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Because is it possible to imagine two more mutually exclusionary representations of both a country and a land mass?

The one on the left from outside Canada, and specifically from the United States.

And the one on the right from inside Canada, as a country whose sense of “identity” has, since the end of the American Revolution in 1783, been based largely on distinguishing itself from the much more populous, powerful, and frequently expansionist nation state to the south.

This does seem a bit ridiculous.

As well as a little ominous, given that the map on the right seems also to suggest Canada’s own potential isolation in the world, and an implicit answer to the cover question, with this added emphasis: “WOULD ANYONE NOTICE IF CANADA DISAPPEARED?”

Especially when an ad designer / mapmaker in Canada thought there would be appeal, within Canada, to representing the rest of the world as “THE OCEAN”.