VAT is a consumer tax and so paid to the country where the good is consumed. Ontario Canada in your case. That was unusual for Canada not to collect VAT tax on purchase made on the internet, they seems to be one decade or two late to that. In the EU, you need to paid or VAT or else you are committing fraud. There were some loopholes permitting not to paid VAT but they are vanishing and increasingly criminalized.
But tolerance for VAT is greater in the EU. As price are most often show tax included, VAT is just part of the price, like the profit margin that go to the stockholder.

All: there's really no need to name-call or talk down on others. This applies to everyone. Please be kinder to each other.

VAT is a consumer tax and so paid to the country where the good is consumed. Ontario Canada in your case. That was unusual for Canada not to collect VAT tax on purchase made on the internet, they seems to be one decade or two late to that. In the EU, you need to paid or VAT or else you are committing fraud. There were some loopholes permitting not to paid VAT but they are vanishing and increasingly criminalized.
But tolerance for VAT is greater in the EU. As price are most often show tax included, VAT is just part of the price, like the profit margin that go to the stockholder.

In the UK, we tend to show the price with VAT included. However, the VAT is listed on the receipt you're given.

Additionally, if you run a business you can usually supply a verifiable VAT number, providing this number allows you to purchase items without the VAT. It doesn't matter if you're purchasing for personal use or business if you're self employed, you can basically go VAT free, most big retailers like Scan, Ebuyer, etc support this.

But there's a catch: You must report everything back to HMRC as a business. That means a whopping tax bill for all that VAT you skipped.