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Editor: Jock
Edited: Aug 28, 2008

Canadian Culture: National Identity?

"Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports are baseball players and acid rain."
– Pierre Elliott Trudeau

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Tom Brokaw Explains Canada To Americans

Common Characteristics of Canadians

• What is a Canadian? "Canadians are a hard-nosed and skeptical people. They work hard. They are tolerant of risk and embrace the future. They embrace each other, too, almost 90 times a year. They love trees and despise unfaithful lovers. They reject institutions —both church and state. And yet they retain a quality of mercy for their fellow individuals, faith and the cool civility that once led sociologist Edgar Friedenberg to remark: ‘Canadians are more polite when they are being rude than Americans are when they are being friendly.’

Canadians Favourite Foods and Beverages

"The history of Canadian food can be traced back to our native people. They gave us food such as corn, beans, pumpkins, maple syrup, bison, caribou and dried salmon."
– CBC.
[CBC Archives]

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"Canadian food has no outstanding characteristic, none whatsoever, says Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. The colonel tells CBC's Joe Taylor that there wasn't one dish he particularly enjoyed on his trips across Canada, describing Canadian fare as ‘plumb tasteless!’ " – Colonel Harland Sanders.
[CBC Archives]

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• Drink Beer
  With all due respect to the BC and Ontario wine industries when you think of Canadian beverages, most people think beer. Beer is Canada’s social lubricant. It is the great equalizer -- the richest billionaire and poorest Scarborough resident can still share a Blue together and marvel at how great Canada is.
• Kraft Dinner: Information From Answers.com "Canada has always been the world's largest per capita consumer of Kraft Dinner, and despite its American origins, the product has become a part of Canadian culture." (a.k.a. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese)

• J.l. Kraft Guess what? James Lewis Kraft was born in Ontario, Canada. Maybe that’s why Canadians love Kraft Dinner.

• NEWS for North Dakotans "... Canadians love dousing their “chips” (translation: French fries) with malt vinegar... when they're not swabbing their chips with gravy. Maybe this odd behavior has something to do with the current value of the Canadian dollar."
• BeaverTails It’s a whole-wheat pastry deep-fried to perfection, topped with any combination of sugar and cinnamon, maple syrup, apples, or chocolate, to name a few.
• French Canadian Pea Soup | Soupe aux pois
  This tasty belly-filling soup is a favourite of French Canadians.
• Poultine Rapées For many Acadians living in southeastern New Brunswick, Poultine Rapées, potato dumpling dish with a mixture of seasoned pork in the centre, is considered a national dish.
• Timon’s Poutine
  It‘s gross, it‘s messy and it‘s delicious! And Canadians love it!

• Fernand Lachance
  Is the inventor of poutine, originally used the French-Canadian word “poutine” to describe the mishmashed mess — french fries and cheese curds — would make. The name stuck. Poutine (pronounced poo-teen) is served in fast-food outlets from Toronto to Florida and from Venezuela to Rome.

• Newfoundland Flipper Pie
  Canadians living in Newfoundland (“Newfies”) prefer fish and chips, their favourite dish, but as stand-bys eat cods’ tongues, fried bread dough with molasses, and seal flipper pie.
• Timbits
  It's a round donut (doughnut balls) made from the donut hole? Tim Hortons — the coffee shop where Timbits are sold -- plays a number of valuable roles in Canadian culture, including confusing tourists with signs reading “One Hundred Timbits for a dollar!”.

How Canadians are Different?

• Lonely Planet
  Canada’s strength lies in its difference.
  Those expecting Canada to be a blander version of the USA should check their assumptions at the door. Canada's wild northern frontier, which has etched itself into the national psyche, and its distinct patchwork of peoples have created a country that is decidedly different from its brash neighbour.
  It’s the edginess between Canada's indigenous, French and British traditions that gives the nation its complex three-dimensional character. Add to this a constant infusion of US culture and a plethora of traditions brought by migrants, and you have a thriving multicultural society.
  
• History of Canada’s Health Plan
  "The chief difference [between Canadians and Americans] is in philosophy: Canadians are endeavoring to develop a health care system directed to health needs - not a competitive system to serve an illness market."
• Jokes
  "Apparently, Americans and Canadians prefer jokes that make other people look stupid." .... "Naturally, the top Canadian joke makes fun of stupid Americans."

• Pretty Funny Canadian Joke
  A man in a Florida supermarket tries to buy half a head of lettuce.
  The very young produce assistant tells him that they sell only whole heads of lettuce. The man persists and asks to see the manager. The boy says he’ll ask his manager about it.
  Walking into the back room, the boy said to his manager, "Some asshole wants to buy half a head of lettuce." As he finished his sentence, he turned to find the man standing right behind him, so he added, "And this gentleman has kindly offered to buy the other half." The manager approved the deal, and the man went on his way.
  Later the manager said to the boy, "I was impressed with the way you got yourself out of that situation earlier. We like people who think on their feet here. Where are you from, son?"
  "Canada, sir," the boy replied.
  "Well, why did you leave Canada ?" the manager asked.
  The boy said, "Sir, there’s nothing but whores and hockey players up there."
  "Really?" said the manager. "My wife is from Canada."
  "No shit?" replied the boy. "Who’d she play for?"

• Break Eh !
  "Well, we’re a team of 5 nomadic Ecuadorians that scour the web searching for cool Canadian content. I know it sounds weird, but it’s true. Why do this you ask? We love Canada. We go there on vacation to hunt moose, play hockey and enjoy the local flavour."
• Americans vs. Canadians vs. Brits
  Canadians:
    Encourage immigrants to keep their old ways, and avoid assimilation.
  Americans:
    Encourage immigrants to assimilate quickly, and dump their old ways.
  Brits:
    Encourage immigrants to go to Canada or America.
• Oh, Canada: Our Nutty Neighbors to the North
  " Our friends to the north are socialists who drift aimlessly from secession over “parlez-vous francais?” to capital punishment for Chanel No. 5. These are folks with a little too much time on their hands —largely because of high unemployment. They taunt the U.S and we take it because we need British Columbia skiing. But, we should not fall for their socialist ploys. "
• Our Resentful Little Brother
  "Little brother [Canada] is not a bad guy by any means. But he is skinny, short, and not nearly as popular or important amongst his friends. He has a lot of talents and other positive attributes, but he’s dwarfed by the aura of big brother [USA]. Little brother has an esteem problem."
• What is a Canadian?
  "Canadian political and cultural leaders have based this new national “identity” largely on an embrace of the lifestyles, customs, and traditions of Canada's latest immigrant groups. But if Canada is to be defined by its multiculturalism —that is, by the cultures brought here from the outside, especially in the last few decades— then this implies that there is actually no such thing as Canadian identity and culture."
  [French Canadians do have a distinct culture and want to maintain it. The rest of Canada does not and it’s culture is in transition.]

Canadian Fashion Statements

• Lumberjack Shirts
  "Around for years — and worn with pride by a long, illustrious line of Canadian iconoclasts from Bob and Doug McKenzie, and the Quinlan Quints, to the inimitable senior statesman of flannel, Neil Young — the plaid shirt has become the unofficial symbol of the land of the true North, strong and free."
• Tuque
  Canadians wear tuques: "stocking caps that are warm, knitted, and usually pointed".
• (For factual info see “Fashion”)
  

Canadian Values

• Canadian History & Culture
  "Canadians value: Peace, Justice, Tolerance, Loyalty, Humanity / Human Rights, Respect for Authority, Vision, Equality, Strength, Beauty, Spirituality, Non-Violence. That's what the True North, Strong and Free, means to me. We are a nation of nations, a community of communities, united in our diversities, with values of our own, and proud of it."
• Language Debate
  "In my belief, rights are rights are rights. There is no such thing as inside rights and outside rights. No such thing as right for the tall and rights for the short. No such thing as rights for the front and rights for the back, or rights for East and rights for West. Rights are rights and will always be rights. There are no partial rights." [Translation from French] –M. Clifford Lincoln, 1988 Québec´s National Assembly
• The Great Canadian Identity Crisis
  "We are a nation of contradictions floating helplessly in a sea of confusion with no framework for living, with no proper definition of justice and without a single philosophical clue as to how a nation of civilized men interacts and sustains itself."

Canadian Peacekeepers/Peacemakers

• "The country the world forgot - again
  The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1 per cent of the world's population has provided 10 per cent of the world's peace-keeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peace-keepers on earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peace-keeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia."

Canadian Communication

• Internet Killed Canadian Spelling
  "I have always been a proud Canadian speller. I love all our extra "U´s" - colour and neighbour just look wrong any other way. A cheque is something you take to the bank while a check is a tick mark or square of colour on cloth. Reversed "re´s" seem to give words like centre and theatre a little extra je ne sai quoi."
• Canadian literature
  "If Canadian literature had to be distilled into a single word, for the sake of comparison with all other literatures, that word would be satire. Satire has jokingly been called Canada´s national sport. From its two famous contemporary television political satire shows, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce back through time to the very early Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock, Canadians have used satire not only to entertain, but also to promote societal reform."
• What are Canadians Like?
  "Sure, we´re predictable in some ways. A lot of us play ice hockey. Even more watch the sport at the rink or on television (Hockey Night In Canada is a popular t.v. date). We also talk a lot about the weather. Sometimes, we complain about it — but that's just our way. In fact, we rather pride ourselves on the splendid variety of our four seasons and our ability to take each of them in stride!"