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Oh hey look a thread!
This is an interesting topic, for me anyway, so I'd thought I'd make a thread about it!
Now, my question for all of you wonderful people is, what is the Canadian Identity.
Because I have no idea.
Other then a few stereotypes we've adopted as our own, Canadians struggle with the fact of how thoroughly Americanized we are. We're like USA-Lite, all we've got is a maple leaf, a queen, some French here and there, and a much more thoroughly left political view. We share the same celebrities(Except maybe the Tragically Hip which seems to be a very Canadian band), the same language(Sure we keep some u's. Thats about it for differences), we're ridiculously interconnected due to the whole sharing the worlds longest land border thing and a variety of other similarities. So what makes Canadians, well, Canadians? Can an outsider shine some light on this?

I always like to think of Canada as America's nicer little brother.

You guys are far less noisy, that's certain.

Historically, Canada actually had several chances to join up with America, during the American Revolution and the War of 1812...that's obviously not something that was wanted. I suspect that only reason it never happened is due to pride more than anything.

As Laurentus alluded to, the only difference I can think of is that Canada is very low-key...come to think about it, in America we hear more about the UK and Germany and Japan in the news than Canada. It doesn't seem to have any ambitions at all...doesn't seek to project power or influence in the world...it's just kinda doing it's own thing. At least on the global stage it seems to be willingly passive. Maybe in this day and age it's good not to speak through a megaphone, or maybe it just leads to being overlooked. But now that I think about it, we really don't hear much about Canada in America at all.

I prefer low-key.

Historically, Canada actually had several chances to join up with America, during the American Revolution and the War of 1812...that's obviously not something that was wanted. I suspect that only reason it never happened is due to pride more than anything.

I actually was just looking at relevant threads on this topic on /r/AskHistorians a few days ago, and asked a question of my own (about Nova Scotia).

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4a3xbp/why_was_canada_not_involved_in_the_american/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4nc57k/why_didnt_the_canadian_colonies_join_the_american/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/550oao/why_did_nova_scotia_remain_neutral_during_the/

As Laurentus alluded to, the only difference I can think of is that Canada is very low-key...come to think about it, in America we hear more about the UK and Germany and Japan in the news than Canada. It doesn't seem to have any ambitions at all...doesn't seek to project power or influence in the world...it's just kinda doing it's own thing. At least on the global stage it seems to be willingly passive. Maybe in this day and age it's good not to speak through a megaphone, or maybe it just leads to being overlooked. But now that I think about it, we really don't hear much about Canada in America at all.

Now for some relevant Polandballs:

Unhated Nations

Canada is Useless

War of 1812 (Canadian version)

I thought that the Canadian Identify was a cheap ripoff of the Bourne Identify.

Another polandball I like

ISIS, America, and Canada

What is the Canadian identity? It's Quebec.

I'm not even joking. It's 100% true that English Canadians have trouble differentiating themselves from the USA. At times it seems Canada's identity is completely centered around being "better" than Americans. More civil, more compassionate, certainly.

In Quebec we don't have that problem because we were isolated by language from the rest of North America and isolated by distance from France. Ergo, we managed to develop our own little thing. In Quebec we know damn well what we are. We're Quebecers. We're not America-lite, fake French or whatever else. We are what we are and we see no difficulty in finding out what that is.

We're still from the same country though, and bilingualism is theoretically from coast to coast. Saying that Canada is "some French here and there" is reductionist. Over here we have culinary traditions, folklore, songs, etc that came with the very first boats that left France and they are still alive today, alongside countless new developments.

Canada is a nation of two solitudes, one French and one English. This duality is what's inherently Canadian, what makes Canada its own thing and it is shared by very few places on Earth. There is no other place where both English and French-descended people coexist in relative harmony without one dominating the other. Yet only one solitude cares at all about the other and while that interaction with English Canadians has only solidified our differences not only when compared to them, but also when compared to France and the rest of the world, the lack of interaction with us on the English side has only weakened them, made them feel like they have nothing due to American cultural supremacy on the continent.

In Quebec we study English from the 4th grade (that was in my day, now it actually starts in the 1st grade) and we stop only when we leave university (because many degrees require a minimum level of English proficiency to be awarded). In English Canada, French is not even compulsory after high school, European French is taught (?!?) and most students drop that "shit" as early as they can. They just don't see the point of it. The point is learning to connect to a full half of their cultural identity. Our history, our customs and traditions are shared with them from the moment they came aboard this project, they just don't care for most of them. You can't understand Canada without understanding both halves. They'd rather continue to roll their eyes when the redneck neighbour does something silly and point to that as their "Canadian identity".

English Canadians don't give a shit about what is effectively half the country in a cultural sense. When you've got only half your roots, of course it's going to be hard not to be gobbled up by a tree with many more roots.