Pokémon in Canada

Pokémon in Canada
Flag of Canada
Languages	English and Quebec French
Continent	North America
Original anime airdates
EP001	September 1998
AG001	January 2004
DP001	September 7, 2007
BW001	August 5, 2011
XY001	December 7, 2013* February 15, 2014*
SM001	December 31, 2016* March 18, 2017*
JN001	May 9, 2020
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first reached Canada in late 1998 with the release of Pokémon Red and Blue Versions and airing of the anime began at the same time. Canada is divided into English- and French-speaking regions (the latter consisting mostly of the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick), with Pokémon being marketed accordingly. While the English adaptation of the franchise largely shares the same materials and translations as the United States, the Quebec French adaptation of the franchise had a mix of its own French translations and the English translation during its early days (with a small amount of material from France), which was eventually phased out in favor of almost entirely importing European French material with a few exceptions such as the Detective Pikachu film.

Pokémon games

In English Canada

All Pokémon games that have been released in the United States have also been released in Canada, with the exception of the Pokémon mini. New games are always released on the same day that they are released in the United States. Pokémon games sold in Canada are direct imports of the American versions, so spelling variations such as color and center are not changed to colour and centre for the Canadian releases. As in the United States, most Pokémon species names are completely localized from Japanese into English, with some exceptions such as Pikachu. Despite this, some Canadian materials, such as game packaging/manuals and the official Canadian site for Pokémon Black and White Versions, use Canadian spellings in addition to the metric system for Pokémon height and weight stats. Unlike with the U.S. releases, English Canadian games until Generation VI have featured bilingual (English/French) packaging and manuals, both to comply with federal regulations and in order to market both the English and French versions to Francophone Canadians. A few games have trilingual packaging, with Spanish as a third language for Latin America.

In French Canada

Unofficial era

While Canadian law requires bilingual packaging and instruction manuals to be included with the sale of all video games in Canada, Pokémon games were available in English only in the French-speaking province of Quebec up until 2010, starting with the same Pokémon Red and Blue release as English Canada. Unlike how French-language games and related material fully translate all terms and names using France's localizations, French material related to English games localizes some terms but leaves all proper nouns the same, with France's equivalent provided in brackets for some lesser terms ("Trainer" is translated as "Dresseur", but "Feraligatr" is used instead of "Aligatueur" and Castelia City is referred to as "la ville Castelia City" instead of Volucité City). This continued even as games began to release in French in Quebec, resulting in players being able to choose games in either language, and ended with Pokémon X and Y due to their single multilingual release. To tie in to the game releases more effectively, the version of the French dub of the Pokémon anime released in Quebec was redubbed to use the English names for characters and Pokémon, with it ending its run in 2004.

Official era

French edition of Pokémon HeartGold released in Canada; the actual product features a PEGI "3+" rating rather than the ESRB rating seen here.

In 2010, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver were the first games to received a French release for the province Quebec of in addition to the regular English release. This was due to an agreement between Quebec's government and major video game publishers requiring any video games in Quebec to be offered in French if available in that language elsewhere in the world.

In addition to the regular English-language release with bilingual packaging, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver and all Generation V games received separate French-language releases in Quebec, which can also be found somewhat rarely in other provinces. These releases contain exactly the same content as those from France, with the packaging in French only and slightly modified to include elements such as a "Play in French" logo (upper-left corner), although they retain their PEGI ratings rather than changing them to those of the ESRB. As they are from France, the games are incompatible with some North American features, such as Pal Park with North American Generation III games and Poké Transfer and Pokémon Dream Radar with North American copies of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. Despite the content of the games being almost identical to that of the releases from France, the Canadian French versions of the games for Nintendo DS have their own country code in the serial numbers, CDF (instead of USA for English North America, or EUR for Europe, etc.). With some exceptions such as Pikachu, most of the Pokémon species, character and location names are completely localized into the French language. For more information on these translated names, see list of French Pokémon names.

The Virtual Console re-releases of Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon Yellow are available in separate English and French versions (along with Spanish), unlike with the initial Canadian release.

As Pokémon X and Y feature multilingual support, the need for separate English and French Game Cards from Generation VI onward appears to have been eliminated, as players may choose their preferred language at the beginning of the game. Most spin-off games include multiple language options, including French and Spanish. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are a unique case, as their North American French translations are separate from that of France due to the series being a Nintendo crossover, although most Pokémon characters still use European French names and voices to reflect how the games' translations are imported from or identical to those of France.

Event Pokémon

A poster in an EB Games store advertising the shiny legendary beasts event, the second in-store event distribution in Canada

Canadian players have had access to all Wi-Fi event distributions since the Secret Key in early 2009. The first in-store distribution was the Toys "R" Us Mew in 2000. In Generation III, Canada had no event Pokémon distributions. There were no in-store event Pokémon distributions again until the 2011 release of the shiny legendary beasts at EB Games and GameStop stores. Following this, other events have been distributed at EB Games and GameStop stores as well as in Toys 'R' Us stores. Events are available to all game languages, although they were initially only available to English games followed by English and French only.

So far, all North American Wi-Fi events from Generation VI have been accessible to Canadian players. In-store distributions at EB Games have resumed with the release of the October 2014 shiny Gengar and Diancie.

Pokémon anime

In English

Cartoon Network's logo, in use from 2010 - current

The English dub of the Pokémon anime and the Pokémon movies airs in Canada on Cartoon Network, originally aired on Teletoon. The series previously aired on YTV from September 1998, when Pokémon - I Choose You! debuted in Canada, through August 30, 2014. Corus Entertainment had obtained full ownership of Teletoon in 2014. Since Corus Entertainment had also owned YTV, they decided to shift some of their programming from YTV to Teletoon in the summer and fall of 2014, including the movement of Pokémon from YTV to Teletoon on September 2, 2014.

Currently, Cartoon Network airs Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series every Saturday at 12:00 PM ET/PT.

Day	Time (ET/PT)
Saturday	12:00 PM

Airing history

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Needs history from Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

YTV's logo from when Pokémon was aired

While some episodes such as The Tower of Terror, Tentacool & Tentacruel, and Holiday Hi-Jynx were aired and later banned in the United States, they had not been banned from YTV's schedule. However, YTV had not aired any episodes which were also never aired in the United States, such as EP035 and EP250.

When the episodes switched to a high definition format, YTV's standard definition channel had letterboxed the episodes to maintain the aspect ratio of the image. When YTV introduced its HD feed on January 11, 2011, Canadian viewers were able to watch all HD episodes of Pokémon without it ever being letterboxed.

In some areas of Canada, The WB (now The CW) is available on cable. With this, Canadians were able to watch the newest English-dubbed episodes on Kids' WB! before they aired on YTV. Since the US version of Cartoon Network became the USA's provider of the Pokémon anime in 2006, Canadians had to wait until the dubbed episodes aired on YTV to watch them due to the fact that the American version of Cartoon Network is exclusive to the United States. There had been rare occasions however in which YTV had aired content on the same day as the US, such as the airing of Kyurem VS. The Sword of Justice.

When YTV was airing the anime, they also aired new Pokémon movies during the weekends (with the exception of Movies 8 through 11). Pokémon was very well received by YTV's viewers. At the time of the last airing, Pokémon was YTV's longest running television show and YTV had aired the anime longer than any other English television network. YTV had also held a number of contests related to the Pokémon franchise (especially the main series games), with the most recent promotion related to Pokémon Black and White Versions and its Canadian tour. YTV is currently wholly owned by Corus Entertainment.

Original series

When the anime debuted on YTV in September 1998, it aired on weekdays at 4:00 PM. When Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands debuted in the U.S., YTV continued to air Indigo League episodes until Pokémon Double Trouble aired on Kids' WB!. This was due to YTV's general practice of not airing new episodes until there was a substantial amount of new dubbed episodes to air five days a week for the weekday timeslot until the end of the season. Back around this time, Pokémon sometimes scheduled blocks of "back to back to back to back" specials. The first time this occurred, the block was called "Pokemania". On September 22, 2000 YTV had finally begun to air episodes of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands.

Pokémon: The Johto Journeys

YTV started broadcasting Pokémon: The Johto Journeys episodes on October 25, 2000, at 5:00 p.m. The journey continued on October 8th, 2001, with the debut of Pokémon: Johto League Champions. Pokémon: Master Quest aired its first episode on November 11, 2002, at 3:30 p.m, with its time changing from 5 to 3:30. However, on November 28, 2002, YTV temporarily stopped airing the Pokémon series. The series resumed on January 1st, 2003, when YTV delighted viewers with the much-anticipated "Animenia" event, where Pokémon: Master Quest aired it’s next episode on 9:38 a.m. On January 8, 2003, YTV resumed the broadcast of Pokémon: Master Quest at 4:00 p.m.

Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

YTV began airing new Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl episodes on Saturdays in September 2007. A 3:30 PM weekday timeslot starting with Following A Maiden's Voyage was added to YTV's schedule on April 7, 2008. Eventually, these 3:30 PM episodes surpassed the timeline of the Saturday episodes, starting with Buizel Your Way Out Of This!. Thus, Canada started getting five new episodes per week. The last episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, Smells Like Team Spirit!, aired on Tuesday, June 17, but the series wasn't finished until October 2008, meaning that Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension should have started on the next Wednesday or possibly Saturday. However, this did not happen, as YTV began rerunning season 10 from the beginning. This is due to YTV's episode policy as stated above.

Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension briefly appeared for three weeks, airing on Fridays at 8:00 AM starting November 7, 2008. At one point, YTV was constantly changing their schedule around from Pokémon: Battle Frontier and Diamond and Pearl episodes at the times of 3:30 PM and 8:00 AM. On Monday, March 2, 2009, YTV began to air Battle Dimension regularly and only aired Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl episodes on Saturdays. On Wednesday, June 3, 2009, YTV aired the last episode of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension however the full series didn't finish until October 2009.

On Saturday, October 10, 2009, YTV began airing episodes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles until spring 2011. On the same day, they aired Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness at 12:00 PM, and also Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky - Beyond Time & Darkness at 12:30 PM (just one day after the US airing). On November 20, 2009, YTV stopped airing episodes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension and began to air only Galactic Battles. On November 28, 2009, YTV aired the Canadian premier of Arceus and the Jewel of Life. Beginning in late December 2009 until March 2010, YTV reverted to airing Pokémon: Advanced Battle episodes on weekdays. Only one new episode of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles aired on Saturday at 12:00 PM. YTV later on switched back to airing episodes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles six days a week. With the airing of Gotta Get a Gible! On Tuesday, May 18, 2010, YTV closed the gap between the US air date and the Canadian air date down to just three days, which was rare to happen on YTV. This gap however, was widened again as YTV aired from Get Your Rotom Running! on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 but all of the episodes weren't fully aired in Canada until March 2011.

On Saturday, November 6, 2010, YTV started to air episodes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors on their Saturday time slots starting from Regaining the Home Advantage! while still airing episodes of Galactic Battles on weekdays. YTV had finished the Galactic Battles weekday run on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 and on Wednesday they started to air a run of Pokémon: Battle Frontier starting from Fear Factor Phony. After this run had concluded, YTV had gone back to episodes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles until fall 2011. YTV started Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors on their weekday time slot on March 7, 2011 and was concluded by the end of October. On Saturday, March 12, 2011, YTV surprisingly aired Zoroark: Master of Illusions without prior advertisements or TV listings, making most fans miss out on the movie airing.

Pokémon the Series: Black & White

YTV began to air Pokémon: Black & White on weekdays starting on Friday August 5, 2011. YTV aired Black—Victini and Reshiram on January 14, 2012. On April 7, 2012, YTV began to air episodes of Pokémon Black & White: Rival Destinies on their Saturday timeslot as the first season in Canada to be aired in the spring instead of late summer/fall. Pokémon Black & White: Rival Destinies replaced Pokémon: Black & White weekday run on August 13, 2012. YTV aired Kyurem VS. The Sword of Justice on December 8, 2012. This was the first time since Pokémon movie theatrical releases in which Canada has had the same premiere date as the US. On March 23, 2013, Pokémon Black & White: Adventures in Unova had replaced the Saturday timeslot. On December 7, 2013, YTV had aired Genesect and the Legend Awakened.

Pokémon the Series: XY

Pokémon the Series: XY first premiered on Saturday, December 7, 2013 on YTV with the airings of Kalos, Where Dreams and Adventures Begin! and Lumiose City Pursuit!. These initial airings of the seventeenth season did not replace Saturday airings of Pokémon Black & White: Adventures in Unova, but were simply aired as a sneak peek. Continual airings of Pokémon the Series: XY began on February 15, 2014, though the sneak preview versions of XY001 and XY002 were aired instead of the regular versions. On September 2, 2014, YTV concluded the airings of the Pokémon animated series and YTV's sister station, Teletoon, picked up where YTV had left off. On November 9, 2014, Teletoon had aired Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction. Pokémon the Series: XY Kalos Quest was first aired in April 2015, while the Pokémon the Series: XYZ was first aired the following year.

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon

Teletoon first aired Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon on December 31, 2016 airing the sneak preview episodes of Alola to New Adventure! and The Guardian's Challenge! alongside Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel. Teletoon then began airing the season in its original order from March 18, 2017 to January 6, 2018.

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon—Ultra Adventures premiered on Teletoon from March 10, 2018 to February 2, 2019. The last four episodes of the season aired on YTV on February 27, 2019 in commemoration of Pokémon Day, marking Pokémon's return to the channel after its move to Teletoon in 2014. The Power of Us aired on the channel on May 10, 2019, the same day that Detective Pikachu premiered in North American theatres. On June 28, 2019, and later on November 8, 2019, YTV surprisingly aired select episodes of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon—Ultra Legends, though the reasoning is unknown. On January 10th, 2020, YTV aired a marathon consisting of two episodes of Ultra Legends and Mewtwo Strikes Back.

Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon—Ultra Legends premiered on Teletoon on March 2, 2019 to March 28, 2020. On May 8, 2020, YTV aired a marathon consisting of the final two episodes of Ultra Legends and The Power of Us.

Pokémon Journeys: The Series

Pokémon Journeys: The Series premiered on Teletoon on May 9, 2020. Later in September, YTV aired four episodes of Journeys as part of an event called the "Pokémon Catch-Up Marathon". On November 11, 2020, YTV aired another four episodes from 1-3 p.m. under the same "Catch-Up Marathon" event. YTV aired yet another mini-marathon on June 4, 2021, from 12:00 - 1:50 p.m. .

Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series premiered on Teletoon on June 12, 2021. Once again, YTV aired a "Catch-Up Marathon" on Friday September 17, 2021 from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. , consisting of the most recently dubbed episodes, and another marathon aired on Friday December 10, 2021.

Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series premiered on Teletoon on May 22, 2022. YTV has aired "Catch-Up Marathons" for the season on Friday, April 28, 2023 from 12:35 - 1:15 p.m. , and on Friday July 7, 2023 from 11:05 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. , the latter covering the final stretch of episodes.

Pokémon movies

Cover of the Pokémon Legends boxed set

As in the United States, the first three Pokémon movies were distributed by Warner Bros.

The next four movies, Celebi: The Voice of the Forest, Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias, Jirachi: Wish Maker and Destiny Deoxys, were distributed in Canada by Alliance Atlantis Communications, Inc., which was last known as Alliance Films prior to its absorption into Entertainment One in 2013. In 2010, Alliance Films released a boxed set of those four movies exclusively in Canada, titled Pokémon Legends. The boxed set consists of four discs and contains all the same bonus features as previous standalone releases of the movies. All four movies in the set are available in both English and French.

Pokémon movies have been distributed in Canada by VIZ Media following their takeover of the movie distributions from Lucario and the Mystery of Mew onward in the United States. Subsequent Pokémon movies that received a theatrical release in the United States were also released in Canada via Cineplex, including the wide-release Detective Pikachu film.

YTV On Demand

YTV Anime On Demand logo used at the time Pokémon was offered.

Bionix On Demand logo

In 2005, YTV launched an on demand anime channel simply named YTV Anime On Demand. The channel contained new and old programs, including series that do not air on the normal YTV. The Pokémon anime was also available on this service. In 2008, YTV renamed its on demand service to Bionix On Demand. In December 2009, YTV cancelled Bionix On Demand and returned to the YTV On Demand service, which no longer offers Pokémon in its lineup.

In Quebec French

Original series

Logo of Télétoon used from 1997-2005, used when Pokémon was aired

The original Quebec dub of Pokémon is actually a modified version of the dub from France. While the Canadian dub used most of the same dialogue as the European French version, all of the character names in the show (including in the localized Kanto Pokérap) were changed to match the names used in the English version (for example, "Misty" is used instead of "Ondine" and "Charmander" instead of "Salamèche"), with the lines redubbed appropriately by the cast. Despite the changes to character names, other proper names such as the names of cities remained the same as in the European French version (for example, "Carmin sur Mer" is used instead of "Vermilion City" or a translated equivalent such as "Ville de Vermilion"); additionally, most episode titles were retranslated completely.

Volume 1 of the Pokémon anime distributed in Canadian French by Imavision Distribution Inc

The Quebec dub aired on Télétoon, a French-language children's network based in Montreal. Télétoon stopped airing Pokémon after the completion of Pokémon: Johto League Champions. Following this, Pokémon: Master Quest was partly aired on a different network, TQS. The Canadian French version of Pokémon was cancelled in 2004 for unknown reasons. The Quebec dub was released on VHS and DVD by Imavision Distribution Inc., but their license to distribute the series has expired and their Pokémon titles have gone out of print.

Unlike the series, the Pokémon movies were fully redubbed in Quebec with a local cast by the dubbing company Covitec. They were distributed on VHS and bilingual DVD (with both French and English audio tracks) by Warner Bros., although no movies have been released to Canadians in French since VIZ Media took over the distribution of the films.

Unlike the fandom in France, a significant portion of the French-speaking adult Pokémon fandom in Quebec grew up with English names and terms thanks to these dubs (and the English-language games, to a lesser extent). As a result, France's localized names tend to become a point of debate, particularly regarding early-generation nostalgia; English-language Pokémon games and merchandise are sold alongside their French-language counterparts and remain successful with older fans, and some Francophone Canadians continue to use the English names in conversation, with casual use of the French names not being as widespread or universal as in other French-speaking parts of the world.

Cast and crew

For the European French cast of the anime series, see the corresponding article.

Many voice actors and actresses contributed to the Quebec version of the Pokémon movies. Notable voice actors included Sébastien Reding, who provided the voice of Ash Ketchum, Kim Jalabert, who provided Misty's voice, Martin Watier, who provided Brock's voice, and Joël Legendre, who provided Tracey's voice. Ash's mother, Delia Ketchum, was voiced by Nathalie Coupal.

Jessie was voiced by Christine Séguin, James was voiced by Antoine Durand, and Meowth was voiced by François Sasseville. Their boss, Giovanni, was voiced by Daniel Picard.

Professor Oak was voiced by Alain Sauvage. Another Pokémon Professor, Professor Elm, was voiced by Pierre Chagnon.

Other notable voice actors of the Canadian French dub include Julie Burroughs, who provided the voice for Nurse Joy, and Camille Cyr-Desmarais, the voice of Officer Jenny.

Pokémon the Series: XY

In November 2014, Pokémon finally returned to Télétoon with Pokémon the Series: XY, following the channel's English counterpart. Unlike its previous airing on the network, the dub currently airing on Télétoon is not modified for Quebec and uses France's names and terms, in keeping with all other French-language Pokémon material in Canada simply consisting of Europe's translations.

Currently, Télétoon airs Pokémon the Series: XY Kalos Quest at the following times:

Day	Time (EST)
Monday	7:00 AM, 3:30 PM
Tuesday	7:00 AM, 3:30 PM
Wednesday	7:00 AM, 3:30 PM
Thursday	7:00 AM, 3:30 PM
Friday	7:00 AM, 3:30 PM
Saturday	12:00 PM

Pokémon movies

The first seven Pokémon movies were available to Canadians in French. There were two versions made of the first movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back — one with dialogue based on the European French version, which aired on Télétoon; and one which was dubbed from scratch in Quebec, which was released theatrically and on home video.

The last Pokémon movie to be released to Canadians in French on home video was Destiny Deoxys. After this, VIZ Media took over distribution of the movies, and they have not included French language options on their home video releases. However, Netflix and Télétoon occasionally air the European French dubs of various Pokémon movies.

In 2019, the Detective Pikachu movie was the first piece of Pokémon media to get a full dedicated Canadian French dub for Quebec since 2003, albeit using European French Pokémon names for consistency with the rest of the franchise.

Music

Cover artwork for Pokémon: Le plus grand maître Pokémon

Main article: List of French Pokémon themes

Imavision released one French language Pokémon music CD in Canada, a translation of Pokémon 2.B.A. Master titled Pokémon: Le plus grand maître Pokémon. It is nearly identical to the CD release from France, though it has a different title and different cover artwork. Some song titles were changed to be accurate to the Quebec French dub of the anime (for example, Misty's Song is titled as "La chanson de Misty" rather than "La chanson d'Ondine"), however, any spoken dialogue in the CD continues to refer to the proper names from the European French dub (including Ash addressing "Pierre" and "Ondine" at the beginning of Misty's Song). The exception to this is the PokéRAP, which uses the English names for each Pokémon instead of France's localised names. Unlike France's CD, this version does not contain the PokéRAP video.

Netflix

Beginning on March 1, 2014, the Pokémon anime became available on Netflix, a subscription-based on demand service available worldwide.

In Canada, all Pokémon content is currently available for streaming with English or French subtitles and audio. The French audio and subtitles are from the European French version. As with other regions, Pokémon the Series: XYZ adds European Spanish, German and Italian audio and subtitles.

When Pokémon initially debuted on Netflix, episodes of Pokémon: Indigo League and Pokémon: Black & White were available to subscribers, as well as the movies Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini and Reshiram and Pokémon the Movie: White—Victini and Zekrom. The episodes of Indigo League initially available were from the first broadcast season, which included the first 52 dubbed episodes. The second broadcast season, containing the end of Indigo League and the beginning of Adventures in the Orange Islands was added later. Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice and Genesect and the Legend Awakened were formerly available as well, but have since been removed.

As of April 2017, Pokémon content available to Canadian subscribers is the same as worldwide which includes Pokémon: Indigo League, Pokémon the Series: XY, Pokémon the Series: XY Kalos Quest, Pokémon the Series: XYZ, the movie Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, and the movie Hoopa and the Clash of Ages.

Pokémon manga

In English

All Pokémon manga which has been published by VIZ Media in the United States has been concurrently available in English in Canada. Volumes can be found at most retailers where manga is sold.

In French

A French version of The Electric Tale of Pikachu, titled L'aventure électrique de Pikachu, was published by Imavision Distribution Inc, the same company that released the Pokémon anime on VHS and DVD in French-speaking regions of Canada. The French release includes the first four monthly issues and is directly based on VIZ Media's translation, including the reversal in the publishing order of ET02 and ET03.

In addition to this, some of the newer French manga translations published in France by Kurokawa, such as Pokémon Noir et Blanc (the French translation of the Black & White arc of Pokémon Adventures), have been available in Canada through online retailers such as Amazon.ca and Indigo Books & Music.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

Cards for the Pokémon Trading Card Game have been sold in Canada since the introduction of the Base Set. English-language cards are imported from the United States to be sold in Canadian stores. In Quebec, only English-language cards were originally available, but many French-speaking parents felt this was unfair to their children, who also did not have a French-language Pokémon video game. As a result, Wizards of the Coast, which had recently started selling Pokémon cards in France, began to import these French-language cards for sale in Quebec; however, distribution of French cards became less widespread after a few early sets, as the French cards were not as sought-after by collectors as their English and Japanese equivalents. Today, both English- and French-language cards are recognized as tournament legal in official tournaments.

English-language cards are sold nationwide. In Quebec, French-language cards are sold alongside the English ones (somewhat less commonly), mostly at retailers such as Wal-Mart and independent gaming stores such as Le Valet d'Coeur that import games directly from France; the four McDonald's TCG promotions in the province have also been in French.

Pokémon merchandise

A bilingual Event card from the Pokémon Master Trainer board game

In general, Canada receives most of the same Pokémon merchandise that is available in the United States, such as plush toys and foods. Per national laws, all Pokémon toys and other merchandise come with bilingual packaging and instructions. Most Pokémon merchandise prior to 2013 had specialized Canadian packaging that only used the English localized names in both official languages, while Takara Tomy's merchandise from 2013 onwards uses the same multilingual (7-language) packaging as the United States and Europe (which includes localized French names for the French portion).

All four Burger King promotions (1999, 2000, 2008 and 2009) were available in Canadian restaurants. All four McDonald's promotions (2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015) were available in Canada as well. Although the 2014 promotion appeared months later than in the United States, the Canadian version contained two cards per toy instead of only one like in the United States.

Several Pokémon books that have been released in English in Canada and the United States have been translated into French by Le Groupe Syntagme Inc for sale in French-speaking regions of Canada. Examples include many books from the Pokémon anime novelization series, the Pokémon Adventure Series (Pokémon Collection Adventure), Pokémon Pop Quiz (Pokémon Questions-pièges) and Extreme Pokémon: The Guide for the Ultimate Fan (Extrêmes Pokémon: Le guide ultime des vrais mordus). As of the 2010s, most of the Pokémon books and manga that has been available to Canadians in French has been imported from France rather than locally translated from materials that were originally available in English, such as Hachette Jeunesse's series of novels based on the anime.

All Pokémon board games released in the United States, such as Pokémon Master Trainer and Pokémon Yahtzee Jr., have been released in Canada in fully bilingual versions.

Canadian exclusive items

In 1999, a series of bilingual Pokémon Game Tip Cards were given away in packages of Kellogg's cereal, exclusively in Canada. These cards contained tips for Pokémon Snap and Red, Blue, and Yellow Versions. Canadian exclusive game tip cards were also given away with Black Diamond cheese and Danone yogurt.

In the year 2000, YTV featured Pokémon Theme on their first Big Fun Party Mix CD.

Community

The Pokémon fandom in Canada consists of both English-speaking and French-speaking sectors, each with slightly different norms.

The English-speaking sector is closely tied to the American fandom due to the geographic proximity and similar dialects of English between both countries, as well as the fact that almost all English-language Pokémon media in Canada comes from the United States. As such, most English-speaking Canadian fans consult the same fansites as those in the US, including Serebii.net and PokéBeach.

The French-speaking sector is mostly distinct from the fandom in France due to the differences between early Canadian French and European French Pokémon media (particularly the use of English names), as well as general differences between their respective dialects and cultures. As such, a significant portion of the French-Canadian fandom is bilingual; English games, TCG cards and other media continue to be popular (especially among older and longtime fans), and the community occasionally interacts and overlaps with the English-Canadian fandom. However, due to the fact that current French-language Pokémon media is imported from France, the French-Canadian fandom has begun to overlap slightly more with the European French fandom, particularly among younger fans and newcomers to Quebec. French-Canadian fans do not have many dedicated fansites, and have traditionally used a combination of English and European French fansites for information.

Pokémon fandom has an active presence on the Canadian convention circuit; in particular, Montreal's Otakuthon anime convention regularly hosts a Pokémon-themed sub-event known as "Pokéthon". The anime's voice actors are frequently featured as guests at events. As in the United States, Veronica Taylor and Sean Schemmel are particularly prolific, and have been regularly invited to Fan Expo Canada (Canada's largest fan convention held in Toronto), in addition to other events. Conventions in Quebec may also invite French voice actors, such as Sébastien Reding (Ash's French-Canadian movie voice actor) and Aurélien Ringheim (Ash's universal European French voice actor).

Events

The Pokémon 2000 Stadium Tour made a few stops in Canada. There were no promotional tours throughout Generation III and Generation IV.

In February 2011, in conjunction with the Pokémon Black and White Sampling Tour in the United States, two similar events were held in Canada, one in Burnaby, British Columbia and the other in Mississauga, Ontario. At these events, players were invited to try a demo of Pokémon Black and White a month before it was released in Canada. There were other activities such as photo opportunities, face painting, and colouring pages.

The 2013 World Championships were held in Vancouver, British Columbia from August 9 to 11, 2013. This is the first and only time so far that the World Championships have been held outside of the United States.

On October 11, 2013, a launch party for Pokémon X and Y was held in Toronto. This launch party included game demos, contests and free giveaway items.

On November 8, 2014, an event was held in Toronto, Ontario commemorating the upcoming launch of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The event, known as Canada's Pokémon Video Game Event, offered attendees the chance to try out the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Special Demo Version and Pokémon Art Academy. Other activities were held including colouring pages and photo opportunities with Pikachu. Attendees were offered posters of the Hoenn region and codes to download the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Special Demo Version at home — each card came with two codes, with the second one intended to be shared with a friend of the recipient. At the end of the event, attendees who stayed were shown a free screening of Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, which features many settings based on locations in Canada.

So far, there have been four performances of Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions in Canada. The concerts were performed in Vancouver on July 22, 2015; in Toronto on August 28, 2015; in Montreal on August 30, 2015; and in Toronto on May 6, 2017.

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  A photo of the BW Sampling Tour stop in Mississauga, Ontario

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  Canada's Pokémon Video Game Event logo

Trivia

• Scott Ramsoomair, the author of the webcomic Super Effective, is Canadian, as is Ryan Reynolds, the voice actor for the eponymous character in the Detective Pikachu film.
• Pokémon.ca redirects to Pokémon.com.
• Darren Dunstan was born in Canada.
• For April Fool's Day 2014, Bulbapedia and other Bulbagarden websites adopted a Canadian theme, with Bulbanews releasing several Canada-themed hoax articles.
• LaRousse City was based on Vancouver, British Columbia.
• Orsay City was based on Toronto, Ontario.
• Director Kunihiko Yuyama traveled to Canada to scout out locations to base the settings of Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction on.
• On May 10, 2016, the Canadian government tweeted about the Pokémon franchise, asking followers which Pokémon they believed to be the "most Canadian". Among the more frequent responses were Bidoof and Sawsbuck.
• The soft launches of Pokémon UNITE and Pokémon Trading Card Game Live were held in Canada.

External links

• The official United States & Canada Pokémon website (full website)

Related articles

• Pokémon in the United States
• Pokémon in France
• List of French Pokémon names
• List of French Pokémon themes
• List of Canadian French Pokémon anime home video releases

References

This article is part of Project Globe, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world.