Whether you’re just visiting Toronto, or living in Montreal, you should be using a VPN. VPN stands for virtual private network–and it’s a tool that is fast becoming mandatory for Canadian citizens.

Why use a VPN in Canada?

Personal Protection

If you’re living in Canada, you can use a VPN to access unblocked content unavailable in Canada. VPNs let you access larger libraries and international content by changing your IP address to your chosen remote VPN server which makes websites think your computer is in a geo-tagged location that is suitable.

So if you want access to the US Netflix library, simply pick a US server and connect to it. Given that, not all VPNs work with Netflix. Check out this article for those that do.

In addition to accessing Netflix and other websites, you can also protect all of your data from your internet service provider who might be snooping, or other users at Coffee shops that can easily get your information through insecure private wifi. Living in Canada isn’t that differentiate from other countries regarding why you need a VPN on a day to day basis.

Privacy is important everywhere, and there are snoopers and malicious ways for your data to be stolen regardless of your location.

Aggressive Laws without Boundaries:

Bill C-11

In January of 2015, Internet Service Providers started collecting mandatory logs of user activity. These logs are collected for six months from users guilty of violating copyright law. Users violating copyright are then subsequently handed over to authorities that can gain access to metadata.

This bill is intended to fight copyright infringement, but it has set a powerful precedent in Canada for how data is collected and authority carried out.

Bill C-51

In June of 2015, Bill C-51 was unleashed, which gave more powers to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. This bill allows the CSIS to disrupt back transactions and travel plans of anyone suspected of terrorism. Also, their collected data can be shared with other governmental departments.

While both of these bills are intended to protect law and citizens themselves, each law is immensely powerful without many restrictions. Critics of C-51 think that the powers granted by the law can censor opinions of dissent, or dissuade protesters, campaigners, or other forms of controversy.

It’s not exactly clear which individuals will be found guilty of terrorism, or copyright infringement, or if they are, how. In both cases, personal user data is being collected and used for surveillance purposes.

As you can see, using a VPN in Canada has become increasingly mandatory as laws have sprung up that cannot guarantee Canadian citizens their right to privacy–regardless if crimes are involved or not.

So which features do you need from a VPN before you decide to choose?

Best features of Best Canada VPN:

• Connection speed

When considering a VPN, you will need a VPN that has excellent connection times. You don’t want to spend more time waiting to use your VPN with slow connection load times than actually using it. Having a good connection time when using your VPN is essential!

• Ease of use

A lot of VPNs designed now are very easy to use, but a lot of older VPNs and lazier developers have applications that are either just poorly designed, or riddled with bugs. For your Canadian VPN, you need a VPN that is easy to use but also powerful.

• No logs

When using a Canadian VPN, you need a VPN that doesn’t collect relevant personal records that could include information about what data you are transmitting when you use your VPN. A lot of VPNs collect minor logs, but some other VPNs obtain a little too much and have reputations that have suffered.

• Encryption strength

Having proper encryption strength is integral to your VPN’s security. Only use encryption that is 256-AES and a 2048-bit RSA key for maximum security.

• Servers

A lot of VPNs don’t have high-quality servers or they just don’t have enough. Our recommended VPNs below all have great server networks that cover most locations around the globe that you would need.

• Customer support

If you have any questions with your VPN, customer support is SUPER helpful. With a technical topic like VPN, you want to make sure you are using the software to its full potential–and if you have any issues, it’s better to get live chat than have to way for a response ticket.

Best VPNs for Canada:

TorGuard

TorGuard hits each mark for feature needed. They have one of the best server networks in the world with over 42 different locations and 1600+ servers.

TorGuard has also stood out in the past since it has more security features inside its app than other VPNs which makes it an excellent choice for a country like Canada which is seeking to undermine user privacy.

TorGuard comes built in with Stealth VPN servers which are hard to detect, a Stealth Proxy feature which serves as a double layer of protection. Also, it comes with two VPN kill switches (network + app), as well as other nifty things like dedicated IP address integration.

TorGuard is also one of the few VPNs that has ALWAYS worked for Netflix.

ExpressVPN

While ExpressVPN might be pricier than TorGuard, it still offers a great service for interested Canadian users since it also covers each mark. It might lack some features, but everything you need from a solid core VPN foundation is here.

Setup is amazingly simple, encryption is strong, and their website is clean and sleek. Customer service also is very good, and the overall experience feels more premium than most other VPN providers you can find.

Private Internet Access

The cheapest out of the three recommended Canada VPNs, PIA manages to stand out in more ways than one. It also has 256-AES, a kill switch, and plenty of servers to connect to (even more servers than TG but fewer locations).

When we tested PIA, we loved their speeds and easy to use applications that had fast connection times and reliable performance. While PIA might not work for Netflix, and it’s quite a simple VPN overall, $6.95 for one month can’t be beaten.

Conclusion:

Using a VPN in Canada is becoming more important than ever since more and more regulations are forming to limit personal privacy in the name of preventing crime.

These laws cannot always be accounted  for since they give the government more and more direction and power to use the internet as a surveillance tool rather than a vessel for freedom of speech and content delivery.

If you need a VPN for Netflix, check out our video in this guide that shows you how to access Netflix in Canada.