There's more to a Canadian than not being American
Winnipeg Free Press
July 3, 2000
Winnipeg Free Press
July 3, 2000
We were walking down a scenic North End pathway close to the Red River when the young voices drifted over to us in the spring evening.
"Americans are so stupid," a male voice said. "They think we're all Eskimos or something." Yeah came the approval from others. Another young male voice added his two cents to the conversation.
"My grandmother, she lives in Birmingham and I asked her to sing our national anthem, and like, she couldn't." Gasps of disbelief.
"Americans are so dumb," confirmed a female voice putting an exclamation point on the discussion. As we rounded the corner the disembodied voices now had a physical origin. They were four teenage kids - probably junior high age sitting on the railings of a wooden bridge, legs swinging and minds a-whirling.
Cana-duh! This is what passes for a Canadian current events debate among young people today - Anti-Americanism. But hey, that's the way we seem to define ourselves anyway. There's not much happening in too many peoples lives outside of pop culture - American dominated pop culture. We watch their television, their movies, listen to their music, read their books and magazines - but we are not the same and we're certainly not as dumb and ill-informed. (I'd like to see This Hour Has 22 Minutes' Rick Mercer train his camera and loaded questions on unsuspecting Canadians and ask them about the US government.) So why do we depict ourselves as not American as opposed to Canadian? It's like asking a younger brother or sister to tell a little bit about themselves and then launching into a description detailing how much they are not like their older brother.
It's because the commercial media has taken over teaching our kids what it is to be Canadian. And they are selling a stereotype right back to us. What's most important about being Canadian is that we call it a chesterfield and not a couch. That we play and watch a lot of hockey and that 1972 and Paul Henderson are the last time we had anything to be proud about. And if we do play hockey it is always outdoors, there are snow-capped mountains in the distance, and we sing the national anthem before having a coke.
Unfortunately Hockey Night in Canada only really happens during the regular season as our Canadian teams barely make the playoffs if at all, and are done in the early rounds. Not to mention packing up and leaving altogether. So we watch a Stanley Cup series entirely played in another country while local news shows are on their death beds.
J.L Granatstein an author and former university professor believes this confusion over identity stems from the pauper status Canadian history has in our schools. In his 1998 book Who Killed Canadian History Granatstein says "Canada must be one of the few nations in the world, certainly one of the few industrialized states, that does not make an effort to teach it's history positively and thoroughly to its young people." And he's right. The teaching of Canadian History is crumbling faster than the neglected momument to those who fought at Vimy Ridge. In Grade Eleven or Senior Three as it is now called, Canadian History is crammed into one semester making it impossible to teach thoroughly and completely. If we have no control over what kids see on television and movies - we do have control over what we teach them in school. So make Canadian History worth two credits taught over the full year with pre and post confederation compulsory courses - so in the second half there can actually be some time spent on the latter twentieth century history. And make it chronological again. This theme approach has kids bouncing from the fur trade up to free trade and then back again for the next unit. It makes it difficult to teach and to learn. We need good citizens not empty shells with job skills.
And finally I am reminded of a young woman I met at a party last year. We had been introduced by a mutual friend and were in the process of telling each other what we did while the World Series played on the television in the background. When I told her I taught, she seemed impressed. Until I told her I was a History teacher. She replied that she didn't care for the subject. I told her, half in jest, those who do not remember History are doomed to repeat it. No, no, she said, sensing a misunderstanding. I didn't repeat History, I just didn't like it too much.
So in a land where many Canadians would rather cheer for the country their parents immigrated from rather than the place they were born and raised, where our own history seems second class and treated accordingly and the media sells our own stereotypes back to us - that we are outdoorsy, hockey playing, unfailingly polite non - Americans - our identity becomes even more vague. Flag waving on Canada Day only goes so far. We need to do more.
"Americans are so stupid," a male voice said. "They think we're all Eskimos or something." Yeah came the approval from others. Another young male voice added his two cents to the conversation.
"My grandmother, she lives in Birmingham and I asked her to sing our national anthem, and like, she couldn't." Gasps of disbelief.
"Americans are so dumb," confirmed a female voice putting an exclamation point on the discussion. As we rounded the corner the disembodied voices now had a physical origin. They were four teenage kids - probably junior high age sitting on the railings of a wooden bridge, legs swinging and minds a-whirling.
Cana-duh! This is what passes for a Canadian current events debate among young people today - Anti-Americanism. But hey, that's the way we seem to define ourselves anyway. There's not much happening in too many peoples lives outside of pop culture - American dominated pop culture. We watch their television, their movies, listen to their music, read their books and magazines - but we are not the same and we're certainly not as dumb and ill-informed. (I'd like to see This Hour Has 22 Minutes' Rick Mercer train his camera and loaded questions on unsuspecting Canadians and ask them about the US government.) So why do we depict ourselves as not American as opposed to Canadian? It's like asking a younger brother or sister to tell a little bit about themselves and then launching into a description detailing how much they are not like their older brother.
It's because the commercial media has taken over teaching our kids what it is to be Canadian. And they are selling a stereotype right back to us. What's most important about being Canadian is that we call it a chesterfield and not a couch. That we play and watch a lot of hockey and that 1972 and Paul Henderson are the last time we had anything to be proud about. And if we do play hockey it is always outdoors, there are snow-capped mountains in the distance, and we sing the national anthem before having a coke.
Unfortunately Hockey Night in Canada only really happens during the regular season as our Canadian teams barely make the playoffs if at all, and are done in the early rounds. Not to mention packing up and leaving altogether. So we watch a Stanley Cup series entirely played in another country while local news shows are on their death beds.
J.L Granatstein an author and former university professor believes this confusion over identity stems from the pauper status Canadian history has in our schools. In his 1998 book Who Killed Canadian History Granatstein says "Canada must be one of the few nations in the world, certainly one of the few industrialized states, that does not make an effort to teach it's history positively and thoroughly to its young people." And he's right. The teaching of Canadian History is crumbling faster than the neglected momument to those who fought at Vimy Ridge. In Grade Eleven or Senior Three as it is now called, Canadian History is crammed into one semester making it impossible to teach thoroughly and completely. If we have no control over what kids see on television and movies - we do have control over what we teach them in school. So make Canadian History worth two credits taught over the full year with pre and post confederation compulsory courses - so in the second half there can actually be some time spent on the latter twentieth century history. And make it chronological again. This theme approach has kids bouncing from the fur trade up to free trade and then back again for the next unit. It makes it difficult to teach and to learn. We need good citizens not empty shells with job skills.
And finally I am reminded of a young woman I met at a party last year. We had been introduced by a mutual friend and were in the process of telling each other what we did while the World Series played on the television in the background. When I told her I taught, she seemed impressed. Until I told her I was a History teacher. She replied that she didn't care for the subject. I told her, half in jest, those who do not remember History are doomed to repeat it. No, no, she said, sensing a misunderstanding. I didn't repeat History, I just didn't like it too much.
So in a land where many Canadians would rather cheer for the country their parents immigrated from rather than the place they were born and raised, where our own history seems second class and treated accordingly and the media sells our own stereotypes back to us - that we are outdoorsy, hockey playing, unfailingly polite non - Americans - our identity becomes even more vague. Flag waving on Canada Day only goes so far. We need to do more.