Jump to content

What does it mean to be Canadian?


Recommended Posts

It's the fading displaced anglo tribe I so cherish that adopted me as a child into their nation - what was their nation to begin with..but I did land with a boat in Quebec City...I guess being less than a year old and being born in Britian I was already indoctrinated into dispising France and the French.. :lol: English Canada still exists - but I am afraid that our immigrants will breed them out of existance - that is what Trudeau's long term plan was....

Oleg, it is sad that you believe that English Canada will no longer exist, and that you believe that this was Trudeau's intention. (The French in North America have survived worse than Trudeau. OTOH, the English have little to fear.)

IMV, this thread should really be entitled: What does it mean to be English Canadian?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 397
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Oleg, it is sad that you believe that English Canada will no longer exist, and that you believe that this was Trudeau's intention. (The French in North America have survived worse than Trudeau. OTOH, the English have little to fear.)

IMV, this thread should really be entitled: What does it mean to be English Canadian?

What I have seen is that poor anglos - are being destroyed--displaced and ignored - I don't care if these are the poor and more unsavory members of the old family -- You abandoned your own - Yes the upper classes are still having fine families - I see in my gentrified neighbourhood - attractive anglos with beautiful new children - there is hope..but you are out numbered..and will eventually disappear..You can not ignore your poor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing.

Canadians are luckier than most people in the world. They live in a relatively well-governed, affluent and relatively free country.

If it doesn't mean something to you, it should.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What does it mean to be a Canadian? I am curious to hear your responses on this debate.

What is the fine line between maintaining a pluralist, multicultural society all while preserving, and promoting a national Canadian identity?

a quote from Julius Evola comes to mind... and it applies to Canadians as well:

"The Americans' 'open-mindedness', which is sometimes cited in their favour, is the other side of their interior formlessness. The same goes for their 'individualism'. Individualism and personality are not the same: the one belongs to the formless world of quantity, the other to the world of quality and hierarchy. The Americans are the living refutation of the Cartesian axiom, "I think, therefore I am": Americans do not think, yet they are. The American 'mind', puerile and primitive, lacks characteristic form and is therefore open to every kind of standardisation.

In a superior civilisation, as, for example, that of the Indo-Aryans, the being who is without a characteristic form or caste (in the original meaning of the word), not even that of servant or shudra, would emerge as a pariah. In this respect America is a society of pariahs. There is a role for pariahs. It is to be subjected to beings whose form and internal laws are precisely defined. Instead the modern pariahs seek to become dominant themselves and to exercise their dominion over all the world." (Evola Civilita Americana)

Canadians are also incapable of distinguishing between good and bad... as cultural relativists seldom do... They have been taught that "discimrination"... is perhaps the greatest of evils... worse then child molestation or murder...

"The consequence of the 'do your own thing' democracy is the intoxication of the greater part of the population which is not capable of discriminating for itself, which, when not guided by a power and an ideal, all too easily loses sense of its own identity."

Canadians ruined their national identity and weakened their nations (perhaps terminally) in order to have lots and lots of social justice and crime... They evidently are resolved to ruining the country their saner ancestors built for them... They have become a dead nation, waiting for the undertaker.

Being Canadian means nothing, save perhaps an extremely gullible and suicidally liberal derangement of the mind.

Edited by lictor616
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Canadians are luckier than most people in the world. They live in a relatively well-governed, affluent and relatively free country.

If it doesn't mean something to you, it should.

I was being a bit flippant with my reply... of course I appreciate the fact that I live in one of the best places in the world to live. After all, that was pretty much the point of my family going through not one but two immigrations to get here. But "being Canadian means living in a nice place" is not really the answer this thread was looking for as I see it. The subject was more one of national identity, and in that regard, being Canadian does have relatively little meaning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Canadians ruined their national identity and weakened their nations (perhaps terminally) in order to have lots and lots of social justice and crime... They evidently are resolved to ruining the country their saner ancestors built for them... They have become a dead nation, waiting for the undertaker.

Being Canadian means nothing, save perhaps an extremely gullible and suicidally liberal derangement of the mind.

Beneath your incoherent rant I cannot tell if you are an extreme left or right-winger. I am not Canadian, but I find your attitude towards your great land utterly shameful.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The subject was more one of national identity, and in that regard, being Canadian does have relatively little meaning.

It means in part gratitude towards living in a great place. I am not very much like a Texan; but the tear that goes up in my eye with the singing of the anthem or the waving of the flag in a warm wind is the same as a Texan's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE CANADIAN?

I've read alot of the posts hear, and most get it, but not all.... goggle is full of what it means to be Canadian, in fact over 220,000 hits worth....and while alot get it "what it is like" alot i think don't spend enough time on the topic....

So here is "WHAT I THINK IT MEANS TO BE CANADIAN:

- It means living in a nation that has more freedoms than most....

- It means having all the basic human rights and more than most nations

- It means Having access to oportunties that most do not...

- It means living in a diverse french and english enviroment...

- It means living in a country with a proud and colorful history

- It means living with lots of space. Lots of trees, rocks, lakes.

- It means wondering how American you are or how much you've become.

- It means really thinking about what it means to be Canadian,

- it means wondering what was the fox network thinking when they put the blue icon around the puck...

- It means having to learn a different accent and form of the english language after traveling a few hours by car...

- It means having to learn french, and thier culture....but it also means thier our french Canadians so back off....

- it means having to wait another 40 years before Toronto wins the cup...

- It means having beer with 5 % in it...

- It means defending the poutine recipe as a national secret..

While most of my life has revolved around the military, and trying to live up to it's past exploits and those great Canadians that have served before me, the rest of our nation has not been resting on it's laurals, We've as a nation have contributed more than our share to this tiny planet we call earth, and it is something we can be proud of...something we can stand up and say hey thats Canadian.....

And while we do spend alot of time wondering around seeking out what it means to be Canadian, it is staring us right in the face....We are the guys that sit in the back of the bus minding our own bussiness, keeping a low profile , not wanting to make any waves....But when something does happen within the world we are there....we toss our quite demeaner away , we take our shirts off and get the job done, not any job, we take on those that are said can't be done.... we are a nation that reaches out with a helping hand, we are a nation that will take a stand to help the little guy....or big Guy....

Don't get me wrong we are far from perfect, we are quick to piont out your faults, we are quick to say we don't want to be Americans, mean while consuming everything that is American to the piont we sometimes forget who we are....we are more liberal than most , not all of us but most....Our sense of justice is a little wrapped as we like to give the advantage to the bad guy....and sometimes forget about the victim... We don't like capitol punishment but we will club a seal, kiss a dead cod, or boil alive a lobster....

To sum up all this, Being Canadian for me is an honor that i proudly wear every day when i don my uniform....my chest fills with pride every time i hear our national athem, or see our flag run up the flag pole....for me i reflex on every great Canadian moment in time, Vimy ridge, Juno beach, Terry fox finishing his run, the Canada arm being used for the first time, the 1976 Canada /Russia hockey game....these and many more is what make me proud to be Canadian...It's what gives me goose bumps when we land after coming home from operations....i'm just glad I can be counted as one of the lucky Canadians to live in our great nation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that I live in Ontario, it seems that the Canadian culture is to not have one of its own, but be a mix of others. Most importantly, our culture is to "pretend" to not be like Americans.

Eliminate the southern US, and we are the same as far as I can see, but have far less pride in who we are. We want to be part of the cultures of people who are immigrating. I'm 10th+ generation Canadian; even my last name is originally Canadian. I did however say that once at work, and was shamed for it. I guess my culture is to be good to other cultures, as it is wrong to have a culture that can be only identified with Canadian.

Opps, I forgot. In Ontario, Toronto seems to dictate what our culture should be.... They are multinational, so the rest of us must pretend to be...

Edited by DFCaper
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that I live in Ontario, it seems that the Canadian culture is to not have one of its own, but be a mix of others. Most importantly, our culture is to "pretend" to not be like Americans.

Agreed...it is a definition that consistently lacks substance without some eventual reference to the "Americans".

Why is this so? Has it always been thus? Long live the UnCola.

Eliminate the southern US, and we are the same as far as I can see, but have far less pride in who we are. We want to be part of the cultures of people who are immigrating....

No...that would only work on a superficial level. Americans from all parts of their country have some inherent traits that would be considered incompatible with "Canadian culture".....whatever that is.

Opps, I forgot. In Ontario, Toronto seems to dictate what our culture should be.... They are multinational, so the rest of us must pretend to be...

Yes...and now a plastic bag costs five cents.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes...and now a plastic bag costs five cents.

I bought the other long term bags for a buck. But overall it is a great idea to charge 5 cents a bag. You'd be surprised how many people will not buy bags. It is also a good way to generate revenue for a grocer. Offsetting the cost of buying the bags in the first place.

The one thing that kind of irked me is they are trying to save the environment and money by going this route, but in the end the cost of the advertising /materials to promote this idea has just ate up that little influx of cash the bags generate. And those posters will end up in the landfill anyways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Army Guy made these tentative suggestions... I apply my replies in parentheses...

"So here is "WHAT I THINK IT MEANS TO BE CANADIAN:"

- It means living in a nation that has more freedoms than most.... (increasing less freedom- more public regimentation and legislation seriously curbing our right to freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom to keep firearms)

- It means having all the basic human rights and more than most nations (basic human right without the right to sovereignty, the right to freedom of association)

- It means Having access to oportunties that most do not... (its true we could not take advantage of other nation's resources as most freely do of ours)

- It means living in a diverse french and english enviroment... (diverse, and weaker for it, with endless divisions and tensions and log rolling issues to boot)

- It means living in a country with a proud and colorful history (being proud of our ancestors can actually get you into some serious trouble at the hands of the PC elite, I was vocal once about Champlain and Wolfe at my university, and was cited for not recognizing that they were and i quote "racist, sexist, incestuous, homophobic murderers and thieves")... so yup...

- It means living with lots of space. Lots of trees, rocks, lakes. (that are increasingly being bought up and sold to foreign interests... Richmond BC... is chinese now, and the Chateau frontenac and quebec fort is Saudi property...)

- It means wondering how American you are or how much you've become.(? too american?)

- It means really thinking about what it means to be Canadian, ( if you have to think about it... chances are its not very obvious)

- it means wondering what was the fox network thinking when they put the blue icon around the puck...(oh yeah that one I agree)

- It means having to learn a different accent and form of the english language after traveling a few hours by car...

- It means having to learn french, and thier culture....but it also means thier our french Canadians so back off....(? I've never been anywhere in ontario where people liked Quebecers)

- it means having to wait another 40 years before Toronto wins the cup... (no... in 2049 they'll still only have black and white pictures of their last cup)

- It means having beer with 5 % in it... (europeans have some with 9% and much higher, and cmon: german/belgian beer vs canadian beer... me thinks germansgot it better)

- It means defending the poutine recipe as a national secret.. (la banquise restaurant having unlocked it)

its pretty cute, but not likely to endure or be something that even a quarter of the population believes in... again all that most people are able to come up with are small empty and meaningless clichés...

Edited by lictor616
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(increasing less freedom- more public regimentation and legislation seriously curbing our right to freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom to keep firearms)

Anyone that has done any traveling will still tell you Canadians are very fortunite with the freedoms we have, and enjoy in our daily lives...

In Canada there is no freedom to keep firearms, your confusing us with our brothers down south....

(being proud of our ancestors can actually get you into some serious trouble at the hands of the PC elite, I was vocal once about Champlain and Wolfe at my university, and was cited for not recognizing that they were and i quote "racist, sexist, incestuous, homophobic murderers and thieves")...

One of the reasons they are colorful, but regardless of who those person where , they are still responsable for providing the building blocks for this nation....much like during WWI and Quebec empty out it's prisons , to fight in the front line trenches....they still played a role in defining who we are as a nation, and put us on the path to becoming a nation...without them where would we be now....Sitting behind a computer judging thier character i guess....

(that are increasingly being bought up and sold to foreign interests... Richmond BC... is chinese now, and the Chateau frontenac and quebec fort is Saudi property...)

True enough , but Canada is rich in resources and in the long run does it really matter who actually has ownership, it's not like they can take it home, and these assets can be siezed for a number of reasons....

(? too american?)

I think that is the piont we have more in common with the Americans than we think, or would like and while it seems to be a national past time to complain about them, we continue to assimulate thier culture, and the very things we complain about....

( if you have to think about it... chances are its not very obvious)

It stares you in the face everyday, and yet we say it's not there....or we have to think about it....

(? I've never been anywhere in ontario where people liked Quebecers)

Thier like your little brother, they can be a pain in the ass, but in the end they are your little brother, and they do make up what it is to be Canadian like it or not....

(europeans have some with 9% and much higher, and cmon: german/belgian beer vs canadian beer... me thinks germansgot it better)

Ahh German beer, while true they are fine brewers of that liquid gold....one has no chioce when it is a nations past time....one has to ask why it thier beer has not caught on in Canada....

its pretty cute, but not likely to endure or be something that even a quarter of the population believes in... again all that most people are able to come up with are small empty and meaningless clichés...

Yes some of them are cute and meaningless cliches, drawn up to poke fun at our culture or put some humor into the fact we truely have problems indentifying with our selfs....but for most there is no other country we rather be in...or risk our lives defending.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The one thing that kind of irked me is they are trying to save the environment and money by going this route, but in the end the cost of the advertising /materials to promote this idea has just ate up that little influx of cash the bags generate. And those posters will end up in the landfill anyways.

This plan has absolutely nothing to do with the environment. It is a profit generating campaign. No more, no less. If they actually cared about the environment they would replace the plastic with the old paper bags. They have not done so. None of them have. Instead they're selling thicker, heavier plastic bags.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beneath your incoherent rant I cannot tell if you are an extreme left or right-winger. I am not Canadian, but I find your attitude towards your great land utterly shameful.

But quite in keeping with official policy, and quite approved by all the politically correct types in media, culture, politics and academics.

A Canadian. What is it? Why, it's anyone who has the proper documents from the government. No more. No less.

To suggest there might be more to it would at least imply that recent immigrants who just stepped off the boat a year or so ago and can barely speak the language, were not EVERY BIT AS CANADIAN as someone born raised and living here the last forty or fifty years.

Because they are, you know. As they parade past in their burkhas and turbans, clutching their daggers and glaring hatefully at women sluttish enough to show bare arms, they are every bit as "Canadian" as I am.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As they parade past in their burkhas and turbans, clutching their daggers and glaring hatefully at women sluttish enough to show bare arms, they are every bit as "Canadian" as I am.

I was compiling a bit of a list of what makes a Canadian - so added to the above

We can bearly speak English and French, we are still Canadian

American is not our mother tongue, we speak English and French

Hockey is everywhere

We are the 2nd largest country of the world

Get a Tim Horton means to get a coffee

Rita McNeil is one large Canadian

A news anchor on CBC can be bald

Chapters and Indigo are bookstores

A toque is a hat

We are peackkeepers

Any small talk eventually include a discussion of the weather

During the summer people head for cottage country

Gas stations are filling snowmobiles in winter

We give distances in time, not miles

We ask whether you would like “a coffee” rather than “some coffee”

You can get your beer at the beer store

We say it is grey not gray

The Beaver is a history magazine and is also an animal

kraft dinner is mac n cheese

a laneway is the alleyway

we put away instead of put up

a cupboard is the pantry

tea towel is a dish rag

we say we will phone instead of call

a chesterfield is a couch

We BBQ instead of cookout

We say Grade 10 instead of 10th grade

We don’t ask you if you want a sack to put your purchases

We will write a “cheque” instead of a "check”

We use elastic bands instead of rubber bands

We start from the top of the world

and we are the country on top of America

the average Canadian is busy dogwalking not dogsledding

We tell you we don't live in igloos eh..and it sounds like a question eh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was compiling a bit of a list of what makes a Canadian - so added to the above

We can bearly speak English and French, we are still Canadian

American is not our mother tongue, we speak English and French

Hockey is everywhere

We are the 2nd largest country of the world

Get a Tim Horton means to get a coffee

Rita McNeil is one large Canadian

A news anchor on CBC can be bald

Chapters and Indigo are bookstores

A toque is a hat

We are peackkeepers

Any small talk eventually include a discussion of the weather

During the summer people head for cottage country

Gas stations are filling snowmobiles in winter

We give distances in time, not miles

We ask whether you would like “a coffee” rather than “some coffee”

You can get your beer at the beer store

We say it is grey not gray

The Beaver is a history magazine and is also an animal

kraft dinner is mac n cheese

a laneway is the alleyway

we put away instead of put up

a cupboard is the pantry

tea towel is a dish rag

we say we will phone instead of call

a chesterfield is a couch

We BBQ instead of cookout

We say Grade 10 instead of 10th grade

We don’t ask you if you want a sack to put your purchases

We will write a “cheque” instead of a "check”

We use elastic bands instead of rubber bands

We start from the top of the world

and we are the country on top of America

the average Canadian is busy dogwalking not dogsledding

We tell you we don't live in igloos eh..and it sounds like a question eh

empty piffle...

I think we've proven that we canadians have lost the ability of saying "US" or "WE" and having it mean more then meaningless, pathetic clichés that aren't even true for the majority of "us"...

Say CHINESE... and you know EXACTLY who you're talking about. Say "Canadian"and you have NOTHING...

You can thank our multicultralists for having effaced our national identify and sense of peoplehood... sense of who we are as a nation...

Out of our foolish belief that peoplehood and common descent are trivial matters, we have lost any basis for unity... any rudiment for NATIONHOOD... and we will soon feel the consequences of this folly... it may be that our children (lol if REAL Canadians continue having them) will curse the day they were born...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You may have been born here but you are still of immigrant origin

I say I'm lucky to be canadian and proud of Canada...only immigrants can be truly proud to be Canadian cause only they have done something to become Canadians...I was only fortunate to be born here.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

:lol: Compromise!! That goes to show how brain-washed you are! Many of you whine about Indians and all the so-called benefits yet you don't even realize that whites wrote the laws that pertained to indians. If the indians have it so good, then why don't you clowns make everything like a reserve? Try to wrap your twisted brainwashed brains around that question and answer it? :lol:

Good answer. I like that....to an extent.

But on the flip side, if the Americans have a sense of Identity, why is it assumed we do not have one?

Now a trickier question....we can compromise, but to what extent?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know ... I'm really tired of the self-flagellating Canadian tendency to disrespect ourselves, saying we have no "identity".

Who the hell came up with that idea ... Bruce Hutchinson was it? ... and we've been punishing ourselves for it ever since. Stupid, really.

I certainly know when I'm home in Canada, because I act, and people react, the way we do in Canada. Can't explain it, but it exists, and it's comforting to me, and that's all I could want.

I like skating and toques and Tim's, and clamato Caesars, lineups at the beer store on snow days, everybody on their front porch on the first warm day of spring and loooong summer evenings.

So sue me! :D

Edited by tango
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know ... I'm really tired of the self-flagellating Canadian tendency to disrespect ourselves, saying we have no "identity".

Who the hell came up with that idea ... Bruce Hutchinson was it? ... and we've been punishing ourselves for it ever since. Stupid, really.

I certainly know when I'm home in Canada, because I act, and people react, the way we do in Canada. Can't explain it, but it exists, and it's comforting to me, and that's all I could want.

I like skating and toques and Tim's, and clamato Caesars, lineups at the beer store on snow days, everybody on their front porch on the first warm day of spring and loooong summer evenings.

So sue me! :D

According to Ralston Saul, our Canadian identity is "Metis". Our cultural icons, symbols and names of cities all have roots in aboriginal culture, and being from Anglo-European settler backgrounds we have adapted and assimilated their ideas into our "Canadien" culture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know ... I'm really tired of the self-flagellating Canadian tendency to disrespect ourselves, saying we have no "identity".

Who the hell came up with that idea ... Bruce Hutchinson was it? ... and we've been punishing ourselves for it ever since. Stupid, really.

I certainly know when I'm home in Canada, because I act, and people react, the way we do in Canada. Can't explain it, but it exists, and it's comforting to me, and that's all I could want.

I like skating and toques and Tim's, and clamato Caesars, lineups at the beer store on snow days, everybody on their front porch on the first warm day of spring and loooong summer evenings.

So sue me! :D

"I act and people react"

rock solid stuff there...

and

"I like skating and toques and Tim's, and clamato Caesars, lineups at the beer store on snow days, everybody on their front porch on the first warm day of spring and loooong summer evenings."

again absolutely nothing concrete, real or even true for most people.... WE don't even have "beer stores" in quebec we go to the corner store!

the question again has been conclusively answered: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CANADIAN IDENTITY. Being Canadian has no profound meaning whatsoever other then tired and silly clichés that aren't even true for the grand majority of us...

tim hortons? really guys ... really? is that all we can come up with... no wonder we're so liberal...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Tell a friend

    Love Repolitics.com - Political Discussion Forums? Tell a friend!
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      10,714
    • Most Online
      1,403

    Newest Member
    wopsas
    Joined
  • Recent Achievements

    • Jeary earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Venandi went up a rank
      Apprentice
    • Gaétan earned a badge
      Very Popular
    • Dictatords earned a badge
      First Post
    • babetteteets earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...