One of the main sources of humour in Canada is exasperation. Canadians love to complain, but we don't whine... Well, almost never. When Canadians complain it is usually in a good natured, tongue-in-cheek, eye rolling, "oh here we go again" kind of way. Look at the characters on Corner Gas - a popular, hysterically funny Canadian television show set in rural Saskatchewan - they spend most of their time exasperated. Rick Mercer, a well-known Canadian comedian and political commentator, has made a career of sharing his exasperation in his famous rants, first on This Hour Has 22 Minutes and now on The Rick Mercer Report.

So, what do Canadians love to be exasperated about?

1. The weather
Canada gets a lot of weather: Ice storms, cold fronts, and blizzards; heat and humidity; smog and fog; April showers and July thunderstorms; January thaws and Indian summers. Canadians have so much weather that we have worked complaining about it down to a science and we put a lot of energy into joking about the weather. It's what keep us warm through our long, cold winter.

2. Americans
The U.S. is our closest neighbour, sharing almost our entire southern border. The U.S. is more populous and more powerful than Canada, and Americans barely know we exist. We find this extremely exasperating. So we like to poke fun at our neighbours south of the border. It makes us feel better. For an excellent example check out Rick Mercer's series, Talking to Americans.

3. Our health care system
Canadians are fiercely proud of our universal health care system. We will defend it against detractors and we will fight the idea of changing it. We consider it to be part of our identity. But we still love to complain about it. To Canadians, the health care system is like an annoying younger sibling. You joke about it, you complain about it... But heaven help anyone who isn't Canadian who tries to do the same.

4. Roll Up the Rim
Canadians love coffee. Every year our best known coffee shop, Tim Horton's, holds an annual "Roll Up the Rim to Win" contest. It works like this: Buy a coffee, drink the coffee, and then roll up the rim of the cup to see if you've won a prize. A decade ago, in my experience, you'd have a pretty good chance of winning a free coffee or a doughnut, even if you didn't win the jackpot or the new car. Now, though, most rims reveal the message, "Please Try Again." This has become so much a part of Canadian experience that the contest is now jokingly referred to as "Roll up the Rim to Lose" by most Canadians.

Nothing is more Canadian than laughing together over shared frustration. In Canada, exasperation is funny.