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Oh Canada?
Posted in: Blog by Kate Weersink on July 12, 2010
With Canada Day having just passed, I thought it would be appropriate to talk a little about our favourite country. Every year when we all proudly wear our red and white while watching fireworks on July 1st it makes me think about what we’re actually celebrating. Yeah sure, Canada’s birthday, but what does it mean to be Canadian? What really makes Canadians, Canadians?
While I was studying at McMaster, I was lucky enough to go on exchange for a semester to Denmark. The biggest culture shock while I was there was just how similar everyone was. They look the same, act the same, wear the same thing, it’s a culture that really is simple to describe to someone because of how homogeneous it is. Seeing this made me realize just how unique Canada is. When attempting to describe what is Canadian in one of my classes while I was there, I don’t think I have ever stumbled over my words more. Danes were blown away with the fact that I couldn’t pin point one traditional Canadian meal, or one Canadian language. When I mentioned the ethnic communities that we are so familiar with in cities like Toronto they were amazed and couldn’t understand how Canada was made up of “mini countries” within one.
This idea of Canadian identity came up again last week when I attended an event that United FC, Empowerment Squared’s recent adoptees, put on as a fundraiser. If you don’t know (which you should if you’re following us), United FC is a soccer team in Hamilton that is made up of young men from 11 different countries. They are all newcomers to Canada and most of them are refugees or come from very difficult backgrounds. While we were having dinner they all told us their stories about why and how they made it to Canada.
One of the coaches of the team did an interesting thing to introduce everyone. He stood at the front of the room and told the boys that if he was Canada, he wanted them to spread out across the room and stand where their home country was. The boys scattered across the banquet hall. One by one, he called them up and asked the boys to tell everyone what country they were from and a little about their background. To hear all of them explain about the hardships they had gone through and why they loved Canada so much couldn’t have defined Canada better.
Yes Canadian identity is confusing, it’s difficult for many Canadians to distinguish who they are and what they stand for. And no, Canada doesn’t have one ‘Canadian’ language, one ‘Canadian’ food, and most certainly cannot be described in one word but seeing these boys come together from 11 different countries, and hearing them explain why they were so happy to be in Canada seemed like a true definition of what it means to be Canadian.
P.s. You want to talk about identity crisis – yes, I know this picture is still of Erika. Who am I!?
