What is the Canadian identity?

I had a discussion today with a friend of mine back in Canada about the Canadian identity. He published a blog entitled Woe Canada in which his thesis was that the Canadian national identity is all about being, and I'm paraphrasing here, not American.

All along, our truest defining characteristic has sat at North America's waistline. The 49th parallel is a stronger Canadian symbol than anything else. It is the line between being something and being not-something. If our anti-Americanism did end, it would not be because of Barack Obama. Instead, its end would only come from it being replaced internally by something else. If that does not occur, then we have to face the scary fact that Canada is only Canada because it is not America.

Can this sum up everything it means to be Canadian? Molson Inc. would have us believe it is. A previous advertising campaign had the nationalistic overture "I AM CANADIAN" in which it provided examples of how we are not like the United States. "I have a Prime Minister, not a President; I beleive in peace keeping, not policing;" and on and on including the beaver being a truly proud and noble animal and a chesterfield being a couch. Molson, Inc. has recently tried to renew this sense of nationalistic pride by trying to identify what it's like to be a Canadian without reference to not being American. "You're proud to know a girl that got jiggy with a pro hockey player; You've been on a road trip in a car that had no business going on a road trip; You feel kinda bad putting your seat back on an airplane" et cetera. But, none of these examples are truly unique characteristics to Canada.

So, what then, can the simple Canadian use to define the Canadian culture? What is uniquely the Canadian identity?

Well, we've got hockey, cold weather, complaining about the cold weather, obsessing about how cold the weather is going to be, curling, skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding, a plethora of other activities we can do when it is cold... Unless of course you live in Victoria, then you had might as well not even be Canadian. Honestly, how can anyone work in a garden in January! Again, we're not the only nordic, hockey playing, curling nation in the world where the populace has a bizarre love-hate relationship with the cold.

Well then, what about our roots? We originated from hunters, trappers, and fur traders. We allied ourselves with the Native tribes (and then fought eachother with our Native allies over fur trading territory). What's more Canadian than the Hudson's Bay company. Yes a huge, faceless distinctly Canadian company which has been in existance since the 1600s and is currently indistinguishable from a Macy's.

We have a Parliament... so does England and any other commenwealth country. We have public health care... so does any other socio-democracy. So what is it that we have that makes us distinct?

If anything, the thing that we have is our self-depricating sense of humor. Countries everywhere would be enraged in a furor over such portrayals as that of Canada in the Simpsons, South Park and various other shows. Frankly, when we show up in some sort of television program from another country we're just happy they know we exist. Our self-depricating humor does not alone define us though.

We are a country that is in-between. We're distinctly not British. We don't drive lorries or keep things in the boot of our car. Tyre just seems wrong. But we do have colours and flavours and neighbours. I personally have an intense distaste for the lazy spellings of the new America. For example words like Thru, Donut, Lite and Nite are simply phonetical spellings created by persons unable to spell because they went to underfunded public schools.

We incereasingly shun the British Monarchy, but we also reject the American culture. Recently (especially over the past 8 years) we have grown to despise the American foreign policy. At the same time that we reject the American culture, we fully embrace it, it dominates us. We all watch the Super-bowl, eat fast-food, watch CNN and other American television stations. In fact, American telelvision and music dominate the Canadian household. If it weren't for the Canadian content law we probably wouldn't have any Canadian arts anymore. Thanks to it, we have a burgeoning musical scene in which all of our artists play American style music.

Perhaps, as I touched on earlier, our identity is forged by our isolation. There are only 30 million of us spread over the worlds second largest country. Perhaps that is why we are so proud when we realise another country has noticed that we even exist. We are not prominent on the international stage either. We had might as well be America's annoying little brother that everybody wishes would leave them alone because the big kids want to play by themselves.

I recently read a book by Michael Adams entitled: Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values in which, Adams discusses the idea that US cultural dominance of Canada is making Canadians much more American. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it as it made me feel distinctly Canadian... that is to say... Not American.

But in the completion of this exercise, I have realised that what defines us is not that we are Not American. What defines us is that we are Not American AND that we are Not British. Frankly, we are not anything at all. We are what we are and nothing more. We are a multicultural mosaic and as such we are and are not alot of things. A mosaic is made beautiful by the parts that comprise it. The parts comprise the whole and without the parts there is no whole. Canada is a large, culturally diverse, land of beautiful geography, and varying climates.

Perhaps the problem in defining Canada is that there are too many parts to define as one. This is part of the beauty of Canada. Our vastness and different climates and ecologies have shaped and defined us each in our own regional sense and this is why it is so difficult to assign a national identity.

When in doubt, we can always ask an American. What makes a Canadian distinctly Canadian. The answer "Eh." Our verbal punctuation, our method of weeding out the fakes. Eh.

So until next time, Colin and everyone else, keep your stick on the ice, eh!