toraerach
Active Member
I think that there are really four types of patriotism in Canada that have roots going pretty far back in our history.
First there is a British patriotism, or a Loyalist patriotism. Based on the United Empire Loyalists, this patriotism emphasizes our links with Britain/the Commonwealth. Historically, these patriots wanted to remain part of the British Empire and saw the US as a threat. Today, they've given up on Canada as part of the Empire, instead focusing on our role in the Commonwealth, the monarchy, etc. They take British nationalism as a model to emulate here. They're more likely to identify with symbols like the Red Ensign, the Maple Leaf Forever, and God Save the Queen. They're also more likely to see Canada as the child of Britain, sibling of Australia, New Zealand, etc., and perhaps as a distant cousin of the US.
Secondly, there is an American patriotism. Based on the revolutionary segment of the population that supported the rebellions in 1837, historically they've called for greater continental integration. Some have even called for annexation to the US at times. Today they're more likely to take their cues on Canadian patriotism from American patriotism. For example, they're more likely to emphasize "the Canadian dream," and more likely to use slogans imported from the US like "Support our Troops," "God bless Canada," etc. They are much more likely to support the idea of a Canadian republic, and see Canada and the US as close siblings.
The third force in Canadian patriotism is regionalism. Historically this sentiment is rooted in anti-Confederatation sentiments in Atlantic Canada, Quebecois nationalism, Western alienation, etc. People following in this tradition are more likely to feel patriotism for their province/region than for the country as a whole. They're more likely to see Canada as a dysfunctional family of regions.
The final type of patriotism is what I'll call "by ourselves" patriotism. This is probably the newest form of Canadian patriotism that emphasizes in its purest forms a Canada free of outside influence (whether from Britain or the US). They're more likely to use slogans like "a made in Canada solution," "Bush lite," etc. They like the maple leaf flag, O Canada, and see bilingualism and multiculturalism as the fundamental values upon which the country works. They often ally themselves with the first type of patriot against American influence in Canada, though they have much less nostalgia for a history of WASP ascendancy. They're more likely to see Britain as a tyrannical parent figure that we've unfortunately replaced with big brother USA.
The first and last types of patriotism are more likely to embrace anti-Americanism as they both see the US as the cultural threat to Canada. And of course, very few people actually fall into one of these categories completely. Your average Canadian identifies with symbols promoted by all four camps to various degrees, and probably doesn't think about it all that much.
However, there are many reasons I can think of as to why Canadian patriotism has never really caught on. One rather interesting theory I came across about a year ago (I can't remember exactly where I was introduced to this idea though), is that a lot of this aversion towards Canadian nationalism comes from our Celtic heritage. By the mid-19th Century, and even to this day, those who can claim an Irish or Scottish heritage combined is larger than both English and French histories. The theory goes that the ancestors of these people left Ireland and Scotland due to oppression from their English overlords, and that these people came to Canada only to live in a different house under the same master. If not already robbed of much of their language and culture in their homelands, these things were intentionally stamped out in Canada. Keep in mind that Gaelic (Irish and Scottish Gaelic were not identified as distinct from each other at this time) was once the third most spoken language in Canada, that there were many monolingually Gaelic parts of the country (parts of Cape Breton, PEI, the Avalon Peninsula, and Eastern Ontario), and that at one point Parliament actually debated making Gaelic Canada's third official language. Apparently, these people, already colonized minds in their homeland, continued to be colonized in another country. They faced many of the same problems with ethnic and religious discrimination, and rarely got the best farmland available. The people never really could identify with English-dominated Canada even after they had largely assimilated into Canadian culture, and being such a large portion of the Canadian population, this meant that Canadian nationalism never could catch on. There is too much a history of exclusion here.
Even if we look at it now, this part of Canadian history is largely glossed over. Because they happened in another part of the world entirely, perhaps we never will come to terms with the traumas that were the Irish Potato Famine or the Highland clearances - traumas that still affected many Canadians only a generation or two ago, and may even still to this day.
Another reason why patriotism may not have ever caught on is what I'll call the Susanna Moodie problem. If you're unfamiliar with Susanna Moodie, she was an English immigrant who lived for a while just outside of Peterborough and (like her sister Catharine Parr Traill) wrote about pioneer life in the early 19th Century. One theme that consistently pops up in her work is her alienation from the landscape. Canada, to her, was a barren wasteland. The Canadian wilderness is something to live in fear of - a constantly looming and immensely large threat to our safety and even our sanity. She finds herself at a loss, unable to relate to Canadian natural life - without a vocabulary to describe it. There is a case to be made that Canadians, aside from our Aboriginal peoples, have never gotten over this alienation from the landscape. It is still foreign, still wild, and still a threat. Margaret Atwood, for example, still picks up on this theme especially in (but not limited to) her Journals of Susanna Moodie. We find solace from this threat of the wilderness in clinging to the memories of our homelands. This is different from the American experience of conquering nature that allows them to cut the apron strings.
Both of these reasons - the Celtic experience of Canada and our alienation from the landscape - are pretty powerfully represented in Canadian cultural output. I cannot think of many non-Indigenous Canadian novels, for example, that are not in some way influenced by these conceptions of our country.
