Canadian culture is highly regional because it's so large, sparsely populated, and the two most populous regions that are actually close to each-other have a massive cultural & linguistic divide between them.
Canadian history & culture isn't terribly interesting though and I would suggest learning about French and especially British history up until before Canada was founded if you want to understand Canada as both were massive influences and both were massively more interesting.
I would suggest reading up on Pierre Elliot Trudeau, especially if you're in western Canada, because he is an incredibly divisive figure there that left a massive impact on Canadian history. Also because his son currently rules the country.
If you're interested in Canadian & BC culture, visit the Vancouver Art Gallery, the museums, and maybe Fort Langley. Try visiting some of the Chinese-Canadian stuff as well, like the Dragonboat festival & The Night Market. If you want to understand the Sikhs, consider stopping by a gurdwara, learning the ettiquete like around handwashing and covering your hair, and getting a free meal from Langar. Learning about Native culture is also good for being well rounded but I lack recommendations for doing this, BC has some dope totem poles, you can see a few walking around the Stanley Park Seawall. Expo '86 and the 2010 Winter Olympics were fairly important to BCs identity.
The history around Hastings Street is fairly interesting. French Canadian culture is also fairly essential to Canadian Identity but it's obviously sparse in BC, look into the Quebec Winter Carnival though.
While more "low-brow" I really suggest watching stuff like Trailer Park Boys and stuff like that because Canadians main exposure to Canadian culture outside of schools is a result of Canadian Content rules on broadcast television, stuff like Red Green, Letterkenny, Corner Gas, The Beachcombers (For old folks), Rick Mercer, Hockey Night in Canada, Kids in the Hall. While not really about Canada the X-Files series is a point of local pride in BC because it was largely made here. Try "The Greatest Canadian" series. Bad Cop Bon Cop is also on Canadian Netflix right now which while not widely seen by Canadians is a very Canadian film and alright.
>George Woodcocks "Intro to Canadian poetry".
This is pretentious and shit and Canadians themselves don't care. It's merely rammed down our throats in schools under the pretence of keeping Canadian culture strong.
Canadian literature is generally trash and the only things of note are Anne of green Gables & Atwood and Atwood is trash. Really Canadians are more likely to be familiar with British and American lit than anything else.
>You'll find that most of Canadian cultural output is with reference to the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal belt.
That's the most populous region but pound for pound BC is no slouch when it comes to Canadian culture if only because the film industry is so huge here.