What makes people Canadian?

[ITSec]

Some people wondered why I was so concerned with the loss of Leonard Cohen - so I wrote the following.

People often ask what makes Canadians different - more often than not, it's Canadians themselves asking, but there's more to the question than most people realize. Canadian identity is more than hockey, beer, maple leaves (and syrup), and making fun of Newfoundlanders (our most loved targets of internal humor, and a replacement for ethnic jokes). It's more than being the nicest people on Earth (hard work, but we're committed to it!).

More than anything else, Canadians are defined by a fairly small group of very talented people, concentrated in just a few professions - almost all performers or writers or other creative types. Leonard Cohen was one of the foremost of them.

But if you want to define a Canadian, or see how conscious they are of being Canadian, ask them about any of these people or groups who helped form the modern Canadian identity - roughly from the oldest to the most recent. This list is missing many who are worthy - but who just didn't help make Canadians think about what it was to be Canadian.

• The Friendly Giant (Robert Homme - and I'll call Rusty!)
• Wayne and Shuster
• The Group of Seven
• Chief Dan George
• Dave Broadfoot and the rest of the Royal Canadian Air Farce
• Gordon Lightfoot
• Stompin' Tom Connors
• Ian and Sylvia Tyson, and Great Speckled Bird
• Joni Mitchell
• Stephen Stills and Neil Young along with most of Buffalo Springfield
• The Guess Who
• Daphne Odjig, my friend Jackson Beardy, and the others in the Professional National Indian Artists Incorporation, better known as the Indian Group of Seven
• Rush, especially their lyricist Neil Peart (motorcycle content!)
• Most of the members of Second City Television (SCTV)
• CANO (Cooperatif des Artistes de Nord-Ontario), Perth County Conspiracy, The Box, Bim and Valdy, and k.d. lang
• Margaret Atwood
• Bruce Cockburn
• Kim Mitchell (and the rest of Max Webster)
• David Suzuki
• Ian Thomas
• Farley Mowat
• The Tragically Hip
• Red Green
• Sarah McLachlan
• The Northern Pikes
• Mike Myers, and Russell Peters
• The team at 'This Hour has 22 Minutes', especially Cathy MacDonald and Rick Mercer
• and for now and always, the NFB - the Canadian National Film Board

If you don't recognize a lot of these, it's probably because you're not Canadian. 

To reiterate - I've missed many, and others I've left off because no matter how much they are remembered, they didn't make Canadians think about being Canadian the way these people did. Like Leonard Cohen, many of them are no longer creating new work - but they are always going to be here, their voices, words, images and glances as permanent as the granite of the Canadian Shield.

Who can't help thinking of a small home in a secluded part of Montreal, perched on the banks of the St Lawrence, when they hear Leonard Cohen sing...

"Suzanne takes you down, to her place on the river; You can hear the boats go by, and you can spend the night forever."

[Xlratr]

Canada is high on my list of countries I'd love to visit.
(PS. I think Stephen Stills is from Texas)


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[oldbike54]

Canada is high on my list of countries I'd love to visit.
(PS. I think Stephen Stills is from Texas)


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 Yep ,Dallas , although if Canada would come and retrieve that bleeber kid we will let them claim Stills

 Dusty

[SaskMick]

I'm a Canadian and I'm not different.

[Penderic]

Don Harron as Charlie Farquharson ...



 

[beetle]

Doesn't being born in Canada make you Canadian?

[ITSec]

Doesn't being born in Canada make you Canadian?

No, but it gives you a head start 

[Muzz]

I don't see Celine Dion in that list.......

[pete roper]

Doesn't being born in Canada make you Canadian?

Yeah, I thort that too but might extend it to having a Canadian passport/citizenship as, like Oz, the US, NZ, most other places, people come and go in droves often not having been born anywhere near the place!

Look at our mate Ray, he's DC Tanzanian and "black as coal" boy did the pub go quiet first time he wandered in! He bought a mate down from Sydney last week! Two VERY black blokes in the back bar! I was waiting for the sound of exploding heads!

Bungendore is VERY white! 

Pete

[Steph]

I'm a Canadian and I'm not different.

Same here, eh 

[leafman60]

I've traveled to Canada many times and truly love it.

Every area of North America has regional differences.  However, whether you like it or not, Canadian and US people are damn near the same. Going into Canada for me is no different than me traveling to Ohio as far as everything is concerned.   

Wonderful place and so easy to experience because we are so closely linked.

NOW- the most attractive part of Canada that I have visited regularly is ---- NEWFOUNDLAND.

The people there are the most genuine and hospitable of anywhere I've found.  I find them similar in many ways to the Deep South in which I live.

Stop making fun of them! You only make yourselves look bad! lol


Good grief, you left out Captain Kirk!!!!

[Aaron D.]

Good list, IT.

I had a dual citizenship as a kid, spent all my summers on PEI, still have the accent. More to it than music, or even a decent cup of tea!

Did you leave out Good Company on purpose? Stan Rogers?

[JJ]

Yes..good list...and you forgot that they all have to sing......."O' Canada!" (LOL) 

[sliphorn]

Two of the greatest jazz musicians that ever lived were Canadian; Maynard Ferguson, trumpet, and Oscar Peterson, piano. Both from Montreal.

[oldbike54]

 Tommie Chong , in real life one of the great gentleman alive .

 Dusty

[PeteS]

How about Marshall McLuhan, the medium is the message, and David Suzuki, "We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit."

Pete

[chuck peterson]

Eh?

[Aaron D.]

Uh, Nick, it isn't so simple. More than that I will not say on the forum but my experience is quite different.

[charlie b]

I would hate to be defined by artists and entertainers (which includes sports players).

I don't dislike any people unless that person shows a tendency to enslave or otherwise harm others.  Has nothing to do with international boundaries.

Being Canadian is no different than being American or German or Italian, etc, etc.  In most cases it is simply where you live.

[oldbike54]

 No politics fellas .

 Dusty

[Steph]

Yeah, I thort that too but might extend it to having a Canadian passport/citizenship as, like Oz, the US, NZ, most other places, people come and go in droves often not having been born anywhere near the place!

Look at our mate Ray, he's DC Tanzanian and "black as coal" boy did the pub go quiet first time he wandered in! He bought a mate down from Sydney last week! Two VERY black blokes in the back bar! I was waiting for the sound of exploding heads!

Bungendore is VERY white! 

Pete

Pete, have you ever come across any of this?
Listen to the interview, pretty funny:

'Australian politician says use of the word 'Canadian' as derogatory term will no longer be tolerated'

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thisisthat/montreal-hard-hats-meatme-canadian-in-australia-running-of-the-bulls-1.3293190/australian-politician-says-use-of-the-word-canadian-as-derogatory-term-will-no-longer-be-tolerated-1.3293251

[ITSec]

I don't see Celine Dion in that list.......

There are some who help us define being Canadian by what they are - and we are not. See Wikipedia under "Justin Bieber' for further info. 

[ITSec]

Good grief, you left out Captain Kirk!!!!

Yup - and Lorne Greene too! Actors that were a big effect on our younger lives, but not ones who really made us think of what it meant to be Canadian.

[ITSec]

Good list, IT.

I had a dual citizenship as a kid, spent all my summers on PEI, still have the accent. More to it than music, or even a decent cup of tea!

Did you leave out Good Company on purpose? Stan Rogers?

I was trying to stick with people who had a lot of influence across the whole of the country, rather than being regional (though of course I had to throw in The Box even though they were much stronger in Quebec than elsewhere - special status for Quebec is also part of being Canadian!  )

[ITSec]

Two of the greatest jazz musicians that ever lived were Canadian; Maynard Ferguson, trumpet, and Oscar Peterson, piano. Both from Montreal.

They were on the list when I started - along with Holly Cole and Diana Krall - but they got dropped when I did serious weeding to remove people who might BE Canadian, but who didn't help create a 'Canadian identity'. Again, just my humble opinion. I have albums by all four of these artisists, as well as some lesser known jazz artisists from Canada, like Winnipeg's Ron Paley and his band Paleyentology.

[ITSec]

Tommie Chong , in real life one of the great gentleman alive .

 Dusty

He is  - I've met him twice (briefly) and he was gracious and funny. But outside of his home base in Vancouver, he didn't have a lot of influence on Canadian culture - probably less than he did in the US. Just watch out for Sister Mary Elephant!

[ITSec]

How about Marshall McLuhan, the medium is the message, and David Suzuki, "We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit."

Pete

David Suzuki's there in the list - I skipped McLuhan, as important as he was and is, because while Canadians are justifiably proud of him he didn't have a huge effect (IMHO) on what it is to be a Canadian.

[ITSec]

I would hate to be defined by artists and entertainers (which includes sports players).

I don't dislike any people unless that person shows a tendency to enslave or otherwise harm others.  Has nothing to do with international boundaries.

Being Canadian is no different than being American or German or Italian, etc, etc.  In most cases it is simply where you live.

I understand how you might have that perspective - but (as I mentioned) one of the things that is most 'Canadian' is to ask 'what is it that makes us Canadian?'. It's something Canadians do (a lot) and always have. Likely it comes of being next door to an overwhelmingly dominant culture. PM Pierre Trudeau once described life in Canada as 'sleeping with an elephant'.

As for how I presented this and the examples used, it was for two reasons - the first, it was inspired by the recent death of a famous Canadian artist.  Second, it was a way to talk about this without introducing politics. I lived near the Ozarks for years, and had relatives there; I can describe the area in terms of its music, the landscape, how people live and the communities they share, without ever getting into discussion of things that are divisive. That's the approach I wanted here.

[nick949]

No politics fellas .

 Dusty

Sorry Dusty - feeling froggy. I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Nick

[trippah]

My cousin became a Canadian thanks to the Vietnam War.   This Canadian thing seems, at least with your dog breeds, to be very cloak and daggerishish - with the Labrador Retriever coming from Newfoundland, and the Newfie coming from Labrador.  Don't really know about the people of Newfoundland, but the Landseer Newfie is possibly (all right, definitely, the greatest dog ever!).