Getting to know the Canadian roomies

The announcement on Monday that the UK and Canada have agreed to share embassies may have been more about saving money than cultural exchange, but an embassy is not just an outpost of government officialdom on remote soil. It is also a cultural beacon, a tiny slice of your nation's habits, quirks and oddities. It is thus perhaps fitting that the nation which still celebrates a murderous 16th century plot to blow up the legislature, and views pursuing a huge, rolling cheese as sport, should consider sharing embassies with Canada . Aside from the obvious Commonwealth connections, Canada also has more than its fair share of unusual miscellany. Here, as a primer for the pioneering British diplomats in joint missions, are some handy conversation starters: • Canada sees around 7,000 hospital admissions per annum as the result of falls on ice . • In 2008, Canada's Suresh Joachim set a world record of 55 hours for longest non-stop Elvis impersonation . So beware the embassy karaoke night. • It is illegal to pay for items worth more than 25 cents with only one-cent coins. • Canada's gift of technological and mechanical innovations to the world include the snowmobile, the manure-spreader, light bulb, walkie-talkie, foghorn, the Java programming language, instant potato flakes, the pacemaker, and the Wonderbra. • The Canadian town of Churchill is home to the world's only polar bear prison , a 28-cell facility where bears are fed nothing but water during their month-long incarceration to deter them from returning to the area. • Comic books depicting any illegal acts are banned in Canada as they would appear to condone "offences tending to corrupt morals".