Born and raised in western Canada myself and where I grew up the rifle rack in the back window was a common and expected feature, even in the school parking lot. Shooting varmints while driving around the pasture was a weekly occurrence.
Handguns on the other hand are hardly worth the effort in Canada. The biggest difference I think is all politics. Firearms have stayed off the political radar pretty much in Canada for some reason or other, or at least has not become the daily media fodder on an every day basis like it is here.
My dear sweet liberal mother
, (who was also capable of grabbing a rifle and letting the air out of a coyote back in the day), made the offhand comment one day that Americans are too taken with their firearms. I said for christ sake Maw, everyone you know in Canada has multiple firearms (except maybe in Quebec), it just never comes up in everyday news media BS. She thought about that for a minute and had to concede that was true.