Thanks for the clarification! And of course hitchhiking is a totally different story. I would do this only in case of emergency.
Moreover, I'm from central Europe and always had the impression that Canada is basically on a similar safety level (unlike the US). (Of course you can get into trouble there in certain areas at night, but besides that the risk is much, much lower than, e.g., having a car accident.) Maybe I'm too optimistic there about Canada, and I trust that you as a local will know better about that!