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your Head of State has seen her Jubilee year. Stability is what you have that we do not. You know when she retires her son or grandson will take her place. We do not have that luxury. .
I am not sure I consider getting Charles Windsor as our ''King'' and head of state automatically without having any say in the matter, to be a ''luxury" or even a positive.
As an immigrant to Canada myself, along with my parents who are living in Vancouver now, we didn't exactly move to Canada because of its awesome culture lol. We moved here because of its relative stability, good living standards and physical environment, and a functional democratic government with a high degree of freedom and rule of law. Mutual respect, tolerance, and decency towards your fellow citizens. Look around the world today, and tell me that's not something to be proud of, not something to deeply cherish?
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Very very few people would dispute that Canada is all that. But that's not what we are talking about here.
Stating something in that manner is supposed leave you in factual awe; just as stating Canada does not have a unique culture from the U.S. is supposed to be taken as fact. It's actually a load of codswallop.
Any number of things from our belief in Universal Healthcare, firearm policies, far less pervasive religiosity and parliamentary system to name just a few, clearly set us apart CULTURALLY.
It's not wrong, nor humiliating. As said, every country is interested in American culture to some extent. It's just unusual that in Canada it ends up taking even the place that local culture would occupy in other countries. (And no, in my opinion, it doesn't make Canadians more worldly than other nations.) But that's okay, if it's what Canadians want.
However, it does fall into a pattern of Canadian identity being somewhat vague and hard to identify, which (for example) might make it difficult for immigrants to integrate, since they don't know what they would integrate into. On the other hand, other immigrants enjoy Canadian identity being not very well defined, since they can make it their own. Really, it's a matter of personal preference.
I think one reason this topic keeps coming up is the denial that this is true. I realize that it is annoying to be reminded of this from time to time, and that the side effects (being mistaken for Americans, being lopped in with them, etc.) are also annoying. I mean, when you're living in Anglo-Canada, it's actually not so bad because only a few people like Mel Hurtig and Pierre Berton types see this as an issue and talk about it. Otherwise it's just the ''norm" and the people who try and push Canadian stuff (outside of its handful of strong areas like rock music, CBC radio, hockey lore, etc.) are actually in the minority and the "fringe" ones.
You're more confronted by it when you travel abroad, or have outspoken visitors from abroad, or participate in online forums such as these where people are from Anglo-Canada.
The ironic thing about it is that if Anglo-Canadians truly don't like this, they hold the power in their hands to make the change.
But because most of them don't, they often sound like overweight people who eat junk food and don't exercise, and complain that nobody ever compliments them on their trim physique.
Very very few people would dispute that Canada is all that. But that's not what we are talking about here.
Why not though - what exactly are we discussing in this thread? It seems pretty open ended to me... Or is it that the same players relish in bringing the same thing up regardless of the thread - somewhere along the lines that Canadians or pardon me - should I say English Canadians don't have enough native or homegrown entertainment (notice how I didn't say culture recognizing Brusan's post) to celebrate and cherish and that we import it all from the U.S - wow lets just talk about that over and over again AJ because well its the favoured topic to discuss among the 'anti four'..
Its not a matter of being in denial or not recognizing that we have the power to change or not, but seriously, it always seems to get railroaded into this discussion ad-nauseam..
Why not though - what exactly are we discussing in this thread? It seems pretty open ended to me... Or is it that the same players relish in bringing the same thing up regardless of the thread - somewhere along the lines that Canadians or pardon me - should I say English Canadians don't have enough native or homegrown entertainment (notice how I didn't say culture recognizing Brusan's post) to celebrate and cherish and that we import it all from the U.S - wow lets just talk about that over and over again AJ because well its the favoured topic to discuss among the 'anti four'..
Its not a matter of being in denial or not recognizing that we have the power to change or not, but seriously, it always seems to get railroaded into this discussion ad-nauseum..
We can discuss that angle if you want of course.
But it's not really an effective counter argument. It's like talking about extreme poverty in Haiti and then someone counters that it has nice tropical beaches.
Stating something in that manner is supposed leave you in factual awe; just as stating Canada does not have a unique culture from the U.S. is supposed to be taken as fact. It's actually a load of codswallop.
Any number of things from our belief in Universal Healthcare, firearm policies, far less pervasive religiosity and parliamentary system to name just a few, clearly set us apart CULTURALLY.
That's a broad definition of culture. It's fine. If we go with that the average level of cultural commonality between any two western developed countries is probably around 70%.
But it's not really an effective counter argument. It's like talking about extreme poverty in Haiti and then someone counters that it has nice tropical beaches.
You've been in these forums long enough to know that there are mountains of threads on the topic that you and some others enjoy talking about the most and that is lack of English Canadian culture.. I thought Brusan opened things up to expand on what is culture and what is our values that do bring to the table our own identity but naturally that would simply be dismissed. Why? Well because it doesn't play well into the favourite topic of course..
With that said, heck if BK wants to bring to bear some things as a recent transplant here that he appreciates - in these forums what he wrote is a breath of fresh air.. Sorry AJ - continue with the analysis of the peculiarities with respect to lack of homegrown English Canadian culture
You cannot because we can not test it But I did bring you the example of Austria and Germany and Latin American countries.
No, no. Of course I do agree with you on that part, but most of these countries/cultures have been around for a very, very long time and are established. Canada and the US are two very young siblings still figuring out their way in this world.
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But I did bring you the example of Austria and Germany and Latin American countries.
No, no. Of course I do agree with you on that part, but most of these countries/cultures have been around for a very, very long time and are established. Canada and the US are two very young siblings still figuring out their way in this world.
