Well said, Jac-
It is tough to generalize about big populations. There are probably canadians who think about arming themselves every day, and americans who do not think about arming themselves at all.

Florida has about 19 million residents, and easy requirements for concealed carry: about 900,000 residents have ccw permits, maybe 5 out of a hundred. Some folks have ccw permits, and keep a gun in their car. Some carry when they are going into iffy neighborhoods, some don't carry at all. Most residents do not even think about carrying a weapon.
This is a forum for people who have imaginations, and imagine bad things happening, and act on those imaginings. Some of us imagine wild animal attacks, some imagine getting stranded, some imagine assaults. And there are plenty of news stories that prove those imagined scenarios happen all the time.
Chances are,most of us will die of heart disease, stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease or cancer: guns, knives, DRPSK's will not save us.
Most Canadians and Americans are privileged to live in fabulously safe neighborhoods with fabulously high quality tap water: some of us carry guns and drink bottled water anyway.
Many Americans and many Canadians think exactly alike about guns.