Canadian politeness is overrated, especially in the big cities. More likely packages travel less distance to folks in Vancouver and Toronto as they are close to the border. I get quite a few seam splits and dings, but my VMP packages are travelling 7000 km from Saddle Creek, through Mississauga.
In my experience, it's almost entirely dependent on how good the packaging is. And, this might be coincidental, but I find you get what you pay for in terms of shipping and packaging. The two vinyl sellers that build shipping into their cost (Amazon and VMP), have the worst packaging, while smaller retailers that charge for shipping (or have a high "free" threshold) are better (whiplash mailers, etc.).