What Does It Mean to Be Canadian?

A few years ago this question would have been quickly answered with “not American!” accompanied by a smug look of superiority; nowadays, not so much. One of the reasons revolves around being educated about the nature of identity and how I consider an identity to be something, not a lack of something. Another reason revolves around being educated about Canada and the subsequent disillusion with blind patriotism – which is, ironically, why so many Canadians are so quick to reject the identity of their southern neighbours and is, ultimately, simple hypocrisy. Show me a Canadian who doesn’t belt out this quick retort who isn’t also guilty of the very thing they reject (blind patriotism). The Americans simply get away with it better, and though many a Canadian would suffer the pains of death before admitting it, it is that jealousy of getting away with this blind patriotism (and perhaps having to be educated about the US without an educational reciprocation on their end) that leads Canadians to reject Americanism without a second thought.

Oh the picture of Joe Canadian with his beer mantra rejecting what many Canadians believe that Americans are ignorant of; you know, the igloos and dogsleds and “aboot” and mapleleafs. The funny thing is these same Canadians have relatives that they often visit – relatives who are generally in the know about their Canadian cousins. So where, exactly, does this perceived ignorance come from? Perhaps Canadians are as guilty as the people they point the fingers at?

Barring my cynicism about Canadian hypocrisy, blind patriotism, and desperately clinging to an ephemeral identity, I think one of the things that makes a Canadian truly that is what motivates him or her to separate himself or herself from being labelled an American: the innate and driving need to be unique. I mean really, is being labelled such so bad? Apart from the last eight years of Bush doctrine, what is it about Americans that we find so repulsive when in practice we find no two countries as friendly and open with each other (maybe not so much in recent and developing years)? I think that what Canadians abhor so much is the idea that they enjoy living in a first-class, developed country with all its privileges and freedoms, but not having a readily available identity to attach it to. Why would we, if we are not American, attach ourselves to something as superficial as beer, or a leaf rather than our superior public education system when compared to its dismally-dwindling southern counterpart? Maybe we already to some extent attach ourselves to our universal health care, but is not this universal health care something they already do in Europe, and doesn’t Europe do it much better than we? Sure, according to Michael Moore, we don’t have to pick which finger gets reattached because we don’t have insurance, but the same source also points out that Brits get cab fare to go home. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve always had to make arrangements for a ride home when I’m done (done the half-hour seeing the doctor after waiting several hours to see him/her). So, is this attachment to our oh-so-efficient medical system worth its praise? Something tells me it’s not the golden child we make it out to be.

So what other things do we Canadians pride ourselves in that fares better in the north? Peacekeeping? Treatment of blacks? A non bipartisan political system? Hockey? Let’s face it, gone are the days of Pearson when Canada stepped in as a mediator. Instead we act as but a cog in the wheel of United Nations Peacekeeping. Not really something we can call ours, now is it? Treatment of blacks? Perhaps we do treat out black people better, but ask any aboriginal person if they feel their people have been treated any differently than the Americans treat black people and I doubt you’d see a difference. Maybe there is something to be said about having more choice on a ballot and more diversity with political opinion, but what exactly can be accomplished when the more choice we have the less effective any party can govern? Division in votes – votes, I might add, representing less than two-thirds of Canadians in this latest federal election – means more chance for perpetual and inefficient minority governments. So what about hockey? Well, when was the last time we brought home the cup? I think one time in the 90s was the most recent. And sure we had half a decade of wins in the 80s with a subsequent increase before then, but what do you expect when the earlier back in time you go you start to approach a 90% supply of players for the entire NHL? Seems like Canada is resting on the laurels of a single 1976 game versus another country who favours red on their jerseys. How many current Canadians were even alive for that?

Canada is the spoiled rich kid of parents with a deep history, and needs to establish a separate list of accomplishments. Failure to do so only makes it the boss’s son which none of the other employees like. Oh sure, right now we still have our charm, but Canada is slowly fading from the minds of other nations, nations who once held us in the highest esteem. And why is that? Because we really haven’t done anything worth noting in the last few decades.

So, after tearing down all that might stand a chance to represent us, what does it really mean to be Canadian? It means that being next to a cultural giant I have to go above and beyond the normal effort to search for an identity. It means that I don’t have to attribute my identity with my nation of birth. It means that I enjoy the privileges and freedoms of a developed western nation without necessarily having the years of turmoil, conflict, and struggle to mete out some unifying idea with my fellow Canadians (how many of us identify ourselves by province or region anyway? How many people you know living on Vancouver Island refer to themselves as “Islanders” rather than British Columbians or Canadians?). It means I have the opportunity to be a pioneer in forging a global identity, to be a leader and example in forsaking nationalism and zealous imperialism. It means unpractised ideologies such as bilingualism (which is really more divisive than unifying), exportation of natural resources, kowtowing (or ankle-grabbing as some see it) to economic and military superiors even when they are clearly proven wrong over issues such as soft lumber, and ultimately walking a fine line of compromise throughout our entire history. It means being surrounded by fellow Canadians who barely have a grasp on their own history and politics, and can cite more facts and understanding about those they readily claim to not be. Yet after all of this criticism and seemingly harsh statements it’s what I call home. Home of the free, home of the polite, friendly, and generally liberal people, home of the tolerant and understanding, home of the best and the worst of the British and American systems without the extremes that either face. It is only because I am Canadian that I know enough to criticize to the extent that I do, and it is only because I am Canadian that I would not live anywhere else in spite of them.