What Makes a Canadian Canadian?

For the past couple weeks, I’ve asked myself this question a lot. What make me Canadian? I asked around and one friend simply said, “a piece of paper”. I laughed, chuckled, and rolled my eyes, thinking there must be more than that. However, after thinking for awhile and talking to more people, it became clear that Canada is very diverse. Perhaps one of the most diverse places in the world. Canada is the second largest country, has the largest coastline, and more lakes than the rest of the worlds lakes combined. Canada is BIG. With “big-ness” comes variety, each province is unique and has different values and traditions. It’s hard to nail definitive stereotypes for Canadians as a whole. When compiling a list, some are true for me, and others are not even close. Nevertheless, here’s some bits of “Canadiana” from different parts of country:

Like I already said, we’re BIG and I think the band Arrogant Worms show this beautifully:

Canada can be cold, desolate, and the Land of Eternal Winter:

Of course, since we can get some pretty epic winters, it’s a no-brainer that Santa Claus calls Canada home. The skiing is not bad either, if you’re into that sort of thing…

We play all sports. As long as they’re hockey and hockey.

We enjoy food, that’s why we’ve created a few classics like Poutine, Caesars, Beaver Tails, and Hawaiian Pizza. I’m not mentioning the fast food chain Tim Hortons, their coffee tastes like floor sweepings.

We have vast areas of wilderness. Some of the largest intact ecosystems and forests in the world. Some of us try to explore it, for better or worse:

We even make movies about the bugs:

Although they’re our dearest friends and allies, we like to distinguish ourselves from being different than Americans.

We like to dance.

I’d like to think we’re more accepting of other nationalities than some other countries. Yes, our history with the First Nations is not good, for hundreds of years we’ve done terrible things, but it’s improving. One of the reasons our last government lost the elections was their refusal to accept more Syrian refugees. Canadians wanted to help more, we want to be more accepting, being mostly a country of immigrants.

I’m proud to call Canada my home and as our current and new Prime Minister said, “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”

Happy Canada Day from your crew at Last Frontier Heliskiing!

PS – Sorry for Justin Bieber

PPS – Apparently we have a reputation for apologizing to much. Sorry about that.