I married an Indonesian woman. I was living and working there. The only difference between me and a local getting married, I think, was that I had to sign an affidavit that I wasn't already married. I think the embassy may have had to stamp it or something like that. Parental approval is important there, and I don't think the civil registrar would have stamped our license if we'd have said our parents didn't approve. Hers were the civil servant asked them if they approved.
We got married before 9/11, and things have changed since then. I'd already spent two years working in Indonesia before we moved here. Maybe that helped with the green card process. There was a lot of paperwork to fill out, but eventually we got it done. Make sure you do any name changes before getting a Green card so you don't have to pay hundreds of dollars just for a name change. Social security name changes are free, I think.
I got her a fiance visa, which we had visited the US with before she got her Green card. The visa was good for 5 years, which is pretty good. I did the greencard process through the embassy in Jakarta which is the 'right way' but it may be slower. Interviews for either the visa or, if we had one for the greencard, which I'm not sure about, that was easy too. I basically vouched for her, and they asked a few questions. I tried to look like we were dating or married, just some mild shows of affection, for interviews. No heavy PDA, just an arm around the shoulder and that sort of thing, just to let them know we were for real, but they didn't seem suspicious. I doubt a lot of Canadians do short term marriages to get greencards like people from developing countries do, so it is unlikely Canadian-US marriages would be subjected to a lot of scrutiny.
As far as the actual marriage goes, there were some misunderstandings that came from being from different cultures and language backgrounds. My guess is that would be kind of mild with Canadians in comparison. It's probably good to go into the marriage, even with such a close country historically and culturally, realizing there may be some cultural differences that could cause confusion or even conflict.
