American Canadian British English Lexical Differences
History
The term "Canadian English" is first attested in a speech by the Reverend A. Constable Geikie in an address to the Canadian Institute in 1857. Geikie, a Scottish-born Canadian, reflected the Anglocentric attitude prevalent in Canada for the next hundred years when he referred to the language as "a corrupt dialect," in comparison to what he considered the proper English spoken by immigrants from Britain.
CanE is the product of four waves of immigration and settlement over a period of almost two centuries. The first large wave of permanent English-speaking settlement in Canada, and linguistically the most important, was the influx of British Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, chiefly from the Mid-Atlantic States. The second wave from Britain and Ireland was encouraged to settle in Canada after the War of 1812 by the governors of Canada, who were worried about anti-English sentiment among its citizens. Waves of immigration from around the globe peaking in 1910 and 1960 had a lesser influence, but they did make Canada a multicultural country, ready to accept linguistic change from around the world during the current period of globalization. The languages of Canadian Aboriginal peoples started to influence European languages used in Canada even before widespread settlement took place, and the French of Lower Canada provided vocabulary to the English of Upper Canada.

English in the USA differs considerably from British English. Pronunciation is the most striking difference but there are also a number of differences in vocabulary and spelling as well as slight differences in grammar. On the whole, British people are exposed to a lot of American English on TV, in films and so on and so they will usually understand most American vocabulary.
American spelling is usually simpler. For example, British English words ending in -our and -re, end in -or and -er in American English, e.g. colour/color, centre/center. There are differences in individual words too, e.g. British 'plough' becomes 'plow'. The American spelling usually tries to correspond more closely to pronunciation.
Here are some common US words with their British equivalents.

American English

AAA
ATM


bus station
child tax benefit

clunker
convenience store

district
driver's license
efficiency
electricity
firehouse
first floor
flat

funeral home
get your panties in a wad
hockey player
International Revenue Service
IRS
junker
ladies' room
Laundromat
legal holiday
men's room
offense
one-armed bandit

paramedic

parking garage
parking ramp
plastic wrap
public housing
rest room
sales tax
Saran wrap
sneakers
sofa

street entertainer
superfine sugar
sweat pants

track housing
turn signal

unemployment
Valley girls
welfare
welfare check
zip code
Canadian English

CAA
ABM


bus depot
child benefit
baby bonus
beater
depanneur

riding
driver's permit
bachelor apartment
hydro
fire hall
main floor
flat tire

funeral chapel
get your panties in a bunch
puckster
Revenue Canada
RevCan
beater
washroom
coin laundry
statutory holiday
washroom
offence
video lottery machine
VLT
EMT
ambulance technician
parkade
parkade
cling wrap
social housing
washroom
GST
cling wrap
runners
chesterfield

street busker
berry sugar
track pants

housing development
turn signal lever

pogey
Surrey girls
pogey
welfare cheque
postal code
British English

AA, RAC
hole-in-the-wall
cashpoint
cashdispenser
coach station
family allowance

banger
corner shop
Spar
constituency
driving licence
bedsit
lecky
fire station
ground floor
flat tyre
puncture
funeral parlour
get your knickers in a twist
ice hockey player
Inland Revenue

banger
Ladies
launderette
bank holiday
Gents
attack
fruit machine

ambulanceman

multi-storey car park
multi-storey car park
cling film
council housing
lavatory, loo
VAT
cling film
trainers
couch
settee
busker
caster sugar
jogging bottoms
tracksuit bottoms
housing estate
indicator
winker
dole
Essex girls
income support
giro
post code
Spelling and dictionaries
Canadian spelling of the English language combines British and American rules. Most notably, French-derived words that in American English end with -or and -er, such as color or center, usually retain British spellings (colour, honour and centre), although American spellings are not uncommon. Also, while the U.S. uses the Anglo-French spelling defense (noun), Canada uses the British spelling defence. (Note that defensive is universal.) In other cases, Canadians and Americans stand at odds with British spelling, such as in the case of nouns like tire and curb, which in British English are spelled tyre and kerb. Words such as realize and recognize are usually spelled with -ize rather than -ise. (The etymological convention that verbs derived from Greek roots are spelled with -ize and those from Latin with -ise is preserved in that practice.)
Canadian spelling rules can be partly explained by Canada's trade history. For instance, the British spelling of the word cheque probably relates to Canada's once-important ties to British financial institutions. Canada's automobile industry, on the other hand, has been dominated by American firms from its inception, explaining why Canadians use the American spelling of tire and American terminology for the parts of automobiles.

Grammar
When writing, Canadians will start a sentence with As well, in the sense of "in addition"; this construction is a Canadianism.
Canadian and British English share idioms like in hospital and to university, while in American English the definite article is mandatory; to/in the hospital is also common in Canadian speech.