Nationalism & Identity

Forewarned

Canadians are a disparate lot, their huge country created by volunteers from every other nation and consequently none too sure of just what it is itself.

The story is told of an early European explorer, Jacques Cartier, who asked the local natives what the area was called. They answered "Kanata" and the term was subsequently applied to the northern half of the North American continent. Only later was it discovered that the word actually meant 'a small fishing village'.

Canada is the second largest country in the world (after Russia). Most other countries would fit several times into one Canadian province. Its largest island, Baffin Island, is roughly twice as large as Great Britain (yet has only 28 settlements); there are national parks that are bigger than Switzerland; some of its lakes are larger than most seas – there's surf on a windy day on Lake Superior, for heaven's sake (though the most surfing that Canadians are ever likely to do is at home on the net).

Bordered by no less than three oceans, Canada is the country with the most coastline in the world. One glance at the northern islands and you will understand why. The nation doesn't have much coastline on the Pacific side because the Americans somehow got away with buying Alaska from the Russians and thus laid claim to more than their fair share. But that's OK. Canadians are not resentful, and it turned out to be more of a liability in any case after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker had passed by.

Canada as a country is a conundrum. It is a savage land with gentle people, an enormous territory but sparsely populated, a wilderness at the forefront of technology, a culture defined as much or more by its regions as by any homogenous whole. Common ground comes with layers of protective clothing against -30°C of cold.

How they see themselves

To talk glibly of a Canadian identity is to conjecture, because this has yet to be firmly established. As one of Canada's poets sagely noted: 'It is only by our lack of ghosts that we are haunted.' The fact of the matter is that Canadians have no identity and are keenly seeking one. Canada's political bestsellers are often angst-ridden commentaries with titles such as Canada on the World Stage: Is Anyone Listening? and The Future of Canada: Does Nationalism Even Matter?

Much time and government funding has been spent in the public contemplation of the question of nationalism. One thing that everyone can agree on is that Canadians are NOT American. Any other statement made about Canadians pales in the face of this one.

Being NOT something else could be seen as the guiding principle around which the whole of Canadian society is based. (French Canadians have less of a difficulty with being NOT American, but are equally obsessed with protecting their identity and being NOT English Canadian, so the principle is the same.) Consequently, anything the Americans do C