So Kris and I went to a hockey game on Tuesday. The printing company that prints his magazine has a box so we got free food and drinks (I had a whole can of gingerale...it WAS Tuesday night). Plus, we didn't have to sit with the plebes. It was suprisingly fun though a little bizarre and I'll tell you why.
I just finished writing the chapter in my research essay on theories of ethnicity and ethnic conflict. There is a popular argument that ethnic/national identity is formed and maintained through a collective emotional attachment to various myths and symbols. These myths and symbols (flags, folksongs, poems, wars etc...) and the emotion attached to them are passed down and modernized by each consecutive generation. For example, Serbs fought a huge battle against the Turks in the area that is now Kosovo over 600 years ago in 1389. The battle is now commemorated every year on June 28th and is seen as the defeat of the first Serbian empire even though it lasted almost 100 years longer. This battle, and Kosovo itself has become this intense national symbol for Serbia in the last couple of centuries which is part of the reason why the conlfict there is so intractable.
Anyway, on to the point of this. I have struggled with defining what it is to be Canadian for almost my entire university career (which is getting a little long I might add). I used to be content in the assertion that part of what it means to be Canadian is that we have no specific identity - that there is not uniformity. But now I think that's bullshit. We have our myths and symbols and stories. It was so obvious to me in a packed hockey arena surrounded by people drinking Tim Horton's. It may seem ridiculous, but those ARE national symbols.
I have realized since the hockey game that we are lucky. We are at the beginning of Canada. We are shaping what generations hundreds of years from now will hold dear to their national hearts. We have to remember that Canadian citizenship has only been in existence for 60 years and we are making the history that will be commemorated. That's awesome and we should take pride in our task.
So for anyone who felt ashamed to be Canadian when our soldiers tortured the Somalian teenager but felt proud when Jean Chretien explicitly linked the 9/11 attacks to Western policy, I want you to help me define this country. Tell me why you are Canadian and, if you can remember, when you first felt it.
4 comments:
This is a tough one, and it shouldn't be. We have talked about this before when discussing Will Ferguson's books. My first gut instinct is to say I'm Canadian because I'm not....American. But there is more to being Canadian. I'll get back to you on this one.
I'm thinking on this one as well - it may have been in my wonderful grade 12 history teacher's (Mrs.Groome)class when I first really pondered being Canadian or it may even have been as young as in grade 5 when we studied the explorers, or it may have been the Viet Nam war or it could have been visiting the California cousins on Gpa's side and knowing I was very fundamentally different from them- I'm not sure I just know I love being Canadian.
You know what I also thought of - being at the July1st Canada Day celebration on the hill in Ottawa last year with you and how proud I was of that beautiful maple leaf flag which everyone either wore or was waving and such diversity - everyone should experience that in their lifetime.
I think I felt my most Canadian when I saw, for the first time, giant posters promoting our federal seperatist party in my neighbourhood.
Allowing assholes who want to destroy the country to be our official opposition, now that takes balls.
Canada size balls.
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