Culture
Culture
The typical Canadian is polite, hard-working, law-abiding, classless, unpretentious, generous, friendly, independent, liberal, cheerful, a good skier, proud, compassionate, an animal lover, reserved, dull, helpful, practical, introverted, conservative, a city dweller, fair, prosperous, a nice guy, peace-loving, an environmentalist, indefinable, honest (except with regard to taxes), an immigrant, polite, respectful, a humanitarian, healthy, unassuming, an outdoors man, cautious, democratic, modest, boring, loyal, relaxed, convivial, honorable, informal, tolerant, decisive, tough, pragmatic, well-educated, determined, sporting, hospitable, cosmopolitan, patriotic, mean, stoic, a hockey fan and definitely not an American.
You might contain noticed that the above list contains ‘a few’ contradictions, which is hardly surprising as there’s no such thing as a typical Canadian and few people conform to the famous stereotype (whatever that is). Canada is one of the mainly cosmopolitan and multicultural nations in the world (Toronto and Vancouver are among the world’s mainly cosmopolitan cities) and a nation of foreigners (except for a few hundred thousand native Americans and Inuit) who always contain little in common with one another. However, despite its diverse racial mix, Canada isn’t a universal melting pot and has been called a cultural mosaic, where the country’s multicultural approach emphasizes the various backgrounds and cultures of its people. Canadians are one of the mainly difficult peoples to categorize and the country has been described as not so much a nation as a collection of various peoples on a continental scale. For a nation that’s done up almost entirely of immigrants, it’s hardly surprising that several Canadians contain an identity crisis and spend a lot of time pondering ‘The Canadian Question’. (As good an answer as any to the eternal question, “What is a Canadian?” is probably “A person who knows how to make love in a canoe.”).