Well I shouldda said that my experience was with well-tuned, well-maintained engines, with correctly functioning parts including the chokes.
I too live in Canada, in Southern Manitoba, and one of those slanty cars was a 1980 Volare fb. Of all the carburated winter cars I have owned since 1969, this had to have been the best starting, and among the best driving, and Boy-O-Boy could she buck snow. certainly the best slanty.
I/we, my entire growing-up family, together, drove that car, until she wanted to fold up in the middle, from 1994 to around 2017, by which time, she was a back-up car, but still a great beater..