Not the marketing version — the practical one: when you'll have signal, what happens at meal times, how often the train actually runs, and what the short station stops are really for.
The Canadian does not have onboard wifi. Cell coverage is intermittent for most of the route and disappears entirely for long stretches through the Canadian Shield north of Sudbury and much of the run between Winnipeg and Jasper. Reliable signal generally returns at the larger stations themselves — Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper and Vancouver all have working cell and station wifi, so plan to send messages, download offline maps, and check in with anyone expecting to hear from you during those platform stops, not while moving.
Sleeper Plus and Prestige passengers eat all three meals in the dining car, seated with other passengers (tables typically seat four), with a printed menu offering two or three main-course choices per meal that changes over the course of the trip. Meal times are announced over the PA and run in shifts, since the dining car can't seat every sleeping-car passenger at once — expect a wait at popular seatings, especially dinner on the first night. Economy passengers don't have dining-car seating and instead buy food at the Skyline car's take-out counter, which runs a smaller hot/cold menu at cafeteria prices.
Only Prestige cabins have a private ensuite shower. Sleeper Plus berths and standard cabins share washroom facilities down the car, which include shower stalls — availability is first-come, and mornings before breakfast service tend to be the busiest window. Bring a basic toiletry kit designed for a shared bathroom, not a hotel one.
The Canadian is not a daily train. In peak season (roughly late June to mid-October) it departs Toronto westbound up to three times a week; outside that window, frequency drops to about twice weekly, historically Sundays and Wednesdays. This isn't a minor detail — it means the trip has to be planned around fixed departure days months out, not booked a week before travel the way a daily service would allow.
VIA Rail operates on track owned mostly by Canadian National, which gives priority to freight traffic. Scheduled arrival times, especially into Vancouver on the final day, are treated by VIA Rail and by seasoned riders as a target rather than a guarantee — delays of a few hours are common enough that booking a same-day onward flight or tight connection out of Vancouver is genuinely risky.
Most of the platform stops along the route (Sudbury Junction, Saskatoon, Kamloops North among them) last roughly 20 to 30 minutes — long enough to step onto the platform for air, not long enough to see anything beyond the station itself. Winnipeg is the one meaningful exception, with a stop typically long enough (60–90 minutes) to actually walk into Union Station's surrounding area if you're quick about it. Announcements give boarding-time warnings; the train does not wait for a passenger who wanders too far.