Just Looking ...

During our discussion last month in class about the Canadian Identity, Kalmar made a few points that made me consider how I look at my own Canadian Identity. I would disagree that there is no Canadian identity, but I wonder why perhaps 5 years ago I would have actually agreed with that statement. I try to think about what may have sparked my change in perception. Perhaps it was my trip to Hong Kong two summers ago where HKU students I met told me what they found so interesting about Canadians (apparently we really ARE polite). Maybe it has been the recent reign of President Bush in the States and the war in Iraq that has made me want to find reasons to distant myself from the American identity and cling to the safer, more "neutral" Canadian one. It could because I've grown out of my rebellious youth where I couldn't stand being the same as everyone else and now I want to be part of something, part of the greater imagined community. There is no doubt that identity is carved out of difference from others, and Kalmar discussed that in class. I think the need to be unique and to have an exclusive understanding or sense of humor attached to the Canadian Identity is something we love perhaps more than the identity itself. I watch Bon Cop Bad Cop and think that somehow it's really awesome that, at least in my head, no one really understands the Ontario-Quebec border issues other than Canadians. Or that in the old TV show, Due South, that the idea of a superhuman Canadian mounty who is just too darn nice and heroic for his own good, saving chicago from it's evils, is just too funy for words. I think we revel in that sense of humor, where we're okay to laugh at ourselves and our stereotypes. It's almost a mockery to U.S. Patriotism, and we love that it's a mockery. So please, enjoy some Canadian fun, here's a clip from Due South and the independant film Bon Cop Bad Cop, they are fabulously Canadian.

Due South Commercials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l0zCYUMf5s

Bon Cop Bad Cop - Border Dispute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fti-gr5vqKQ&feature=related