A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian… A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.
This sentence, at the federal level, has often been repeated.
To say that a Canadian is just a Canadian, not a Chinese-Canadian, an Indo-Canadian or a Franco-Canadian.
However, the tautology illustrates very well the difficulty of defining what a Canadian is.
Justin Trudeau explained that the simplest thing is to say that you are not American.
The Toronto Sun offers him a tour of the British monarchy to unite us. It’s reminiscent of Stephen Harper’s efforts to boost the Crown, with the War of 1812 and renaming the branches of the army!
Other commentators have spoken of common values, social policies… But we are far from agreeing on these different policies in the country. An anti-abortion conservative is as Canadian as any other!
I am Canadian
At the beginning of 2000, Molson, in its beer advertising, tried to explain it to us.
We have a large territory, we are good at hockey, we believe in peace missions… We speak English AND French, not American, and we are for diversity.
Today, there are many Canadians who do not speak both official languages, we often lose in hockey and we no longer participate in peace missions.
Defining a people, a collective identity, is not easy, but it is possible.
We have to look at history and the stories we tell ourselves. This is what shapes us.
Americans have been telling stories for generations about the conquest of the West, the difficult colonization, the wars for their territory, their independence, their constitution, the civil wars, their scientific, economic and military victories against Nazism and communism!
-It is the land of possibilities, of dreams, of creativity, of popular culture!
Whether you’re from the Midwest or New York, these stories are part of you!
Tokébakikitte
Same thing for a Quebecer!
We survived the winter, we populated the territory, we collaborated with the Indigenous people.
We lost on the Plains against the English, but we never died.
We managed to stand up and speak French. To be a Quebecer is to wage revolution quietly, to be master of one’s own home, to throw out the clergy, to refuse to sign the constitution and to refuse independence!
It’s about wanting to continue living and surviving.
But being Canadian…is it Terry Fox, Lester B. Pearson and hockey? It’s Vimy and Normandy, but it’s also battles against the French, the Acadians, the Americans, the Métis and the Aboriginal people. These are the loyalists who fled American independence, the railroad, the boarding schools…
In the 1960s, philosopher George Grant wrote that Canada is no longer a nation, swallowed up by the economy and culture of the United States.
It’s reminiscent of Justin Trudeau’s comments New York Timeswho said that Canada does not have its own identity.
No surprise that aspiring PLC leader Mark Carney is starting his run in the United States.
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