Introduction
What Is This Inquiry About?
There is no single way to be Canadian — and perhaps that’s the point.
Canada perhaps resists simplification. It is geographically vast, officially bilingual, unofficially multilingual, secular by ethos, and spiritual in its origins. It is built on treaties, shaped by migration, rooted in land and wilderness, and saturated with paradox. It can come across as modest, sometimes shy — but also quietly proud. It prides itself on fairness, but lives with inequality. It celebrates diversity, yet still negotiates quietly who belongs. It believes in rights, but gets uneasy when protest gets too loud.
As a relative newcomer, new Canadian, these questions intrigue many. And, if i were to speculate, may be these questions intrigue even those who see things changing, evolving around them?
So what exactly is “Canadian-ness”?
Is it a feeling? A structure? A story we tell each other — or one we’re still trying to write?
This series, Being Canadian: 22 Areas of Inquiry, does not pretend to offer answers. It offers questions — rooted in curiosity, reflection, and the hope that by looking carefully at the many layers of Canadian life, we might begin to see a clearer, fuller picture of who we are becoming.
Each of the 22 areas is framed as a distinct question. Together, they move through emotion, law, belonging, wealth, land, memory, contradiction, and identity. They are not chapters in a national textbook, but windows into experience — some open and bright, others fogged over with complexity, conflict, or silence.
🔍 Why This Series?
Because Canada is changing.
Because what it means to be Canadian is changing.
And because sometimes, in a country as decentralized and quietly diverse as this one, it’s easier to avoid the question than to live inside it.
This series is an attempt to live inside it — to listen, to hold space for contradictions, and to seek out the deeper emotional and structural currents that shape this place we call home.
It is neither celebratory nor cynical. It is reflective.
Each area — whether it's the Constitution, hockey, road trips, immigration, civil society, or Indigenous resurgence — offers a vital piece of the puzzle. Alone, none are complete. Together, they begin to form a composite portrait of Canadianness.
🧩 What the 22 Inquiries Explore:
I. Canadian National Psyche
Is There a Canadian Psyche — or Just a Flag on a Landscape?
If Canada Was a Feeling… What Would It Be?
Power and Identity: Who Gets to Belong — and Who Gets to Decide?
II. Foundations, Law, and Governance
The Constitution and the Quiet Deal
One Country, Many Governments
Rights, But Only If They Don’t Make Us Uncomfortable?
Law, Justice, and the Meaning of Fairness in Canada
III. Indigenous Foundations and Resurgence
Broken Treaties, Living Nations
The Quiet Revolution Within: Indigenous Resurgence and the Re-imagining of Canada
IV. Wealth, Economy, and the Social Contract
Rich Canada, Poor Canadians
The Shape of Us: Demographic Shifts and the Canada That’s Emerging
Civil Society: A Caring Sector or a Conscience?
Between the Market and the Maple Leaf: Is Canada Carving Its Own Middle Path?
V. Migration, Language, and Plural Belonging
Waves Upon Waves: Immigration, Multiculturalism, and the Question of Who Is Canadian
Two Languages, Hundreds of Stories
VI. Culture, Heroes, and Rituals
Our Heroes Don’t Win — They Walk, Skate, or Paddle
Hockey, Homecomings, and the Rituals That Bind Us
VII. Land, Nature, and Environmental Imagination
Wilderness, Winter, and the Canoe
More Than Oil: Water, Forest, Sky, and the Wild Heart of Canada
VIII. Movement, Memory, and Cultural Expression
White Line Fever: The Road Trip as National Meditation
Songs, Stories, and the Feeling Between the Lines
IX. External Mirror and Economic Identity
Our Big Macedonian Neighbour: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly… and the Lovely
🛤️ What This Is Not
This is not a manifesto.
It is not a checklist of values.
And it is definitely not a fixed definition of what it means to be Canadian.
Instead, it’s an inquiry — a journey taken in good faith.
If you find yourself nodding, pausing, or even disagreeing as you read — good. That means the inquiry is working. Canada is not a finished project. And neither is its identity.
To be Canadian, perhaps, is to keep asking: What binds us? What divides us? What stories do we carry? What futures are we willing to imagine — and build together?
This is the spirit of the 22 areas that will follow.
Will you like to weigh in? Please share your thoughts on any or all of those areas, will appreciate and value all inputs, perspectives.