Oh, Canada!

On this day, 139 years ago, the British North America Act created the dominion of Canada, uniting the British colonies of Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario & Quebec), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Reading my paper this morning, there were the usual articles about things to do in and around the city, and festivities that will be taking place across the country and elsewhere around the world where ex-pats have settled: I was amused by this story about the first-ever festival to celebrate Canada Day in London. Imagine playing in a ball hockey tourney in the middle of Trafalgar Square! There was the usual mention of the Maple Leaf Pub, where Canadian ex-pats gather annually for a big Canada Day celebration. There was a heartwarming story published in the Toronto Star a few years back about a father who flew to London to surprise his son at the Maple Leaf.

I never did make it out to the Maple Leaf although I must have been through Covent Garden at least twice during my trip to London in April. Since my cousin has recently moved there, a trip back will definitely be in my future. Maybe I can time it so I'm there to take in the festivities first-hand.

Aside from all the good news stories, there are the usual reflective "what does it mean to be Canadian?" stories. Inspired by the Danish government's initiative to establish a canon of Danish arts and culture, the Toronto Star undertook a project to come up with a "definitive" guide to the works Canadians need to know in order to understand their cultural history. They called the guide, Essentially Canadian and in the week leading up to Canada day, published the long lists for their 9 categories: Children's Entertainment, Movies, Visual Arts, Books, Design, Music, Architecture, Theatre and Television.

The Top Ten lists, as determined by their 36 panellists, was published today, and based on the lists that would probably be most relevant to me, I must say that there’s much Canadian Culture that I have not been exposed to. On the Essential Music list, I know about ½ the names on the list, but have only ever heard 3 of the songs: Joni Mitchell’s 2 entries and The Guess Who’s American Woman.

On the Essential Architecture list, I must agree with the iconic Chateau Frontenac and the TD Centre as they are so clearly identified with their respective city’s skylines.

The only play on the Essential Theatre list I had seen was Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Goodnight, Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, which was staged by CanStage about 5 years ago—the cool thing about that production was seeing MacDonald, who is also an actor, portray the title roles she had penned.

I thought I might have done better on the Essential Books list since I like to think I do a pretty good job of supporting Canadian authors and reading their works, but sadly, I’ve only read Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of A Lion. I’m not so much a fan of what I call “Old School Can-Lit” by authors like Alice Munro, Gabrielle Roy, Robertson Davies and Margaret Laurence (I had to read The Stone Angel in school and couldn’t relate at all to the experiences of small town life; Fifth Business was OK, but still not a fave.)

The entry of the CN Logo in the Essential Design list elicited a smile because it reminded me of the co-op work term I spent at CN Rail. One of my “special projects” was ensuring the integrity of the logo on the various documents and reports that our group published.

The one pessimistic article in today’s news kicked off the paper’s series of essays that will run from July to November called Canada in 2020. Andrew Cohen’s A Virtual Country suggests that thanks to rising immigration levels, Canada would be a nation in name only. Given that the word nation refers to two quite distinct ideas, he can be both right and wrong in his assertion.

On the one hand, there’s the definition of a nation as “a relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country”, and then there’s the definition of nation as “a people who share common customs, origins, history, and frequently language; a nationality.” By the former definition, he may very well be right. But if the later, than I would argue that Canada, as a country of immigrants, never had a common nationality to begin with: the French and the English who first settled in Canada, displacing the Native American’s might have both been European, but they both have distinct cultures—a point that is a bone of contention to this day amongst the Quebecois and the “Rest of Canada.”

Yes, Canada as a country is inclusive and we promote multiculturalism, perhaps at the expense of a national identity. But who says that my Canada has to be the same as your Canada? We all have different views on what being a Canadian means, and I’m not about to impose mine onto you. We ain’t them Americans, and that’s how we like it here.

Anyway, I never really meant for this to turn into a rant…but that’s what happened so I’m going to stop. I’ve a long cool drink and a BBQ to look forward to, so Happy Canada Day to you and yours.