The My Canada Project - we are neither all roses nor all thorns
Let's explore our Canadian identity and nationalism during the 150th anniversary of Canada. Be inspired, have an impact but question, learn and discuss.
What is the My Canada Project: I hadn’t planned to write anything during this project, but as I spoke with friends and random strangers, it became clear that my reasons for doing this project mattered to them. More importantly, it mattered why they should care about participating and how they could contribute. To explain my initial oversight—call it arrogance—I assumed it was obvious why I was doing the project. So here are the reasons why I’m doing this and why I would like you to participate, whether you’re a friend or a stranger, whether your perspective is positive or negative.
1. To explore identity
Canada is a difficult concept. Canada is a difficult country. The reasons why we belong to any group are complex, more complex than we like to admit, and more problematic than we want to admit. By exploring the identity of Canada through you all, whether born here or moved here, we all get to see how the multi-faceted tapestry that is our Canadian identity weaves in and out of our lives.
How we identify with Canada as individuals is greatly important to how we explore our nationhood.
2. To explore nationalism
Around the world, nationalism and populism are on the rise. We cannot be arrogant that it won’t happen/isn’t happening in Canada. Canada was described once to me as a country without an overarching “nationalism” but rather one that is “We are not the USA.” I cannot say how wrong that statement was and how upset it makes me. I do not wish to say that nationalism is a bad thing—it brings people together, it creates a force that can withstand great turmoil, and it can accomplish incredible projects. However, the myths that are told to create that sense of nationalism are hugely important—and let me reiterate—they are in fact “myths.”
That mythos binds us together, but it can also be the same thing that divides us and even leaves many feeling alienated and “outside.”
3. To explore what “150” actually means
I found out through chatting with people that they assumed this was all about saying how fantastic Canada is/was and how we are celebrating “150.” It’s true, I am proud of Canada and being Canadian, and I will happily wave a flag on Canada Day. But 150 is just as much a myth as any other nation-building myth out there. Newfoundland, with which I identify most strongly, has not even been in Canada half that time. The First Nations have been here 1,000 times or more of that length, and the myth of “two” founding nations 150 years ago adds to a myth that might leave others feeling “outside the norm,” as Erwin Warkentin so eloquently put it about his German background. To explore what Canada means today to us is very important as we build the future.
We can decry the past, we can learn from the past, but we cannot live in the past.
4. To learn, discuss, and debate
This project is by no means an exercise in positivity or negativity. But let’s face the fact that we are neither united nor as divided as others would make us believe. We may be facing “first world problems” in some cases, but the fact that we can complain about such things is what it means to build a long-lasting and meaningful community through which we can affect change in the world. In other cases, like with many communities in the world, we are facing a time of great upheaval. We are also at a reckoning with our past—what we have done to people in the past and what we should not do to people in the future. Neither a country nor an idea is built in a day, month, or year; it takes a very long time.
Discussing what is bad in Canada is just as important as celebrating what is good.
5. To inspire and to impact
The goal of anything we build and do as humans on this short mortal coil is to have an impact. This project is here to inspire you to take a look around you, to explore what it means to be Canadian—not today, but maybe tomorrow. We can spend a lot of time looking south of the border. While I do not denigrate the impact of what happens in the world’s most powerful nation, our individual and group ability to stand together—tall, proud, free—and speak with a clear purpose and voice is what will define us.
Be inspired and have an impact, not because of others, but because of what you feel inside.
Now… tell me about your Canada.