Why is Canada so much different from America?

[CapnAwesome]

My girlfriend is Canadian and I'm American. I live in Canada for about 4 months a year. I'm not sure that there is so much cultural difference Canada and the U.S. B.C. is more similar to Washington State than to Alberta and Nova Scotia and Maine are more similar than Maine and Georgia. The lower rate of violent crime (I think non-violent crime is relatively similar?) is rather mysterious to me but then again some parts of the U.S. have extremely low rates of violent crime as well. I really accept the theory that geography has more to do with culture than does some imaginary line that we call a border.