Haha, we have the exact opposite problem here Canada because of our financial services industry landscape.
Just about every retailer, restaurant, gas station, and Mom-and-Pop store already takes NFC tap/wave payments on a regular basis. We have a bank oligopoly (5 or 6 big banks with ZERO competition) that made it happen nationwide in less than a decade, but they're not happy with Apple's commercial terms or brand usage, so they're negotiating furiously. In fact, they recently got together to form a coalition to bargain with Apple.
Technically, the minute they come to an agreement, and flip the switch to allow their cards to be tokenized via Apple Pay, just about every business in the whole country will suddenly accept Apple Pay - which would give Apple a ridiculous national penetration rate here (close to 100%). It's one of the big reasons we're second in line after the US market.