When I moved to the UK and I was looking for a property to rent I was surprised to read advertisements bragging about "double glazing". I don't really remember seeing single glazing in my home country (even pre-second-word-war had double, just not two pieces of glass in a single window frame, but two separately openable single glazed windows). But it doesn't get that cold (outside) in winter in the UK, while the strongest winter i remember was getting down to -30 degrees celsius. However houses are definitely cooler inside in winter in the UK.

Nowadays there are increased requirements for thermal insulation in new houses and many new buildings where I come from have triple glazed windows, some people get recuperation (warm air having house warms up newly coming air) and some even heat pumps (winters got milder recently, so even air source heat pumps are sufficient most of the years)

Talking about Canada, when I was an exchange student in Halifax, New Scotia, one day when the snow fell (not even a particularly big amount in my opinion) the uni cancelled the classes; we were some of not many people who arrived to the uni building so we went sledging on a small hill nearby. It was the only time in my life that school/uni was cancelled due to weather! So Halifax didn't live up to the stereotype and my expectations about Canada, but maybe it's because it's not really a hardcore part of the country :)