Can Canadians Regain a True National Identity?

Baiting The Left The Libranos 67 Comments

At least two decades ago, I started engaging in the following thought experiment with my fellow Canadians: “Tell me what it means to be a Canadian, but don’t use ‘America’ or ‘American’ in your explanation.” 99.9% of people were left speechless, unable to form a response.

Ever since Donald Trump came to the political fore, things have gotten even worse. This Canadian man clearly illustrates the problem.

Note: I fully realize that none of this applies to most SDA regulars (who are not trolls), but whenever I have conversations with Canadians in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Québec, these people can’t seem to hide their seething hatred for America and most Americans.

67 Replies to “Can Canadians Regain a True National Identity?”

  1. With Trump front and center on the international stage cowardly Canadians now have a way to express their anti-American sentiments without coming right out and saying “I hate them!”

        1. One of the best books on Canadian-American relations, published when Canada was a mere 20 years old, is Friedrich Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals:

          “And if the lambs say among themselves, “These predatory birds are evil, and whoever is least like a predatory bird, especially anyone who is like its opposite, a lamb— shouldn’t that animal be good?” (First Essay, section 12)

          There you go.

          And that sentence covers about 95% of what you need to know about Canadian resentment – or ressentiment (as Nietzsche would put it) – towards the USA and how certain parties have made this the sine que non of our national identity (“Canadian Nationalism as Ressentiment” was title of the great M.A. thesis that I never wrote; law school intervened).

          On a somewhat related note, I’m reading about the Ottoman Concessions whereby the tottering Ottoman Empire was forced by several of the Great Powers to grant them right of extraterritoriality ensuring that say, a French citizen residing in the empire would be subject to French laws, an Englishman to English laws, etc. Would it be not unreasonable for the US to demand the same of its spiteful, ungrateful northern neighbour, whereby Americans working in or visiting Canada would be subject to say, American firearm, free-speech, ‘stand-your-ground’ and other such laws?

          I was also thinking that every American citizen could be grated the ability to shoot one annoying Canadian on sight per year – no questions asked – with no penalty or consequences, although perhaps the heat is getting to me.

      3. Id like to know tbh. I work for a Canadian company and go to BC 2 and 3 times a yr for the last 28yrs. I noticed this look down the nose opinion of the yanks and even back then i couldnt understand it. My fellow Canadian workers cant see it.

      2. Canadian asshole is BRYAN Adams. There’s another Adams, first name Brian.

        Canadian expat BRYAN perfectly captures himself and his fellow Canadians. I’m amused by the line containing the words “we look after our own”. Puke perfect.

  2. Good video, it describes very well what I noticed as one of the biggest problems with Canada (at least since 1985 when I first lived and worked here) – its very serious case of little bother complex.

  3. Good video, it describes very well what I noticed as one of the biggest problems with Canada (at least since 1985 when I first lived and worked here) – its very serious case of little brother complex.

  4. “…these people can’t seem to hide their seething hatred for America and most Americans.”

    And the Americans that they don’t hate are Americans that hate America.

    1. But it doesn’t do them any good. Surely hating someone you don’t know, that you have little to no contact with, and that you cannot affect in any way isn’t helpful to you.
      It’s like people that follow sports and hate a certain team and its followers. It’s insane if you think about it at all.

  5. Re “people can’t seem to hide their seething hatred for America and most Americans.”
    I find this as well and it’s extremely concerning. Canada has always had more than it’s fair share of people with anti-American attitudes but it has become much worse in recent years. It’s now off the charts. Note that many people with an anti-American bias have never even been to the U.S.. They form their opinions from online comments and media sources. Up until this past year the amount of anti-Americanism in Canada has been largely hidden to Americans. They weren’t paying attention to us. The extreme hatred online and often at sporting events has thrown back the curtain and exposed this anti-Americanism to Americans. Many are shocked at the degree of it. Most Americans have always considered Canadians to be good friends. It doesn’t matter who or what you want to blame for this occurring. The destruction of our trade relationship with the U.S. will likely be repairable. The destruction of our friendship with them may not. It’s complete insanity how much Canadians are willing to lose over their hatred of one man. A man who is also only going to be in his position temporarily. I travel to the U.S. often and have always found Americans to be some of the friendliest, most welcoming people on the planet.

    1. “…many people with an anti-American bias have never even been to the U.S.”

      Bingo. And don’t know/never met any Americans.

      And then there are the real hypocrites: those elbows-uppers who virtue signal proof of their Anti-Americanism, but drink Bud Light, shop at Walmart, and still spend their winters in Florida.

    2. I actually posted my above comment before watching the supplied video. It is a very good video. I think there is quite a bit common between the video and what I posted above. I agree with everything he said in that video. We need to do better Canada. A lot better. Otherwise, it’s going to be us who pay the price. Guaranteed.

    3. “It’s complete insanity how much Canadians are willing to lose over their hatred of one man. A man who is also only going to be in his position temporarily.”

      An often overlooked observation, that.

      1. Their hatred to move on to the next person. Those types of people never stop hating what they have built up in their mind as their enemy.

      2. It’s driven by the media and the Canadian media take their cue from the US MSM ( except of course, FOX). Everything was fine when Joe was President. And Obama.

    4. You can say the same about Americans in that most of them have not been to Canada. The sheer ignorance about gun laws or the political system (especially with reference to the Royal family) is entertaining but tiresome. You gave up yer gunz. You have the Queen on your money therefore you live under monarchy. Or stupid rumours: There are 50,000 CCP soldiers training in Canada and they will turn south to invade the US.

      I do agree that the anti-American propaganda has been cranked to 11 after the Trump tariffs. Whereas it was only up to 10 when Trump was elected (both times). Canadian politicians taking personal shots at Trump for no reason or gain, antagonizing the leader of our most important trading partner. The WEF influence I guess. Americans have not been subjected to 50 years of anti-American propaganda courtesy of the CBC and now the bought MSM. The interesting thing is that they take their anti-American cues from the left wing US media. Exact same talking points. “Emolument”, “not exonerated”, “no proof of election fraud” and now that reflecting pool business or supreme court rulings (why would Canadians give a F about US supreme court rulings on immigration?). But since Carney took over there is a stream of anti-Canadian discourse on many platforms in the US. You can only take so much crap before you retaliate. And it’s not just the usual derision but some fairly mean and nasty stuff.

      1. “Or stupid rumours: There are 50,000 CCP soldiers training in Canada and they will turn south to invade the US. ”

        That would be fun to see. Short-lived, but fun nonetheless.

        1. Just that. Like 50k troops could actually put a dent in the US. There is a man sitting in Winnipeg who is the second in command of the Canadian NORAD region. He is an American, usually USAF. He is sometimes in charge of force employment for 1 Canadian Air Division (basically employment of all Canadian air assets). You’d think he’d know if 50k CCP troops were training in Canada and planning an invasion.

      2. Grew up in a border town on SE British Columbia. Town had a really good ski hill, but only in winter. Thee were a fair few times when buds and I – all bare-foot urchins – were trying to explain to Americans that we had summer just like they did and the ski hill wasn’t operative.
        Many years later, there was a series of postcards and other cards depicting the 49th parallel as seen from American eyes. To the south, there was a nice bungalow with green lawn; right at the border, there was three feet of snow and an igloo on the Canadian side. That was and probably still is how a fair few Americans view Canada.

  6. Most Canadians are raging narcissists, and can’t cope with being ignored by the world. They require all people to constantly stroke their brittle egos.

    If they ever managed a sustained period of introspection with respect to Canada, they would realize what a shambolic place it has become, and they have no one to blame but themselves.

    1. Agreed. It only took about fifty years for Canada to regress from a justifiably confident, proud, and capable nation to this: a mentally crippled welfare state that couldn’t make a plug for a hobby horse’s arse.

  7. Canada has several identities. Which is why is will dissolve. My Dad and his family were in Russia and got out of there in the early 1920’s after the Bolshevik Revolution. My Dad would often say that “Canada isn’t a country”…..of course when I was young I thought he didn’t know what he was talking about. But he was right on target. Canada, like the former Soviet Union is too geographically large and culturally disparate to be governed from a dictatorial Ottawa. Canada was, after all, a Confederation but the left has tried since Pearson to centralize power in Ottawa. That is what will ultimately destroy Canada.

    1. To survive, Canada needs a Senate where every province gets 2 Senators; this would end the tyranny of Ontario and Quebec, as their self-serving legislation ( ie supply management; carbon taxes; NEP) would never get sufficient votes to pass. Canada could then adopt a true federal structure that the provinces would want to be a part of.

      1. Canada also needs balance in Parliament seats. As it is now, Alberta has the lowest ratio of seats to population of any province and if you use the ratio of population to Parliament seats of combined Atlantic Canada and apply it to Alberta, it would currently have 60 seats…..not 37. If the PEI ratio is used, Alberta would have 111 seats…..not 37. If the Newfoundland ratio is used, Alberta would have 64 seats….not 37.

        Calgary has 10 seats in Parliament….Nova Scotia has 11. The population of Calgary is approximately 1,675,000. The population of New Brunswick is 1,000,000. Using the New Brunswick ratio, Calgary should have 18.

        In other words, Carney would have nowhere near a majority even after poaching some Conservatives. Canada also needs to pull back on federal government interference in provincial and municipal matters. It does so by over taxing and then holding out the honey trap of money to provinces and municipalities that do the will of Ottawa. So the federal government needs to cut its tax take very significantly and handing the tax room over to the provinces to deal with matters as they see fit.

        1. Yes Joey B.
          If Canada was to set the entirety of its governance aside, and start with a fresh sheet…
          I think those areas which currently are overrepresented in confederation would still want to remain overrepresented at the SAME RATE as they are now, along with corresponding gov’t entities dictating to them the current rate which gas stations can sell gasoline or diesel at, and the number of turkey’s you’re permitted to raise, and how much for a milk quota…. their fixation on gov’t needing to rule all aspects of their lives isn’t repairable. It’s a multigenerational dependency, which AB/Sask. are simply not responsible for, yet we pay for it with equalization moneys and AB’s reduced federal gov’t representation in parliament.
          They’ll never agree to a reduced percentage of representatives by reducing their numbers, the best we could hope for is to “pack the bench” and have 111 MP’s from AB, which nobody here really wants.
          Note that BC’s senatorial representation is even worse than AB’s. The same number from each province would be a step in the right direction, but I do think PEI should be rolled into 3 counties of N.S. and we could have 9 provinces.

      2. If a province is dependent upon other provinces for gov’t “income” then are they still entitled to making decisions which may increase costs, and payments for the others? 4 of the 10 provinces are dependent upon equalization for 20% of their gov’t “income” and the garbage constitution of Canada requires 7 of the 10 in agreement to amend it. So, the constitution is not ever going to be amended. The children are not going to vote to reduce their allowance.

        After AB separates, the remaining 9 or 8 (hopefully Sask leaves too) can continue to vote for more representation and more gov’t handouts until the second coming. It won’t matter to AB/Sask any more.
        I expect at some point AB/Sask. will require people from tier 2 Canada to apply for visas to visit our country so we’re not inundated with riff-raff, and worse… “the swarthy riff riff” and their anchor-babies.

        I doubt it’s possible for Canadians to regain the idea within them of a true national identity. It’s been poisoned and not recognizable for anyone who grew up in the 70’s yet the majority of those who did are now in their 60’s and primarily voting for a party which gives them “free stuff”. Democracy can’t repair this damage and the other governing methods are simply not palatable to Canadians. It appears they’ve been poisoned from within, and refuse to remove the poison.
        Which leaves us with… how about this one:
        The CFL is changing their playing fields for the entirety of the league because Toronto and Montreal can’t fit the regulation sized field in their stadiums.
        Now apply this to everything, including domestic milk and eggs production, and your right to defend your home, and your right to not hire someone “because you don’t want to”.
        Nothing in Canada, is repairable. In a decade we’ll look back at 2026 and say, “we didn’t know we had it so good!”

        2. Yes – both on this comment and your earlier reply to Joey B. However.. the way things are going the Smith referendum is completely ambiguous (aka stupid) and is going to lose by about 80% to 20% ( see my substack (paul531) for a rant on this) and so things will get worse for several more years before we can try again.

          Now, if you want to think about a better way? imagine what happens to the balance of power, and so the economy, if Quebec separates? 78 seats, most supply management and CRTC issues, and most of the big money corruption in Canada goes away and the west gets everything it wants. Bottom line: want to help Alberta? insult as many quebecois as you can and do it as loudly and as often as possible.

      3. That hasnt worked out well in Australia. The Senate has become a horse trading scheme where Senators elected on a puny number of votes pass shite legislation for personal gain and a kiddies playground in their home town

  8. As an Albertan, I can tell you what it means to be a Canadian.
    Being Canadian means never having to say you’re #1.
    Being Canadian means that our primary industries are attacked with targeted punishing taxes.
    It means having Alberta cities burn to the ground without Canadian help.
    That despite paying a $Trillion filthy petrodollars into Confederation, Albertans are despised for our Western culture that still echoes of square-dealers and people who work together because it’s the right thing to do.

    I’m voting for an Alberta separation referendum vote because I understand what it means to be Canadian.

  9. Well, the hatred is not necessarily a consequence of a lack of distinctive identity. The fact is that Canada exists only as a reaction against the United States. There was no other basis on which it could have been constituted or maintained. (Obviously, there might have been world where the American Revolution either failed or never occurred, and there would certainly be a British North America there, but it’s inconceivable that it would resemble Canada in any way.) As such it’s impossible to talk about Canada except in terms of rejection of the United States. This doesn’t mean that Canadians have no identity, indeed in every way except the political they identify as American, and indeed are.

    So there are Canadians who feel a sense of grievance at the very existence of America. Old Loyalists in the old Canadas and New Brunswick. Torontonians who resent the War of 1812. These are rather archaic grudges but such things keep remarkably well if you pickle them properly. Most of the hatred, though, is cultivated. Canada as we know it was created to fight the Second World War as an integral part of the British Empire. The consequence of the war was that Canada was effectively ceded to the US as a protectorate. The Canadian authorities benefit greatly if they can be seen doing the protecting (against the actual protectors, of course), and since Comrade Stalin, our comrade in arms, was keen to incite hatred of the Americans, they had a model and patron. So those Canadians who hate basically just get it off the television. Where the Liberal Party puts it for them.

    1. “So those Canadians who hate basically just get it off the television. Where the Liberal Party puts it for them.”

      Exactly right. The MSM tells people what to think, and they fall for it every time. The universities also tell people what to think, not how to think, and so we get exactly what we see.

      In the US, Americans who hate America also get it from their schooling and from the MSM.

      In the 1930s the communists already knew that if they could get control of the media and universities, they could control the entire country.

      1. “In the US, Americans who hate America also get it from their schooling and from the MSM.”

        Same in Canada. The MSM here get their anti-US (and anti-Trump) talking points straight from the American left wing MSM. Exact same. I have satellite radio in the car and jump between network news (including the BBC) on my way to work and they are exactly the same. The BBC actually changes a bit of the language (to their credit?). It’s not a surprise, really.

  10. About that Canada stuff, I was raised a Son of the South in my adopted family with roots going back to the Revolution, Civil War and all that stuff and then I did a DNA test. My results lead me to finding nice siblings in Michigan, three sisters and one brother born after me and they were raised in Port Huron, Michigan. I have met all of them and they a fine folks and were a bit surprised to find out their mom had me before she was married and started having them. That accounted for my birth mom’s side of the family that went back to Massachusetts in the 1640’s when my many times great grand mom came over from England.

    The dad side of my discovery is my birth dad who is Canadian, one of my many cousins in Canada figured out which person was probably my birth father who married multiple times and had a lot of children. The rest of my story is that now that I am 81 years old I have hundreds of cousins in Ottawa Canada, the DNA stuff discovers more several times each month and I guess I am half Canadian or something. My adopted father had links that traced back to Scotland coming to the US in 1740 and my DNA places me with a bit over 80 percent Scot background so that kind of worked out too.

    I have only been to Canada a couple of times and seen it a few more times when I visit my daughter who lives in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan and two blocks from her home is the river with Canada right across the way. We have to be careful using cell phones close to the river because the towers in Canada can pick up signals that require international charges which are not good, so there’s that. I guess I am a proud Texan-Canadian who likes his guns and does a bit of competition shooting and I only purchase a new gun every year, so I kind of like the Texas part and feel sorry for my cousins up North who don’t own a lot of AR’s, pistols and shotguns. That’s what I know about that stuff today.

    1. My surname takes up pages of the Toronto and Montreal phone books … yes, and I actually root for France in the World Cup after the USA as … my people. Back when I could be proud to call them … my people. But I suspect I wouldn’t get along with any one of the French Canadian relatives … if I even had any.

  12. Canadians have probably always been jealous of the USA. Just as New Zealanders get upset if you mistakenly call them Australian. People in less flamboyant nations suffer from envy – this is human nature.

    The more recent ramp up from envy and jealousy to crazy levels of deranged hatred is something else, I think. More likely it is a defense mechanism to cope with how shitty Canada has become after a decade of Liberal governments. It is far easy to direct anger and blame outward than to do any kind of introspection. And, blame and anger towards the USA is certainly easier than than doing the hard work of repairing the damage caused by repeatedly voting for the Liberal Party of Canada.

    Canada has become a sad nation of malicious people trash talking their neighbors while ignoring that their own house is rotting and decaying around them at an alarming speed.

  13. “…these people can’t seem to hide their seething hatred for America and most Americans.”

    It’s like this mental illness that’s come over them all, and it isn’t new. When I used to come home for Christmas with my American license plates, people would regularly bully me on the highway. Driving a pickup it wasn’t so bad, but I hate to think what a car driver would put up with now.

    This is why I don’t bother talking to most people anymore. They’re f-ing idiots.

  14. “Tell me what it means to be a Canadian, but don’t use ‘America’ or ‘American’ in your explanation.”

    A Canadian is a guy who lives in a nation where his government hates him, takes all his money, and is pushing him out as hard as they can. We all look forward to a day when white skin is an official hate crime, and gets you fired from your job. Maybe even put in jail. Oh, and they kill old people.

    That’s what it means to be a Canadian.

    1. I think you’ve inadvertently hit the nail on the head. Both Canada and Canadians have changed because the government began changing the culture of Canada decades ago. Beginning with PM PET, imo.

      Before PET, what it meant to be Canadian would include : resilient people who settled the prairies and the wilderness, brave soldiers in war, generous and community minded, funny and easy going, believed in fairness and justice, trusted their police force and legal system, polite and law abiding.

      What it means to be Canadian now: petty and malicious, arrogant and self righteous, takers instead of builders, compliant and cowardly in the face of obvious corruption and injustice in politics, policing and the legal system.

      Canada and Canadians today are a mere shadow of who they used to be but like to pretend they are the same country and people that they were before PET.

  15. My only daughter married a Canadian … who is really … nice. Go figure.
    But he loathes much of the Canada he’s left behind. Loves the land and (some) people … but cries over the intentional destruction of his land.

    And for whatever reason, my daughter met LOTS of Canadians in NYC when she lived there … and they were all really nice, and didn’t hate Americans. But … that was 20 years ago … I suspect much has changed for the worse … even over that short period of time.

  16. I went to the Canadian Aviation and Space museum today.
    Awesome history and exhibits.
    Staring at an Avro Lancaster, bombay doors all open, was super cool.
    We used to finish one a day.

    Then there is the Avro Arrow exhibit…
    Maybe the Arrow’s demise symbolizes Canada’s descent: from post war industrial leader to pre-dystopian nutless wonder producing sweet fckall but smug lesbians, rich snivel servants and middle eastern terrorists.

    1. Here in the Bay Area, my snooty neighbors mock everyone living in the Deep South as illiterate, uneducated, toothless, cousin fkcuers. Church going racist pervs who are a shit stain on America.

      I suspect far too many Canadians look down their nose at EVERYONE to their Deep South … from Maine to FLorida

  18. Just look at Canada day celebrations compared to what is coming for the 4th of July in the US. Everywhere I went on Canada day there were displays of hyphenated Canadian culture. The Chinese did their ususal Dragon dance they recycle from Chinese new year. We had Thai Canadians displays, Japanese Canadian doing the Judo and Karate demo (fight the stereotypes!), the Iranian Canadians whining about the assholes running things “back home”, Palestinian Canadians demonstrating against the palestinian genocide (while their sponsors call for Jewish genocide), Sikh Canadians agitating for a homeland, Indian Canadians cooking curry, and on and on. Nowhere did I see any promotion of what used to be Canadian cuture. You think this is what is going to happen in Washington this weekend? I doubt it.

  19. Identity about what? Being a loyal subject of the retarded Crown in a house the Crown owns? Canadians are such pathetic, obedient, willfully ignorant of Canadian law, and blindly loyal feudal serf-like employees to the King of Canada.

  20. Socialists and communists always hate having neighboring countries that are capitalist. It makes them look bad, it gives their system competition which it cannot beat, it allows their own citizens to escape if it gets too bad . . .

    Woke Canadians – and there are a LOT of them – see America as holding them down for those reasons.

  21. I’m somewhat surprised that folks think you can turn the entire country over to the Liberal Communist Party for decades and somehow (controlling everything) they won’t have all kinds of converts/running dogs?

    Stupid and dangerous thinking has a huge constituency in Canada.

    Too huge to overcome.

  22. Tax slaves in The State of Thuggery need no identity.
    There is no “Canadian Identity”.
    What does a bloody maple leaf mean to Westerners?
    What do ethics and honesty mean to Easterners?
    I have far more in common with Western USA citizens than I have with Eastern Canadians.

    The small vicious seething that “Proper Canadians” project upon our American cousins is the very same attitude they have toward any successful Canadian and their mindless ranting toward “Orange Man Bad” are word for word identical to their seething hatred of Alberta.
    Our identity is so lacking ,our envy so overweening,that we have bankrupted the nation,living like USA citizens without doing the work.
    Eastern Canada really does hate the USA .
    Because the USA exposes how fake Central Canada truly is.
    Exposing the delusions of adequacy and soothing self lies that Chicken dancers bath in.

    The USA are unabashed realists,,willing to work to succeed,willing to try new ideas..some win some lose.
    We risk nothing ,seeking government guarantees and bureaucratic blessing while we live on borrowed money.

    National debt is treason against our children..
    Any country that will borrow money ,to spend on virtue signalling and welfare,while boasting about handing the cost of this debt to tax payers unborn..has no identity.
    The levels of corruption we are awash in…no values,no standards,no self worth,no courage..
    Can Ahh Duh!

  23. So many great comments above….
    I think a flat no is the correct answer; but some can still identify by province. I find that most interesting. Similar to the states, the conservative states have more “state pride.”
    I would think this would occur to the very few people who honestly study sociology as a form of conservative intersectionality, but… no, whatever.
    When I think of Alberta, I find comparatives easily drawn to Texas, Wyoming, the Dakotas. In many ways I would argue that conservative minded (Canadian) people who revile the idea of joining “The States” are truly bizarre. This, in my view, is pure sentiment. These same people would probably vehemently reject the notion that they, in particular, could be brainwashed.
    Yet… here they are.
    Is not better to join The States as landowners than flee to The States (or anywhere for that matter) as refugees? Seriously. I have to question what it is that you cling to, because Canada Is Dead. It is actively being sold off by your U.K. overlords whom you never actually gained independence from, but you “dislike” the US, Americans, Trump…. because?
    It must be gingivitis.

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