I have been thinking about what it means to be Canadian.
Since I started writing this blog about life in France and with flights in Switzerland, I have only published sometimes about my country of origin. Just although Canada is no longer at home, it is still a great part of who I am.
It is strange to talk about belonging to a place where you have not lived for 30 years. However, I was born in Canada and the first half of my life (more or less years in the United States) I spent there. It was the years of training, that give you values and create a feeling of who you are.
Canadian identity was a topic of hot debate when it was growing. There was the question of sovereignty, and the fact that our head of state was the queen (now the king); Then there was the separatist movement of Québec and the French division often bitter vs English.
Ironically, most of our identity does not come from who we are, but from what we are not: that is, American.
What we are: Beer drinkers. Hockey players. Peace lovers. Musicians Comedians Diplomats Well to turn off fires.
We believe in universal medical care. We are proud to be good neighbors. We send many Canadair water bombers to help turn off the fires in California.
We have two official, English and French languages. But we also have a multitude of unofficial indigenous languages, and hundreds or immigrant languages such as Mandarin, Punjabi and Arabic.
What we are No It’s about money. We are not bigger, but we want to do better. Less about power and more about law. Not the melting but the cultural mosaic.
Growing up in the shadow of superpower to the south, Canada felt somehow less than. We were larger in the earthly mass and natural resources, but much narrower in any other way. Some, including people close to me, thought or us as a second rate, unimportant. I know many who moved to the United States, where you can earn much more money and pay much less taxes.
A book, “how to be Canadian,” has been sitting on my shelf for some years. It was written by the brothers Ian and Will Ferguson in 2007, but it is still 100% relevant today. It’s funny, the book of the book you read in fragments. He returns to that from time to time to remind Myelf or what is to be, if not the largest country in the world, one with the greatest feeling of self -critical humor.
Both in Canada has changed since I moved that I no longer feel completely legitimate when talking about it. When I grew up, we were 20 million; Today we have more than 40 million. Since I left in 1992, the country has changed their ways that I have lost, both figuratively and literally. Toronto, my hometown, has exploded in a metropolis that I barely recognize. However, Canada remains, not only the true strong and free north, but faithful to himself.
And nobody can take that away.
