I was on the phone with a customer service representative this morning. Right before I hung up, he told me, “Happy Fourth of July.” What was strange about that exchange was that he didn’t know I was a Canadian customer, and he still celebrated his country’s day of independence with a stranger on the other side of his headset.
Every time I’ve been to the States, especially small towns, most houses have American flags above their doorsteps. While watching Macy’s fireworks last year in New York, I saw a sea of stars and stripes, whether they were blazoned on t-shirts, tattooed on faces, or printed on themed paraphernalia.
We were also watching a few Euro 2016 games this weekend, and the countries who played in the particular matches have their sections of the stands where their fans congregate. We were watching the Germany vs. Italy nail-biting game, and my Italian friend wore his signature blue “Italia” shirt, shouting at the screen “Come on!” every time his team missed. The hypnotic sounds of the Icelandic cheer, speeding up in tempo as the fans grew excited, dominated the stands in the France vs. Iceland match. This display was even more surprising given the small population on that island (about 323,000).
What does patriotism and loyalty to a country mean? What does it mean to be a part of a nation? How do we define who we are based on our nationality/nationalities?
Looking back on the Canada Day long weekend, I don’t think many others around the world know what July 1st means to Canadians. What I also find funny is that Canadians can’t often explain what Canada Day means to them as well.
On July 1 this year (last Friday), I decided to bike down to the lake to walk around the Waterfront Festival in Toronto. Contrasting to the blatant patriotic colours in America, I saw about less than half of the crowds wearing red and white or donning maple leaf symbols. Vendors didn’t really have Canada Day deals, and they didn’t have many Canadian flags around.
It got me thinking – if I was a tourist here, would I know it was Canada Day? Would I know how the leaders from independent colonies gathered together in the years leading up to 1867 to petition the British government for Confederation? Could I see past the igloos, the self-deprecating jokes, the maple syrup, the apologizing, and the Mountie uniforms?
Maybe instead of looking at Canada through the “outside-looking-in” eyes of a perpetual foreigner/immigrant, I should look from within. Over the years, especially as I’ve created a new home for myself in Toronto and as I navigate the world through my own glasses, I’ve realized a few things about being Canadian:
- Knowing that you belong – Maybe it’s the fact that throughout 5-7 months of the year we’re in frigid weather, but most Canadians tend to embrace each other. I know there are exceptions, but I find that strangers still open doors for each other, and we still say hi to our neighbours. We don’t honk as often, and we reach out when people need help (i.e. Syrian refugees, Fort McMurray). We let people know that, “Hey, you might not be from here, but we accept you. You’re here now, and you belong.”
- Being comfortable with living as multiple – As a Taiwanese-Canadian, it’s especially hard to define what being Canadian means, especially because I’m straddling the lines between Taiwan and Canada. I speak English fluently, but my skin isn’t white. I’m super particular about my rice, but I can gulp down a carton of poutine. I’d like to walk down the wedding aisle in a white dress, but I still want my fiance to play Taiwanese door games. Being Canadian, however, means that I can be both Taiwanese and Canadian – or somewhere in the middle. You can be multiple things all at once, and that’s okay.
- Celebrating Pride – Yesterday was the Pride Parade in Toronto, and I was running errands on Bloor Street. We looped back to Church and Bloor to check out Pride, but we were met with a swelling crowd of people – so many people that we had to get off our bikes and swim through the crowds. People with rainbows, people with feathers, people with nothing on, and more. Everyone was happy, everyone was celebrating, and everyone was proud. So was I.
- Accepting the shadows – We know that there are world powers around us, vying for some sort of position on the global “game of thrones.” As Canadians, we know that many times we live in the shadows, but we don’t cry and mope about it. We make the best of it, and we excel at the things we do when people aren’t necessarily watching.
- Discovering the amazing land around you – I’m still in awe of how big Canada is. I’ve been across a few provinces (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, PEI, and Nova Scotia, to be exact), but there’s always something to surprise me speechless every time. There aren’t many countries that you could travel across and hit rainforests, prairies, tundra, oceans, deserts, and more. Even in the snowy months, when the trees are bare and the lakes are frozen, everything is beautiful.
I have to point out that these things that I’ve mentioned only speak to a few areas in the Canadian experience. There comes to a point where you aren’t able to truly vocalize what being Canadian really means. Maybe we just have to talk to other Canadians, to share what we think with each other. Through talking, maybe we can support each other’s doubt, fear, and confusion, as well as laugh about our own Canadianisms. That’s a pretty Canadian thing to do, right?
Pudding and Cake 