General Canadian English is extremely similar to General American English. However, there are a number of differences between the two dialects. GCE (General Canadian English) exhibits a linguistic phenomenon called Canadian Raising. Basically, the diphthong /ai/–as in “by” or “lie”–is raised before voiceless consonants (t, k, p, s, f); by contrast, this diphthong is not raised before other consonants (v, z, d, b, l, m, n, r, etc). Thus, by using Canadian Raising, the words in the following word pairs can be pronounced differently: ride and write, five and fife, and rise and rice.
The diphthong /au/, as in “loud,” is commonly raised before the consonants “t,” “th,” and “s.” This diphthong, though, is not raised before the consonants “d,” “z,” “n,” and “j.” As was pointed out, the word “about” sounds like “a boat”… well, to our American ears, that is. In General American English, the diphthong /ai/ is not raised before any consonant, nor is the diphthong /au/. Yet, this raising has been occurring in various areas of the U.S., and it is spreading.
Another difference between these dialects is that, in GCE, the vowel /o/ is always pronounced as /o/ before the consonant /r/. Therefore, “sorry” is pronounced sor-ee, “borrow” is pronounced bor-row, and “sorrow,” sor-row. In General American English, the vowel /o/ is sometimes pronounced as the vowel /a/–as in “father”–before the consonant /r/. In GAE (General American English), “sorry” is pronounced sar-ee, “borrow” is pronounced bar-row, and “sorrow” is pronounced sar-row. This, nevertheless, isn’t very common in GAE; in fact, I can’t think of any other word that is pronounced with the vowel /a/, other than sorrow, borrow, and sorry.
Many Canadians pronounce the word “marry” as “merry.” In GAE, “marry” is pronounced with the vowel /ae/.
In GCE, “pasta,” “mazda,” “lava,” “drama,” “Yahoo®,” “taco,” and other foreign words are pronounced with the vowel /ae/. In GAE these words are pronounced with the vowel /a/. In GCE, on the other hand, these and few other foreign words are pronounced with the vowel /a/: macho, Guatemala, Bach, and karate. Why is this so? I sure as heck don’t know; it’s an anomaly.
Of course, let’s not forget Canadian lexicon. In Canada, “pop” is universally used as a term for a carbonated beverage. Even in the U.S., “pop” is used quite widely. It’s largely used in the Midwest, Upper Midwest, and Northwest. As well, many Canadians refer to candy bars as “chocolate bars.”
In GCE, the idioms “in hospital” and “to university” are used, in lieu of the American idioms “in the hospital” and “to the university,” which includes a definite article. So, one may say, “I’m going to have my surgery in hospital,” or “I’m going to attend university during the fall.”
The last letter of the Canadian alphabet, “zed,” is different from the last letter of the American alphabet, “zee.”
Well, this is pretty much all I know about GCE.