No Outback Here, Eh

Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots, And Leaves, has an interesting column about the authorial search for authenticity. But she made me cringe when she said this:

...perhaps the main point of interest was that Penney had been suffering agoraphobia while working on the book (set in the 19th Century Canadian outback), so her illness would have prevented her from visiting Canada even if she'd wanted to.

Ms Truss would be well advised to brush up on a little authenticity herself: there ain't no outback here. Call it "up north", the far north, the Arctic, or any number of more colourful terms used to describe the remote parts of Canada, but don't call it the "outback"! Ouch.