The Canadian identity struggle

This piece is not meant to be a 100% accurate read on Canadian culture and identity. These are just my views as someone who is still very much on the outside, but who has some perspective having lived here and interacted with Canadians (and a few Americans) for the past 3 years.

“Canadians and Americans are pretty much the same, aren’t they?” I made the mistake of saying that to a coworker in my first few months in Canada when I obviously didn’t know better. My question was met with typical Canadian passive-aggressiveness, as I saw my normally mild-mannered coworker try his best not to lose his temper as he politely detailed out how wrong I was, and how that might be offensive. But the truth is, Canadians want to be American so bad. They just don’t realize it. Or they do, but they’re in denial. I’m not sure if one is necessarily worse than the other.

To put it simply, they’re obsessed with American culture. It makes sense, neighbours often do share culture, and Canadians benefit greatly from having the most powerful nation on earth as their next-door neighbour. They refer to American movies, shows and pop culture as if they are their own. They invest more time and effort into American politics and elections than their own. The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched sporting events on Canadian TV. The Canadians who have ‘made it’ in the field of entertainment have made it because they went over to the US in search of real success. In fact, as Canadian president Barack Obama said during his visit to Ottawa in 2015, even Americans don’t realize that their favourite American actor/entertainer, is Canadian! Unfortunately, though, this is a one-sided relationship because the only time Americans think of Canadians is when there’s a hockey game, or if they want to poorly generalize yet another culture.

Being from South Asia, I can draw parallels to the relationship that India and Pakistan share. Of course, the Canadian-American relationship is nowhere near as contentious or complicated, but there are definite similarities. Pakistanis are often mistaken as Indians outside of their countries, a fact that is understandably irksome, considering the whole identity was built on ‘not being Indian’. The history of British India ended with the area that is now Pakistan choosing to secede from what is now India, similar in a way to how those loyal to the Crown decided to resist and not join the colonies into what morphed into the United States of America. Pakistanis know a lot more about India than Indians know about Pakistan. When Pakistan or Pakistani culture needs to be shown in Indian entertainment, it’s almost always based on uneducated, lazy stereotypes, just like Americans portray Canadians. Until a few years ago, there was a one-way cultural exchange with Pakistani actors often working in Indian films and their musicians topping the charts in India. Like the US and Canada have their hockey rivalry, India and Pakistan have an intense cricket rivalry. The parallels are uncanny. Both Pakistanis and Canadians, despite having shared heritage and culture with their noisy neighbours, are determined to prove they are different.

So how exactly are Canadians different then? For starters, they don’t have the same hustle and constant need to win that seems to consume Americans. I admire and am slightly jealous of the Canadian ability to be content with what you have. Everyone wants a nice house, a nice car, and a comfortable life for their kids, but that’s kind of where it stops. After a point, other things matter in life, rather than this constant need to win. But this is not a difference that’s immediately apparent to the outside world. So to truly show how this manifests into them being different, Canadians are addicted to this harmful substance called ‘being nice’. No one virtue signals better than a Canadian, and no one is better at moral grandstanding. (I mean, look at Trudeau). Americans might have the global prestige, the money, the soft power, but what’s the point of all that if you’re not nice? This is what makes Canadians different, what helps them stand out compared to their horrid, obnoxious neighbours. They might not have achieved as much, but at least they’re nice, polite people, and that’s all that matters, isn’t it? And you know what, in a way it does! The Canadian dream is not to be a millionaire, the Canadian dream is to be the best person you can be, for yourself and for the society around you.

In fairness, Canadians are generally nice people. At least most of the Canadians I’ve met have treated me with respect and kindness, but is that really so much of a differentiating factor or is it a glorification of basic human decency? Aren’t there better things to be proud of, or to use to differentiate yourself? And it’s not like there aren’t bad Canadians, or that even good Canadians don’t have issues, some of which I highlighted in my previous post. I also haven’t interacted with Americans enough to know if there is in fact, a difference in the ‘niceness’ of the two populations. There’s definitely a tendency to go over the top with this image, which does make it seem rather hollow, I mean if you’re a nice person, you don’t normally go around telling everyone how nice you are, right? It looks fake and makes it seem like you’re compensating for something.

Canadians have a lot going for them, and there are reasons why so many people from over the world, including myself, want to come and live in Canada, even more than the USA these days. That said, there should be no reason for this insecurity. Identity struggle is real though, made even more difficult when you are neighbours with a country that has such a dominant presence in the world. In trying to carve out their identity though, Canadians run the risk of losing themselves even further by focusing on non-unique things like being decent human beings. It’s weak and does more harm than good.