For a city of its size and stature, I can't think of a truly Torontonian food. When visitors ask me for advice I usually recommend dim sum and jerk chicken. 🙂
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12. I'm known to be resentful by the extent to which Canadian culture ends up rounding to "I saw these ads on TV". For instance... let's talk about Tim Hortons.
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As far as I can tell, the national obsession with Tim Hortons (for Americans: chain with drip coffee and donuts) is largely a result of clever television ads featuring pan-Canadian themes and judicious sponsorship of youth hockey leagues. It's really... nothing special?
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(I have accidentally offended people by saying this before, and the fact that people are so defensive about a coffee chain tells you something. 🤔)
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13. I'm not the only one who has noticed this, either. Here's The Beaverton (Canadian version of The Onion) on the same issue: thebeaverton.com/2018/07/study-
Anglophone Canadians: we could have culture beyond brand loyalties! The Americans do it!
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14. Then there's the matter of politically-relevant identity, which is usually derived from history.
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I'm an outsider here, but my observation is: Americans seem to derive a lot of identity from their complex and globally important history, even the darkest parts (like the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, etc.).
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15. Canadians _try_ to derive identity from history, but it's hard because Canadian history is, frankly, objectively pretty short and boring?
This is not a dunk, to be clear. Exciting history was usually unpleasant to live through.
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16. Globally, Canada is just not nearly as relevant as the United States. Domestically, there's just... not that much to form a political identity around?
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Probably the most intriguing political event in 20th century Canadian history was the Quebec separatist movement, and it's awfully hard to form a political identity around a movement that wants to leave you.
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17. This definitely did not stop politicians, though. I know that all school history classes are political propaganda to some extent or another, but I feel like my (ministry mandated!) history education rose to unusual heights in that regard.
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When I was in school in Ontario, there was a four year sequence of classes dedicated to Canadian history (grades 6, 7, 8, and 10). That's... a lot of time to cover an objectively pretty small amount of content.
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18. The pinnacle of Canadian history propaganda was the coverage of the First World War. Canada fought in that war, but as a small part of the British empire. It's role was, decidedly, not that important (which is okay!).
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If you ask someone educated in Canada to name a WWI battle, there's a high chance that they will name the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
This is where Americans (and other non-Canadians) usually say... the battle of what?
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Objectively, the Battle of Vimy Ridge was not especially important. They captured a hill. Even Wikipedia says:
> the battle is not generally considered the greatest achievement of the Canadian Corps in strategic importance or results obtained
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Nonetheless, the battle is a pretty big part of Canadian culture. The Vimy Ridge Memorial is on the $20 bill!
(Image credit: Bank of Canada)
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The story goes: the British thought that taking the ridge would be too hard, so they sent in the four Canadian divisions as cannon fodder. But the Canadians gave it their best and took the ridge! And in that moment Canada became a Nation(TM).
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John Pierce's take is representative of the historical consensus, I believe:
> The historical reality of the battle was re-worked and reinterpreted in a conscious attempt to give purpose and meaning to an event which was to symbolize Canada's coming-of-age as a nation.
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19. Of course, there are plenty of great cultural artifacts produced by Canadians, but they get incorporated in a funny way. "It's by a Canadian author" gets used to defend e.g., a book group reading an otherwise mediocre book, in a way that you'd never see in the US.
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20. Another especially 🌶️ one: to a large degree, the primary thing that makes something Canadian is that it's not American.
American identity mostly stands alone, but Canadian culture is primarily defined in relation to the US.
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21. In some sense, I think that this is part of what happens when you share a continent and a heritage with a global superpower 10x your size.
On the other hand, I think that Canada would do well to "dance to its own music" rather than aiming to be "not American" above all...
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22. For instance, Canada engages in extensive cultural protectionism in a way that no country that we secure in its identity ever would. There are legal minimums (usually ~50%) on the percentage of "Canadian content" on TV/radio.
Wikipedia has a summary:
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23. I also think that this creates some pretty fuzzy thinking. For example, the monarchy is more popular in Canada than in other Commonwealth Realms (like Australia), I think in part because "having a queen" is a good way to be not-American. 😉
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24. In some cases, this fuzzy thing creates serious real-world consequences.
I think that Canadians are unwilling to address the shortcomings in their healthcare system in part because "we have 'free' healthcare and Americans don't" is such an integral part of national identity.
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25. Canadians also fall into the trap of being reflexively anti-American. I've never seen this as strongly as during the pandemic, when the narrative in Canada veered dangerously into "we have COVID cases because of the crazy Americans next door".
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After a string of tweets poking at Canada's cultural sore spots, I'm going to switch gears a little and talk about some of the things that I really miss about Canada.
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26. American culture *claims* to "live and let live", but I think it's actually more like a bunch of different groups trying to oppress each other.
Noah's framing here resonates with me:
Quote Tweet
America's problem isn't individualism, it's failed conformism. America is just a bunch of factions trying to hector, bully, criticize, and compel each other into conforming, but none of the factions has the power to overcome the others.
Show this thread
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In contrast, I've found that Canadians are remarkably more relaxed about cultural matters. Some of this might be downstream of Canadian multiculturalism, but I think a lot of it is just a slightly cooler demeanour in general. It's easier to be tolerant when you're chill.
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27. Related to the above, I feel like random people in Canada are more likely to actually *pay attention* to me and what I say I need, compared with Americans. I find it remarkably difficult to get Americans who I don't know well to pause their own narrative and *listen*.
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As a goofy example: I run really warm and feel ill when I overheat, so I often dress lightly even in the winter (yes, I realize I'm a walking stereotype here ❄️). In both Toronto and Boston I'm occasionally stopped by a stranger and told to put on a warmer coat.
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I usually respond with something like "I'm fine, thanks. I run warm and this is comfortable for me."
In Toronto, people back off and leave me alone. In Boston, I've been followed down the street (!) and insulted (!!) for refusing to acknowledge that I was under-dressed (!!!).
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I think the person thought that I was ungraciously refusing help? I genuinely think that they just couldn't stop their own narrative long enough to actually internalize the words that I was saying. 🤷♂️
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28. It's hard to assess this reliably, but I've seen Canadians be a lot more willing to go out of their way for strangers. I used to think that this was a climate thing when I lived in California: maybe something about inhospitable winters makes people more civic-minded.
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But then I moved to Boston, which gets plenty of cold and snow, and I still find that people take a much more "whatever" view when it comes to strangers and the public realm.
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29. My sense is that Canadians are much more willing to accept a good solution rather than a hypothetical perfect one, while Americans tend to demand the best solution and fall back to doing nothing when that's infeasible.
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A striking example is public transit: like American cities, Toronto can't build affordable heavy rail subways anymore, but they've managed to make do with a pretty impressive light rail (for Torontonians: street car) and bus network. Good enough, I guess?
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30. Modern Canadian culture is unquestionably cosmopolitan. For example, I am much more comfortable with Canadian attitudes towards immigrants than American ones.
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I don't experience this much myself, since I'm a "stealth foreigner" who doesn't read as foreign unless I want to. However, I find that many Americans default to treating immigrants as a sort of totem for political signalling, rather than, uh, actual people?
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I don't want to say much about the Trumpian "they're not sending their best" stance on immigration.
On the other side, there's a stance that I associate with the American center-left and various media institutions that I also find distasteful.
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This other view treats immigrants as helpless pets that you take care of to show that you're a good person, rather than real living people with agency and their own goals. It's obsessed with how Americans relate to immigrants, rather than the stories of immigrants themselves.
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