CASUAL STYLE - Ottawa At Home

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LIVING | ON SECOND THOUGHT roll up the rim, eh? How travelling makes me a better Canadian By Laura Byrne Paquet AS WE APPROACH CANADA DAY, brace yourself for the great annual stocktaking. Pundits and pollsters from across the land will weigh in on that age-old question: “Does Canada have an identity?” So, I’m going to save you the time you’d otherwise spend reading newspaper editorials about our lack of national gumption and listening to angst-ridden callers on CBC’s “Cross-Country Checkup” grumbling that we never should have gotten rid of Dominion Day and the Avro Arrow. Here’s my solution to our nationwide identity crisis: Hit the road. You see, I’m convinced that Canadian identity isn’t a solid thing. It’s more like a shadow—something that exists only in relationship to other things. Hard to capture and ever-changing, true, but no less real for all that. I was thinking about this theory during a recent trip to Texas, while touring the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Spending two hours in a shrine to the man who brought us the first Gulf War and W. normally wouldn’t have been high on my to-do list. But I was with a group, it was on the itinerary, so in I went, telling myself that perhaps I could learn something. And, indeed, I did. American presidential libraries are among the many things I’ve encountered in other countries that throw Canadian identity into stark focus. As I passed Bush Sr.’s armoured limousine, campaign posters and letters to Barbara, I couldn’t help but wonder: What on earth would Canadians put in a prime ministerial library? The Inuit statue Aline Chrétien brandished at 24 Sussex? The homey sweaters from Stephen Harper’s campaign ads? Pierre Trudeau’s boutonnières? The idea boggles the Canadian mind (unless you count Laurier House, home of Mackenzie King’s crystal ball). For better or for worse, we simply don’t like our politicians as much as our American friends like theirs. So that’s one aspect of Canadian identity. Here’s another. Years ago, I went to Ireland to compete in a community theatre festival with <strong>Ottawa</strong>’s Tara Players. During a party, I overheard a Canadian ask an Irishman what he did for a living. The Irishman responded, not unkindly, “Why do you folks always care what people do? Why don’t you ever ask who people are?” It’s a fair question. And while I still, almost two decades later, use “What do you do?” as my opening gambit in a room full of strangers, at least I’m aware that it’s not the only way of approaching the world. It’s just another aspect of—you’ve got it—Canadian identity. In the days after a foreign trip, I usually find myself appreciating the most mundane Canadian things: toonies; Peter Mansbridge; people who don’t laugh when I say “clicks,” “serviette” or “eavestrough.” Even, heaven help me, Tim Horton’s oatmeal cookies. I roll up the rim, therefore I am. So next time you agonize over our lack of Canadian identity, get out of town. Canada: Leave it and love it. Maybe that could be our new national slogan. july/august 2009 | oah | 39
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