Canadian Identity on July 1

Canada Day, as many of the nation’s inhabitants see it, is a chance to take a day off work, drink Canadian beer and enjoy sustained media coverage of so-called Canadiana. Few of us truly see this day as a chance to celebrate our nationhood or cultural identity with our fellow citizens, and it is easy to understand why.

Canada has always been a country of immigrants and newcomers, and therefore we do not have an established identity that so many nation-states around the world so easily come by: we do not have the proud history of France, the current prowess of America, nor the religious homogeny of Iran, and are left grasping at straws.

Canadian diversity has brought about a whole range of positive effects and it is almost impossible to ‘argue’ against it in any way. Regardless, however, the fact remains that this multicultural state is still far from having any kind of national identity, even if our mainstream media outlets seem to feel differently.

Media Effect

The media in Canada has been anxious to create some kind of Canadian identity, if for no other reason than the simple fact that it is easier to sell stories (and thus newspapers) if we are talking about people who see each other as being similar to themselves. This, of course, is not really a new fabrication; the media in Canada has been keen to press issues of identity on Canadians since the days of John A. Macdonald.

The fact that the media see Canada Day as the time to bring out their BBQ recipes, happy stories of immigration successes, and a chance to quiz readers/viewers on Canadian history speaks to the fact that the holiday is so meaningless to many Canadians.

Every year, we see various surveys from the Pew Institute, or Decima, or CTV-Globe and Mail decrying the lack of knowledge of Canadians on the background of the county in which they now live. We are forced to endure this silliness in part because there is an expectation that Canada Day must mean something that unites us, and to deny this is somehow un-Canadian.

Future Canada Days

Whether Canadian media outlets continue to portray our July 1 celebration as something that should be feted, is something that is yet to be determined. What is essential to note, however, is that Canada continues to become more multicultural and diverse each day, and the difficulty in establishing some kind of national identity only becomes harder.

In terms of the direction we appear to be going on currently, the fact that Canadian identity seems to be so closely tied to Chatelaine magazine, National Post quizzes and CBC specials is somewhat troubling. Shouldn’t our national identity have more to do with us as a people than how our media chooses to spin this?

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