What is Canada?

What Is Canada?

A day after Canada's 142nd birthday, 23 quick thoughts on what is Canada?:

1) The collectivist land of "Peace, Order, and Good Government," which often prevails above individual liberty.

2) The land of official, government multiculturalism since 1988.

3) The land of Anglo-French bilingualism and accommodation, but also the land where claims for full Native self-governance (as opposed to autonomy) are crushed.

4) The land of perpetual "death certificates" for Quebecois nationalism, but Quebecois nationalism frequently returns to plague Canada with profound existential crises.

5) The land that loves to say that it is a more caring society than the US in terms of universal medicare, university grants, employment insurance, crime statistics, race relations, quality of life, and international image.

6) The land that if you ask people what Canada is, there will be millions of answers for our 35 million inhabitants.

7) The land that is one of the most de-politicized countries in the world both domestically and in terms of foreign relations.

8) A G-8 and G-20 economic powerhouse.

9) A signatory to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but a land that knows little about the third signatory nation, Mexico.

10) A signatory and leading player in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

11) The creator of the UN Blue Helmets, the peacekeeping force created by former Prime Minister and Nobel prize-winner Lester Pearson.

12) The land that generally oscillates between English and French-speaking prime ministers, but sometimes I wonder if we are ready for a black, Jewish, or Muslim prime minister in Canada.

13) The land that still has a monarch for the head of state, although we speak the language of democratic governance.

14) The land that saw thousands of Canadian die in two world wars, with over 40,000 killed in WW II.

15) The land that is the second biggest country in the world in terms of area.

16) The land where urban/rural divisions are profound in terms of political allegiances, worldviews, and lifestyles.

17) The land that has produced a very colourful Prime Minister P.E. Trudeau, as well as cultural and intellectual heavyweights such as Leonard Cohen, Alice Munro, Marshall McLuhan, and George Grant.

18) The land where Protestantism, Catholicism, and Native spiritualism are the major religions, but hockey is the national religion.

19) The land where nature, the weather, and winter dominate conversations. I wish we would be more original!

20) The land where you can be a hyphenated Canadian and it is chic, but secretly detested by those non-hyphenated Canadians that see multiculturalism as a sham and waste of money.

21) The land that will still be trying to chart its identity 100 years from today.

22) The land that has a stunning range of natural beauty, unique cultural enclaves, numerous languages, and peoples living peacefully.

23) The land that is the immigrant-receiving society of the world par excellence. Immigrants have built Canada and it is time that merit more fully determine Canadian social, cultural, and political life.

Tamir Bar-On