Canada Is Real, And It Is Us

American readers can move along, because much like Canada itself, this post isn't for you.

Canadian culture has been locked in battle internally for decades, often painfully so, over the question of Canadian identity. What does Canada mean, and what does it mean to be Canadian? The principle underlying this question has been, in essence, that "not American" isn't enough.

Is it clear enough to all of you yet that if we're not "not American," we're nothing at all?

The last five years have seen previously unthinkable political division in this country, which for me crystallizes in the image of pickups being driven around flying fairly large Canadian flags: not for a parade or special occasion, but as a matter of course. I've resented those, and the smaller flags flown by my neighbours that I don't get along with very well, because my sense of Canada is very different from the one held by those folks.

What I've lost track of, what I've allowed myself to lose track of, is just how much common ground I continue to have with these fellow Canadians.

For another day, the real and potent anxieties about settler culture, Indigenous rights, immigration, Quebec, European ties and heritage, the idea of wilderness, resource extraction industries, and everything else. Those are ours to resolve, just like every nation will always have its own crises, and we'll need to keep facing them in the future. (We need to face them today, too, if we can.)

My heart breaks for my American friends whose country is on the verge of being smashed by the obscenely wealthy in pursuit of power and more wealth. I'm in solidarity with any American friends who want to resist this smashing. However, the particular shape of my solidarity will reflect the simple fact that I'm Canadian, that I'm intending to stay that way, and that your country's self-smashing is threatening to smash the rest of us as well.

I'm not planning to fly a Canadian flag from my car, nor from my electric cargo bike, because I'm not here for that kind of performative action. To be honest, I don't have a plan for what I'm going to do, and I don't think that discussing such plans on American-owned media platforms is the right move anyway.

One thing, though: I'm going to do my best to take at their word my fellow Canadians who've been flying the flag so very publicly for the last few years, and I'm going to make my own Canadian-ness louder.

My Canada isn't theirs. Their Canada isn't mine.

But our Canada is ours, and our Canada certainly isn't America's.

I'm willing to bet that this simple principle is enough to build a country on.

Let's do this.