Party of One

I feel like everyone’s forgotten what it means to be Canadian. Ever since the Olympics, and our Prime Minister’s call to be more patriotic, it seems like Canada wants to be something that we’re not – at least not in my experience.

The first part of this is that everyone seems to think that Canada should be defined as hockey and beer. But I don’t think that those should be the ultimate defining things when we think about our culture. Sure, they play a part. For one thing, hockey is Canada’s national winter sport. But the key thing to note in that last phrase is the word “winter.” Because some Canadians don’t seem to know this, but hockey isn’t our only national sport. Lacrosse is also a national sport in Canada (the summer national sport if you didn’t guess).

But let’s even put that aside – why should we be defined by sports? There is so much more to this country than that, and it just seems shameful that so many people have simplified it to just hockey and beer. But instead of going on about what Canada should be defined by, which I don’t think I could even do justice to, since I’ve only seen bits of only three provinces, I ask that you watch this video. It NBC’s explanation of Canada to Americans. You’ll see that there’s a lot more to this country than a single sport and a single beverage. There’s a large focus on our trade partnership with the US and military/war, but I still think it’s a good start to what I’m trying to get at.

Now the ending to that video brings me to my next point. Tim Brokaw talked about how Prime Minister Harper had to stand in front of Parliament and ask Canadians to have an “uncharacteristic outburst of patriotism.” Now, I agree that we’re not the most outwardly patriotic country in the world. But at the same time I think people are misinterpreting being humble as not being patriotic. I know so many Canadians with maple leaf tattoos. I also know that most Canadians I know wouldn’t want to live in the US if they were given the chance. I mean no offense to any Americans reading this – we still like you guys, we just don’t want to BE you guys.

A lot of people took Harper’s call to action to say “have pride like an American does.” And it’s true, a lot of Americans have a very outwardly patriotic attitude. But a lot of countries that aren’t the US see that as arrogance. Again, I’m not saying this as anything against Americans. But the fact of the matter is, the stereotypical American is loud, obnoxious, rude and arrogant. True or not, that’s the perception a lot of people have about the country when generalizing. (I know tons of nice Americans – “an” American is great, Americans.. well I already said the stereotype). Do we really want the world to perceive Canada in this same way?

I don’t think the problem is that we’re not patriotic. It’s just that we’re humble. And I’m okay with that – why can’t we be proud that we won the most golds without having to shove it in peoples’ faces and pull a “neener neener neeeeener, I’m better than you are!” There’s a difference between being patriotic and being a jerk. And I’ve noticed since Harper’s call to be more patriotic, a lot of people have taken that as a cue to follow the American example of patriotism. And that’s just not Canadian.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Uninformed Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.