway driving by those side-of-the-highway novelty-sized landmarks that each town has – the egg, the kettle, the giant fork. (They ARE useful for something).
3. You love the wide expanse of prairie horizon, and you know that visibility is important for safe driving, but you only chip a tiny little hole in your windshield if it's really icy.
4. After a heavy snowfall, your method of cleaning the snow off of your car is to get in and drive a little faster than usual.
5. You still stop at intersections even though a snow plow knocked over the stop sign and covered it with a mountain of snow several weeks earlier.
6. You've used your windshield wipers and washerfluid as a method to clear the ice from your windshield.
7. You've said "at least we don't live in [Ontario or BC] where they have to contend with icy hills."
8. You use snow banks as landmarks for in-city driving.
9. You've ditched the car and dug yourself out and were still on time to wherever you needed to go.
10. You judge the "niceness" of a winter by how little you've had to plug your car in.
11. When you get stuck, one of the techniques you use is to "rock the car".

Winter driving is no picnic, no matter where you live. But driving in a Canadian prairie winter is 6-month-long extreme challenge that daredevil drivers wouldn't even dare!

Oh, and once the snow has melted, prairie drivers have another challenge ahead of them: potholes!
If you're navigating our snowy roads this winter and you get into a collision, bring your car to Boyd Autobody & Glass. We'll fix it up and get you back on your way.