The woke promotion of micro identies at the price of the larger sense of Western Culture has leached the vitality from most Western countries. The weakness and moral confusion is unmissable. Fortunately the rot has recently accelerated to the point that it feels life-threatening, and natural pride and survival instincts have clicked in.
A Canadian remarked: “Being Canadian is like living upstairs from a meth lab.”
Just because as a nation they are polite and unobtrusive does not mean they don’t have an identity. Their neighbor sets themselves on fire and runs around in circles and Canada is lost in the smoke screen. Perhaps knowing who you don’t want to be is “identity” enough.
As the joke goes - As an American, I am not totally useless, I can always be used as a bad example.
It's hard to sympathize recalling the years of reading Canadian commenters reliably chiming in on posts that, unlike the U.S., they have national health care, affordable housing and education, high-brow culture, gun control, yada yada yada.
Canada's problems are a lot more 'fixable' than the lack of national health care, affordable housing/homelessness, declining education system, lack of culture, and a tsunami of weapons the U.S. is confronted with. I doubt Canadians want our "sympathy" but only basic respect for their sovereignty.
What are your thoughts? Talking about? Nobody is staging an insurrection at the Canadian House of Parliament. Canada’s Parliament is functional enough to pass government funding legislation. Which country is “snoozing and losing?”
Hadn’t heard that one, and I’m annoyed by it for the same reason you uphold Canada’s right to identify by what they’re not: That’s usually enough to form an identity.
Kelefa Sanneh, the originator of the concept of “poptimism”, if not the actual term, has a premise in his recent book Major Labels that cultural movements form based on shared dislikes. It’s why I think Canadian and my Reformed Judaism have been noted to be similar (to clarify, I’m Reform Jewish and American, meth lab indeed!): Canadian’s primary identification is “not American”, my Jewish identification is “not Christian”. There’s more to it than that as a Reform Jew, but it’s still substantial, I’d argue.
Think of how “Owning The Libs” is an identity unto itself with Republicans, and has been for a very long time (there’s a joke about Vermont without snow is like finding a Democrat there in the movie White Christmas; might be slightly different than “the libs”, but then again Adlai Stevenson was labeled an “egghead” by another bald guy). As a thoughtful person, it’s good to self-reflect on being constructive, but identity is more base than that. “We’re not American” is fine as is. “We’re not Europe” is fine for us Americans.
The author mentions the threat of an enemy as a national rallying cry. It seems that Canadians and half the U.S. public now have more in common with the threat of the 'Domestic Terrorist in Chief' soon to be inaugurated.
Definitely, which is not to say one cannot have a version of Canadian identity that incorporates biculturalism/bilingualism. One of the interesting dynamics in Canada's history was multiculturalism was viewed as a kind of solution to the tensions of biculturalism (viz. Francophone Canadians would have greater difficulty claiming special privileges if they were just one minority among others).
Everyone donate to The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom who have submitted a claim to the Supreme Court for Trudeau’s illegal prorogue of parliament. More info at info@jccf.ca
Canada used to have an identity as a rugged outpost of Britain in the Western Hemisphere, a wild frontier abounding with possibilities while maintaining a British sensibility.
As far as countries go, that's not a bad identity to have, even if it comes with an abundance of bitter cold.
Now Canada seems to just be a European Union in the Western Hemisphere. A bland, control-freak, welfare state without the means to support itself. And defining oneself as Not American (or Not fill-in-the-blank, for that matter) is not a definition.
I think we're going to see more failed states in the world (EU, California, Canada) as they all run out of Other People's Money.
Give time time. We may be able to pick up Canada on the cheap in a decade or two. Not because we want to--and we probably don't want to, not unless the progs in that country get an attitude adjustment or we can reconstruct Canada to conform with American values--but because we have to for geopolitical risk concerns. To put it another way, nobody wants a crack house next door, even in a nice neighborhood.
I would be curious to hear what the author believes is the coalescing identity of the USA. I believe we are swiftly reaching the point where “Does the USA exist” is a legitimate question
Hard to say, though the US has far stronger gravitational pull than Canada (or a lot of countries). E.g., this was the main concern in Sam Huntington's last book, though he appears to have underestimated the ability of the US to assimilate hispanics.
Terrific piece after the lionization of Trudeau and, dare we say, Angela Merkel
We dare, we dare!
The woke promotion of micro identies at the price of the larger sense of Western Culture has leached the vitality from most Western countries. The weakness and moral confusion is unmissable. Fortunately the rot has recently accelerated to the point that it feels life-threatening, and natural pride and survival instincts have clicked in.
A Canadian remarked: “Being Canadian is like living upstairs from a meth lab.”
Just because as a nation they are polite and unobtrusive does not mean they don’t have an identity. Their neighbor sets themselves on fire and runs around in circles and Canada is lost in the smoke screen. Perhaps knowing who you don’t want to be is “identity” enough.
As the joke goes - As an American, I am not totally useless, I can always be used as a bad example.
It's hard to sympathize recalling the years of reading Canadian commenters reliably chiming in on posts that, unlike the U.S., they have national health care, affordable housing and education, high-brow culture, gun control, yada yada yada.
Canada's problems are a lot more 'fixable' than the lack of national health care, affordable housing/homelessness, declining education system, lack of culture, and a tsunami of weapons the U.S. is confronted with. I doubt Canadians want our "sympathy" but only basic respect for their sovereignty.
If they built a wall, would the U.S. pay for it?
> Perhaps knowing who you don’t want to be is “identity” enough.
Not even close to cutting it.
Declaring that Canada’s sovereign borders don’t exist also “doesn’t cut it.”
You snooze, you loose.
You stop caring for your country long enough, somebody else might :)
What are your thoughts? Talking about? Nobody is staging an insurrection at the Canadian House of Parliament. Canada’s Parliament is functional enough to pass government funding legislation. Which country is “snoozing and losing?”
You seem to conflate mass apathy while politicians are doing their business as usual with a people caring for the country
Hadn’t heard that one, and I’m annoyed by it for the same reason you uphold Canada’s right to identify by what they’re not: That’s usually enough to form an identity.
Kelefa Sanneh, the originator of the concept of “poptimism”, if not the actual term, has a premise in his recent book Major Labels that cultural movements form based on shared dislikes. It’s why I think Canadian and my Reformed Judaism have been noted to be similar (to clarify, I’m Reform Jewish and American, meth lab indeed!): Canadian’s primary identification is “not American”, my Jewish identification is “not Christian”. There’s more to it than that as a Reform Jew, but it’s still substantial, I’d argue.
Think of how “Owning The Libs” is an identity unto itself with Republicans, and has been for a very long time (there’s a joke about Vermont without snow is like finding a Democrat there in the movie White Christmas; might be slightly different than “the libs”, but then again Adlai Stevenson was labeled an “egghead” by another bald guy). As a thoughtful person, it’s good to self-reflect on being constructive, but identity is more base than that. “We’re not American” is fine as is. “We’re not Europe” is fine for us Americans.
The author mentions the threat of an enemy as a national rallying cry. It seems that Canadians and half the U.S. public now have more in common with the threat of the 'Domestic Terrorist in Chief' soon to be inaugurated.
Doesn't the Quebec question hang over any debate about Canadian identity and nationalism?
Definitely, which is not to say one cannot have a version of Canadian identity that incorporates biculturalism/bilingualism. One of the interesting dynamics in Canada's history was multiculturalism was viewed as a kind of solution to the tensions of biculturalism (viz. Francophone Canadians would have greater difficulty claiming special privileges if they were just one minority among others).
If we're talking about merger, I would farcically suggest that Canada join the EU.
In fact, it has already been non-farcically suggested: https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/01/02/why-canada-should-join-the-eu
... and here's me thinking I was daringly ahead of my time... thank you!
If that happened in coordination with a (nonviolent) acquisition of Greenland by the US, that would be magnificent.
Speaking as a consternated European: It really would be not.
Everyone donate to The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom who have submitted a claim to the Supreme Court for Trudeau’s illegal prorogue of parliament. More info at info@jccf.ca
Their website is www.jccf.ca
Lawsuits cost but can be very effective in making governments accountable.
Canada used to have an identity as a rugged outpost of Britain in the Western Hemisphere, a wild frontier abounding with possibilities while maintaining a British sensibility.
As far as countries go, that's not a bad identity to have, even if it comes with an abundance of bitter cold.
Now Canada seems to just be a European Union in the Western Hemisphere. A bland, control-freak, welfare state without the means to support itself. And defining oneself as Not American (or Not fill-in-the-blank, for that matter) is not a definition.
I think we're going to see more failed states in the world (EU, California, Canada) as they all run out of Other People's Money.
Give time time. We may be able to pick up Canada on the cheap in a decade or two. Not because we want to--and we probably don't want to, not unless the progs in that country get an attitude adjustment or we can reconstruct Canada to conform with American values--but because we have to for geopolitical risk concerns. To put it another way, nobody wants a crack house next door, even in a nice neighborhood.
"One of the original proposed names for Monty Python’s Flying Circus was supposedly “Whither Canada?”"
Not quite: "Whither Canada?" was the title of the debut episode of the series.
I would be curious to hear what the author believes is the coalescing identity of the USA. I believe we are swiftly reaching the point where “Does the USA exist” is a legitimate question
Hard to say, though the US has far stronger gravitational pull than Canada (or a lot of countries). E.g., this was the main concern in Sam Huntington's last book, though he appears to have underestimated the ability of the US to assimilate hispanics.
So, what does this do to great replacement theories? Erm, conspiracies, I mean!
I always ignored them as uncompassionate reactions to demographic vacuums, but maybe it has more legs if Canada, and Europe and the UK are examined.