Canada has no cultural identity

Brad

Or any other clear Identity for that matters, why is that? Most TV shows you watch come from the US and abroad. Learders in this country act like amateurs and lack of personalities. Work culture here is not about driving to be excellent in whatever one do, but just good enough to get by.

flo-ra

It's because the US embraces individualism/competition more than Canada does. Even though we're a capitalist society, we hold on to more traditional values of collective interdependence, so we are outpaced by the more competitive US. Haha... just read about this today for Soc. ^^

And you're forgetting all the awesome Canadians we've got. I'm not sure about politics, but we've got some big names in sports, music, comedy, etc.

Broken Lizard

all that matters is hockey
and which country is the best?

Messiah

It's because the US embraces individualism/competition more than Canada does. Even though we're a capitalist society, we hold on to more traditional values of collective interdependence, so we are outpaced by the more competitive US. Haha... just read about this today for Soc. ^^

And yet for all their love of capitalism, the Americans are still out paced by the market socialist embracing Swedes, Fins, Norweigans and Swiss. They rank something like 6th in terms of competitiveness, and their standard of life indicators are usually nowhere near the rest of or even Canada usually.

As for the actual question, it's simply because Canada is not a nation-state like most of the world's countries. We have many cultural idenities and no one, prevailing one. There's nothing wrong with that. Nationalism is pretty vulgar really, and pretty dumb.

Work culture here is not about driving to be excellent in whatever one do, but just good enough to get by.

The same is true for the US, anyone who tells you differently hasn't actually experienced life as most people live it. In a capitalist world there is no reason for most people to work "hard". Look at the statistics -- the vast, vast majority of people in this world are born into the social strata they will die in. Why should I work hard when I'm not working for myself, when my labour is being stolen from me? It has little to do with Canada per se, and more with the economic system we use as a whole.

The only difference is, in the US the propaganda of the American dream is much stronger than it is here. And there's a reason why they call it the American dream, as George Carlin said, because you'd have to be asleep to believe it.

meesh

our cultural identity is that we don't really have a distinct cultural identity.

"Work culture here is not about driving to be excellent in whatever one do, but just good enough to get by."
we can't compare ourselves to the U.S just yet. Canada is still a young country...but think about it, in 140 years since its confederation, Canada has been a leader in dealing with societal issues, like health care, multiculturalism, and things like that. Now, in 140 years Canada has become quite a developed country in a short amount of time, and much much much more peaceful than our southern counterpart.

for me, does it really matter whether we have a clear identity of what Canadians are? or what they should be?

I think us Canadians, and our leaders have been quite progressive actually. and I think we are going at a good pace. the US may be rich...but I think they've gotten too rich too soon. For Canadians, our country has developed ways to nurture its multicultural society, and embrace it...even to call that its culture...and it is all simply from Canadians learning to respect each other.
Sometimes, I think some Americans skipped out that step, and ran straight for the green without dealing with some racial issues first.....

anyway i started to ramble...and i forgot where i was getting at...

BryanL

Triple said:

all that matters is hockey
and which country is the best?

According to the 2006 Winter Olympics, Sweden is the best country! lol

flo-ra

I agree with Messiah and Meesh. Opting for a specific "Canadian identity" would mean abolishing multiculturalism, which is something that defines us in the first place. (Though I wouldn't say we're free from racism here, Canada seems to be overrated as a friendly country... but relative to the US, we are much more accepting.)

meesh

yeah no country is without racism, but nowadays, that is dealt on the individual level. as a community (and of course we have a few black sheep some times), we are very accepting given the circumstances of our country's multiculturalism. let's see some other country deal with over 100 cultures in the same kind of society in a better way.

but yeah, for me those schools in...I believe it's Alabama...who STILL have segregated schools (even colleges). it makes me very sad...

Smartso

Hockey is life, the rest are just details.

Seriously though, every country has its own "personality" or defining characteristics. One of Canada's is that its a multicultural nation and that is actually one of its strengths which we need to capitalize on. Instead of having one race, one way of thinking, and one set of skills, we have so many different cultures who each have different types of intelligence, different cultural experiences, and different skills that, if brought together could build a greater country than all others

cultural identity is irrelevant really...cultural strengths should be realized

melissaw28

although I'm very proud to be Canadian and very proud of Canada's multicultural reputation, we can't forget that Canada has quite a history of racism.....First Nations (Indian Act, brainwashing in residential schools), Japanese (internment during WW2), Chinese (building the railroad/head tax) etc etc

it's important not to forget this dark side of our history and avoid making the same mistakes.....this was not that long ago, considering in 1993 there were still 7 residential schools running

meesh

yes what melissaw28 said is very important. i did a film project on Aboriginal Issues in BC and i remember interviewing an aboriginal social worker and how she mentioned that many aboriginals coming from that generation are still coping with their residential school ordeals. for those who don't know, Aboriginals, especially children, in Canada were taken away from their homes and forced into these residential schools as a way to assimilate them--not to mention, they were also abused or mistreated. it is a shameful past, but most countries have problems with these issues as well. I think Canada is much better at handling this problem than many other countries...and though this problem won't be disappearing any time soon I think Canada is leading the pack in cultural acceptance--and i think that's something to be proud of.

Messiah

Well said mellisaw. We tend to forget some of the rather despicable episodes in this country's history. Violence against women should be mentioned as well, as it became a big issue after the Polytechnique shootings. Not to mention our treatment of the Japanese, Chinese and East Indian community.