Reflections On Canadian National Identity

Living in Canada for a couple of years now, Canadians have been trying to do a pretty good job in explaining to me that many things in Canada are SO much better than in the States. I met only few Canadians who considered their country and the United States as more or less two things of the same kind, just as I did when I came here from Europe but many more who almost felt insulted when I - asked for my view as an outsider - argued that there are not too many obvious differences between the two countries. While it may be true that many Americans are indifferent towards Canada and might not even know that the Raptors are not an American basketball team, I started wondering what remains from the “Canadian national identity” if one takes out the “American factor” defining how Canadians do NOT want to be. Is there a Canadian national identity at all?

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Still, Canada is not alone; it has two siblings with a similar history: Two countries sent into independence by Britain about a hundred years ago, still under Queen Elizabeth’s reign, relying on immigration and today embracing multi-cultural, multi-lateral and progressive ideas as a national agenda. Since they are far away from the States, their need to distance themselves from America is not as strong as in Canada but the lack of a deep-rooted national identity can be felt there, too.

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There’s no way back to Britain for those countries but the question is what is lying ahead. The multi-cultural approach might be less offending for others than a specific national agenda, but how do you stick out in a multi-polar world without polarizing? Not to define a national frame is the easy way but is it also the high road? America channeled her multi-cultural, multi-ethnical body with a national agenda from the beginning. This national agenda transformed into a consensus of what is American or not.

Although this consensus is discriminating at times, it is being reframed over and over again and it eventually serves to build up a strong national identity among Americans. What can Canada learn from this? Of course it should not just copy the American way, but it should rebuild the way it defines herself.