What does being Canadian mean to you?

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Hello all fellow Aspergian Canadians,

With Canada day just over a month away I would like to take some time to hear from and discuss with you all about what being a Canadian means to you. I am hoping to evoke some deeply repressed patriotism in some of you though this exercise. I have noticed in recent years that people especially in big cities like Vancouver for example do not really care about our country, I figure this is a byproduct of the internet and overall globalization. Think back 30 years ago when Canada still had a distinct sense culture and self, we had our own TV shows, bands and clothing style. It seems like now Canada has just become a watered down version of the US with universal health care. Of course Canada and the United States share similar begins both being British colonies at one point in time, so it's no shock to find that both nations share more in common than not. I think one halmark of Canadian culture was that we had a slightly different Canadian vision of just about anything American for example Canadian Pontiacs were slightly altered versions of existing American Chevrolet models, a good example of this is the Canadian Pontiac Beaumont which is an American Chevrolet Chevelle with different front and rear trim, badges and lights. Another classic Canadian version of something American is the Canadian kids show Mr. Dress up which is the Canadian vision of Mr. Rogers.

Thank you for reading my post and I look forward to hearing everyone's responses.

Knowing how to ice-skate before knowing how to ride a bicycle, eh?

"When they said 'Canada' I thought it would be somewhere in the woods."

Marilyn Monroe



"I don't even know what street Canada is on!"

Al Capone

High taxes, government control of every aspect of our lives, a shameful history of genocide, horrible treatment of disabled people, good access to abortion, and long waits for free healthcare even though it's worth it most of the time.

Oh, almost forgot - door to door weed delivery but crazy restrictions on overpriced alcohol which make it almost impossible to be an alcoholic here. I suppose that could be viewed as a good thing in some circumstances.

My government is less prone to guano-minded insanity than the one I most often compare it to.

Our national sport is actually interesting to watch.

We get to pretend our winters are far worse than they really are.

The world's shittiest coffee chain.

Not being a Yank.

Canada still has a distinct sense of culture that differs from the USA, IMO. Even without travelling all across Canada (I have not, I've only been as far East as Manitoba) or the USA (I've travelled the Western 1/3rd or so all the way down to Mexico.) one can glean all they need to know to pass judgement from news headlines.

We have a safer saner gun culture, by FAR. As imperfect as we are, we also have a rather advanced multicultural society welcoming people from all over the world. (Although, Vancouver and Toronto are probably the best examples with mixed results elsewhere, especially Texberta, Canada's trump country.)

The West Coast/BC is criticized for "not having culture," and "being too laid back/informal/unserious." Umm, b***h, that IS the culture! Mountain bikes and ocean kayaks, yoga pants and actual yoga, hikes & treks and mountain climbs, every outdoor sport you could imagine, camping, smoking, relaxing - people pay the price to be here to be Here doing those things, not to strive for every minute of every day to be some sort of high pressure New York Minute of ruthless capitalism. (Although, with housing costs they way they are more people gotta hustle harder just to stay afloat.)

Blah blah blah, we do have a distinct culture.. but we've also been sold a line of BS for generations about how great Canada is, how desirable it is, how we're a nation of peace keepers, how people are lined up around the world to move here yadda yadda yadda but then you grow older and wiser and realize that the corporation of Canada has done really good job of marketing itself to the world as well as citizens, indoctrinating people to sing the special song and feel the patriotic feels while ignoring Canada's historical and ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples, "peace keeping," via bullets and warfare and then leaving our own soldiers & veterans hung out to dry when they need counselling and mental health help they were promised, welcoming record numbers of immigrants and refugees to the country with almost zero plans of how to support them, house them, or integrate them into society resulting in people having to struggle HARD to stay alive here, double shifting for years upon years at low paying jobs while their foreign credentials and work experience go unrecognized. etc.

What it means to to be Canadian is to accept the label of citizenship from the Corporation that grows ever richer off of our labour while providing back to people as little as they can get away with while enriching their friends with obscenely profitable contracts on everything from military supplies to that BS arrivecan app they made everyone use to cross the border.. and either you fall in the camp of people that get completely snowed by the smoke & mirrors show they put on for the world and citizens alike, OR, you open your eyes and see the smoke show & bent light for the BS marketing campaign that it is and then become a more self reliant person focusing your efforts on yourself and your family/friends and things you can actually influence in your life instead of believing the fairy tale that various levels of government are there to help you have a good life.

I doubt I'll ever attend an official propaganda "Canada Day," fireworks display or whatever again in my life, or at least not any time soon. I'd way rather spend it on Indigenous land with Indigenous people paying respects to the survivors that Canada stole it's land from and executed a near complete genocide of in order to build it's wealth and power and status in the world.

Plus there are a few good things about Canada, I suppose. Myself, and many others I know, would probably be dead - or at least bankrupt due to medical debt - if we had to rely on the American healthcare system for medicine in times of need. Even if we have waiting times, at least we do a reasonable job of keeping people alive at a reasonable cost compared to those unlucky enough to have been born South of the 49th parallel.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I had been anticipating Goldfish21's response.

Nice to read a detailed essay from a REAL Canadian who is also a critical thinker.

Well done, eh?

:poutine:

A lot of Canadian stereotypes in this Weregeek comic (2012-10-08) by Alina Pete:

Well...they have become a "role model" of sorts apparently.

I saw a guy on TV from the Republic of Mongolia talking about how the still young post Communist version of his country consults with other countries on various issues to help get on its feet. And how they consult with Canada on "how a thinly populated country can maintain its identity when its next door to a big population neighbor".

So...the fact that Canada just remains Canada (instead being absorbed into the US) is enough of an ...acheivement...that some (like Mongolia vis a vis China)take inspiration from it!

Are there any other Canadians in this thread who were actually alive in the 70s, or witnessed the changes from that time forward?