As Canadian As Possible Under The Circumstances

My Canadian wife informed me that today is Dominion Day. But she dates herself. Actually, it's now called Canada Day (since 1982). Canada Day commemorates the day in 1867 when Britain slapped together a few sections of its North American territory and called it a nation. And Britain wanted it to be a nation, eventually, and more and more so as time went on. But Canada balked for some time, and has had a hard time figuring out what kind of nation it wanted to be ever since. It's only been relatively recently that Canadians (except, of course, the French Canadians) have started to think of themselves as anything other than British subjects. It wasn't until the 1950s that Canada started really trying to be a separate nation, and began to encourage national celebrations of Canadianness. But in Canada there are many centrifugal forces at play, from the separatism of the Québécois, to the desire for autonomy among the indigenous peoples of the north, to the squabbles between Newfoundland and Labrador, and Labrador and Quebec, and those between and among Ontario, the Maritimes, the Prairie Provinces, and British Columbia. And even among those who identify themselves as Canadian (a surprisingly small percentage of whites of English background), there is great disagreement over the meaning, importance, and even desirability of being Canadian.

Canada is as much a melting pot of peoples as America. But it's colder up there, and some of the ingredients in the alloy just refuse to melt. And all the while, they try to forge an identity, different from their origins and, most importantly, different from the colossus to the south. The Canadians are mostly proud of their English heritage, and are generally welcoming to their more boisterous cousins to the south. Their men at arms have done great service in the West's wars against tyranny, fascism, and Islamism. Yet because they are not a people "born of an ideal", they are more timid in the ideological fights against the enemies of the West. They have not enough an idea of themselves. And while Canadians accustom themselves to the idea of being a nation, the bureaucratic apparatus has no trouble trying to impose its vision of Canadianness on that nation. Americans have lately gotten used to reading about new outrages of national paternalism and enforced political correctness from Canada almost every week. And the Canadians, with a few exceptions like Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant, seem to take it with a certain button-lipped equanimity. Perhaps that gets to part of the essence of being Canadian. The the winning entry to 1972 Canadian radio contest put it well. Asked to complete the aphorism, "As Canadian as...", the winner wrote "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances."

Andy Update: Mazurland's regular readers know that my son Andy is on a long bicycle excursion from Central Pennsylvania to Newfoundland and back. Late last week he left Bar Harbor, Maine on a ferry for Nova Scotia. After touring that province for a while, he was to board another ferry for Newfoundland. We're hearing from him more sporadically since he left our shores, so we're not sure exactly which Province he's in. Roaming charges, spotty cell phone reception, etc. My wife wonders if he's taking part in any Dominion Day celebrations. If so, it's likely at a half-hour stagger from the rest of the country. Off-kilter Newfoundland is one of the few places in the world with a half-hour time zone offset.