For Canadians, the only thing worse than losing is winning. Canada doesn’t celebrate its heroes or embrace its history. The country struggles to define itself, other than by having universal health care and not being American.
Canada’s contradictory and elusive nature has been explored with much hand wringing over the past century, but author Andrew Cohen skilfully laid bare the collective Canadian psyche at Royal Roads University last Thursday.
Author Andrew Cohen and Royal Roads University president Allan Cahoon.
Taking from his 2007 book The Unfinished Canadian, the Carleton University journalism professor and Ottawa Citizen newspaper columnist asked why Canada is so reluctant to understand and commemorate its accomplishments, and so content to forget its past.
“I call it the Unconscious Canadian. He or she doesn’t know their past. We stumble around in a fog as a nation of amnesiacs,” Cohen said.
He noted that students in his classes are often dimly aware of historical figures like John A. McDonald or Lester Pearson. Two-thirds of Canada’s historic sites are crumbling, he said, citing an ignored portion of an Auditor General’s report. Unfortunately, it was the same report that exposed the federal Liberal sponsorship scandal.
Cohen described Canada’s history as fragmented at best. Unlike the volumes of material produced on dead presidents in the United States, Canadian historians show little interest in influential prime ministers. The CBC’s Greatest Canadian had more contemporary TV personalities, Cohen said, than actual great Canadians.
“(Wilfrid) Laurier and Pearson hardly made the list,” he said. “It was about celebrity not history.”
Cohen said The Unfinished Canadian was borne out of what is quintessentially Canadian: a hockey game. When the national women’s hockey team trounced all-comers in the 2006 Winter Olympics, commentators like Don Cherry announced it was “un-Canadian” to win by such a wide margin.
Worrying instead of celebrating is indicative of Canada, Cohen says. “We hate to lose until we win,” he said. “It spoke to me as revealing that the core Canadian character has a problem with success.”
Canada’s other great pastime — vilifying the United States and defining itself as not America — are non-starters, Cohen said. He called Canada’s obsession with not being American the “narcissism of small differences.”
Cohen agreed there are national differences when it comes to health care and guns, but he suggested the people of both countries are migrating toward a cultural unity, for better or worse.
He said Canadians and Americans are similar in obesity rates and personal debt. Canada is adopting American style political habits, like fixed election dates and parliamentary hearings for judges, he said, while some U.S. states are softening on capital punishment and same-sex marriage.
“There are no two people in this world more alike than Canadians and Americans,” Cohen said. “In our strange and tortured relationship with the U.S., we are best friends whether we know it or not.”
Cohen broke down Canada’s identity into different facets — the Unconscious Canadian who knows nothing of history; the American Canadian, who holds onto great myths of national differences; the Casual Canadian, who is flippant about the responsibilities citizenship; and the Capital Canadian, who is indifferent about Canada’s lacklustre capital city.
Cohen suggested much of the Canada’s ongoing identity crisis stems from being reluctant to engage in a national dialogue on the obligations of citizenship, the merits of multiculturalism, or why a rich nation like Canada doesn’t have a greater role to play in the world.
This ambivalence allows Canadians to accept a lacklustre approach to its symbols and leaders. Cohen said Ottawa has “third rate architecture” and is a poorly represents strengths of the nation. Similarly, he said the prime minister’s official residence is desperate need of repairs. “We think it is OK for the prime minister to live in a genteel shabbiness. It’s a reflection of how we see politicians.”
“Other capitals, Rome, London and Paris have been made as a repository for the ambition and desires of a nation,” he said. “I find our ambition in Victoria, Edmonton and Quebec City.”
Despite the finger wagging at Canada’s stranger attitudes, Cohen said the country’s moderate approach has served it well. He said Canada tends toward good political decisions by consensus. The country’s ambiguous nature is one of its greatest political strengths, he argued. The Quebec separatists asked ambiguous questions and the Clarity Act was so unclear as to be brilliant, he said.
“The future Canadian is the unfinished Canadian. It’s when we decide who we want to be in the world.”
Royal Roads University - News and Events
Canada’s contradictory and elusive nature has been explored with much hand wringing over the past century, but author Andrew Cohen skilfully laid bare the collective Canadian psyche at Royal Roads University last Thursday.
Author Andrew Cohen and Royal Roads University president Allan Cahoon.
Taking from his 2007 book The Unfinished Canadian, the Carleton University journalism professor and Ottawa Citizen newspaper columnist asked why Canada is so reluctant to understand and commemorate its accomplishments, and so content to forget its past.
“I call it the Unconscious Canadian. He or she doesn’t know their past. We stumble around in a fog as a nation of amnesiacs,” Cohen said.
He noted that students in his classes are often dimly aware of historical figures like John A. McDonald or Lester Pearson. Two-thirds of Canada’s historic sites are crumbling, he said, citing an ignored portion of an Auditor General’s report. Unfortunately, it was the same report that exposed the federal Liberal sponsorship scandal.
Cohen described Canada’s history as fragmented at best. Unlike the volumes of material produced on dead presidents in the United States, Canadian historians show little interest in influential prime ministers. The CBC’s Greatest Canadian had more contemporary TV personalities, Cohen said, than actual great Canadians.
“(Wilfrid) Laurier and Pearson hardly made the list,” he said. “It was about celebrity not history.”
Cohen said The Unfinished Canadian was borne out of what is quintessentially Canadian: a hockey game. When the national women’s hockey team trounced all-comers in the 2006 Winter Olympics, commentators like Don Cherry announced it was “un-Canadian” to win by such a wide margin.
Worrying instead of celebrating is indicative of Canada, Cohen says. “We hate to lose until we win,” he said. “It spoke to me as revealing that the core Canadian character has a problem with success.”
Canada’s other great pastime — vilifying the United States and defining itself as not America — are non-starters, Cohen said. He called Canada’s obsession with not being American the “narcissism of small differences.”
Cohen agreed there are national differences when it comes to health care and guns, but he suggested the people of both countries are migrating toward a cultural unity, for better or worse.
He said Canadians and Americans are similar in obesity rates and personal debt. Canada is adopting American style political habits, like fixed election dates and parliamentary hearings for judges, he said, while some U.S. states are softening on capital punishment and same-sex marriage.
“There are no two people in this world more alike than Canadians and Americans,” Cohen said. “In our strange and tortured relationship with the U.S., we are best friends whether we know it or not.”
Cohen broke down Canada’s identity into different facets — the Unconscious Canadian who knows nothing of history; the American Canadian, who holds onto great myths of national differences; the Casual Canadian, who is flippant about the responsibilities citizenship; and the Capital Canadian, who is indifferent about Canada’s lacklustre capital city.
Cohen suggested much of the Canada’s ongoing identity crisis stems from being reluctant to engage in a national dialogue on the obligations of citizenship, the merits of multiculturalism, or why a rich nation like Canada doesn’t have a greater role to play in the world.
This ambivalence allows Canadians to accept a lacklustre approach to its symbols and leaders. Cohen said Ottawa has “third rate architecture” and is a poorly represents strengths of the nation. Similarly, he said the prime minister’s official residence is desperate need of repairs. “We think it is OK for the prime minister to live in a genteel shabbiness. It’s a reflection of how we see politicians.”
“Other capitals, Rome, London and Paris have been made as a repository for the ambition and desires of a nation,” he said. “I find our ambition in Victoria, Edmonton and Quebec City.”
Despite the finger wagging at Canada’s stranger attitudes, Cohen said the country’s moderate approach has served it well. He said Canada tends toward good political decisions by consensus. The country’s ambiguous nature is one of its greatest political strengths, he argued. The Quebec separatists asked ambiguous questions and the Clarity Act was so unclear as to be brilliant, he said.
“The future Canadian is the unfinished Canadian. It’s when we decide who we want to be in the world.”
Royal Roads University - News and Events
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