As a Canadian living in the US: whenever my family and I go back up to Canada, we always pack our luggage to bring back stuff you just can’t find easily around here. I’ve given a few friends these sage words of wisdom when they visit Canada or when their Alaska cruise takes them through Victoria, so here’s your shopping list:

• Ketchup chips.
• Cheezies (like Cheetos, but super crunchy and delicious).
• If you like chocolate, go down the candy aisle and get anything you don’t recognize 🙂. The chocolate is way better than US chocolate in general - Cadbury especially. My family really likes Crunchie, Caramilk, Smarties, Wunderbar, Crispy Crunch, Coffee Crisp, Eat More, Big Turk. There are often versions of KitKats you don’t see in the US as well.
• If you like mint, there are these things called English Mints that are unique. They are little hard pucks rather than round chewy ones. Sort of like huge Altoids.
• Farm Boy or Dare Maple Cookies (although you can sometimes find Maple Cookies in the US).
• Maple butter (you can sometimes get this in the US, sometimes also called Maple Cream).
• Spicy Genoa salami - the stuff you can get from the deli counter at Safeway is so much better than the spicy salami I can seem to find in the US.
• If you’re going to be around an oven in the very near future, Pillsbury Fruit Turnovers (from where premade cookie dough etc. usually is).
• If you like cheese, you can get actually aged (i.e.: 5+ years) white cheddar everywhere. It’s hard to find aged white cheddar in the US aged more than like 18 months.
• There’s a cereal called Shreddies that is super famous in Canada (i.e.: Cheerios famous) but for some reason not out here. When I visited Canada for the first time with my wife and people found out she’d never had Shreddies, they reacted like had just made first contact with an unknown tribe from a secluded forest.
• Poutine (fries + cheese curds + gravy) is amazing: poutine - Google Maps.
• Tim Hortons. Coffee is far better than gas station coffee, better than most restaurant coffee, but not gourmet tier by any means. But definitely get a pack of assorted Timbits doughnut holes. I usually tell them to skip the plain. Plain doughnut holes are just boring.

Enjoy!