People & Culture
PBS interview program Canada Files has spent six years asking notable Canadians that question. This is what they had to say.
Canada Files is an interview program that was created to inform Americans about extraordinary Canadians. Produced for WNED/PBS and stations on the PBS network, the program has been running for six seasons and featured interviews with remarkable Canadians on their lives, ideas, choices made, lessons learned and how they see the world. The show was created by Jim Deeks, who hosted it for the first three seasons. I have been the host for the past three years.
We end each interview by asking our guests, “What does being Canadian mean to you?” and, although the responses are personal, specific and different, they reflect themes and ideas of Canada that are very thoughtful and useful — especially at this critical time for the country.
The 77 Canadians we’ve interviewed were not terribly nationalistic or romantic but were unanimous in their belief that being Canadian differentiated them from everyone else and that, wherever they moved or lived, they carried their “Canadianness” with them. But what does that mean? What does a maple leaf on a backpack tell you? Specific adjectives were repeated: welcoming, diverse, kind, respectful, safe and free.
So many of our fabulous guests were immigrants or children of immigrants, a defining feature of Canada.
Where else could this have happened? This journey. They let us in. They let us be who we wanted to be. They let us be more than we thought we could, or that people thought we could or should be. Canada gave us everything. Everything. And I can’t think of another country where I or the people I love could have been ourselves as fully. So I love this country. I don’t think there’s another country in the world like it. And I want it to stay true to what it is: to the country it is, especially since 1982 when we got the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and really grew up.
My first state visits as representative of Canada were in Africa. And I remember when I started engaging in bilateral discussions with other heads of state, and many of them — Latin American heads of state, African — would say, “But you were not born in Canada. You arrived in Canada as a refugee.” And I would say “This is what Canada is about. It is possible in Canada.”
All of my family are immigrants to Canada. It was the country that welcomed us without reservation and that gave us opportunity. That made my mom feel like she was at home, that educated me extraordinarily well.
We have the opportunity to live in this incredible country that stretches from sea to sea, that welcomes people from all over the world, that welcomed my ancestors coming from Ukraine, coming from England, coming from Ireland, that welcomes people today, but that cannot continue to be a safe harbour in the future if we don’t tackle the climate crisis.
Canada does a lot of things right, a lot of great accomplishments. Peace-keeping forces, the world’s longest undefended border, welcoming immigrants, including my grandparents, and continuing to do so. A parliamentary system that is, you know — if you are Canadian, you are well aware of all the follies, but still — as far as political systems go, it’s not so bad compared to other countries. So, I appreciate being Canadian and I appreciate Canada.
Our First Nations and Inuit guests had their own unique perspectives:
As an Indigenous person today, there’s always a pressure to account for the terrible impacts of the past. And I would just say that for me, being Canadian means never forgetting but also being free from being defined by that and to say that I fully embrace being part of this country. And that I love this country and I love the fact that my kids and I have so much opportunity. And so I am a patriot and I love Canada and being a Canadian means embracing that in all its ups and downs, during the tough times as well as the more proud moments. And it just means believing in something positive and big that we could do together in this country.
I actually am not aligned to a country per se, I am aligned to values of a people that get embodied within a community that we call Canada. And my work is as much about bringing Canada into alignment with those values of justice, of truth, of compassion. And that to me is probably the best I’m going to be able to do on a patriotic front while still recognizing that we have fabulous and rightful rights as First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
When I think of what my ancestors did to get here and to stay here, all I could think is the power of hope. And if we can keep nurturing that and believing in that at as a country, I’m that Canadian. As long as we can keep honouring this as Indigenous people, that’s what being Canadian means to me. This is always honouring that incredible journey Indigenous people did and do, respectively, to be in this country, to make this country what it is.
Well, I’m a proud Canadian. But I’m also a very proud Ojibway. I’m a First Nation person. When there’s an international sporting event, I cheer for Canada. Absolutely. I might come across as being ambivalent about who I believe I am, but that’s not so. I’m pretty clear as to who I am. I live in two worlds, so to speak.
Many of our guests are Canadians who moved to the U.S. for their careers but feel remarkably connected to their homeland even after decades abroad.
I am a huge flag-waver. I am so proud to be Canadian — that feeling is shared by a lot of Canadians, because growing up we always felt that we had to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. And sort of felt the thumb of America on us, like you just had to work extra hard. And, of course, I love America and I love to say that Canada is the greatest country to be from and America’s the greatest country to realize your dreams. So, I’ve got both. My upbringing on Vancouver Island was just nothing short of a miracle to me, how great it was. I’ve lived the Canadian and the American dream.
I’m Canadian born and bred, and I’ll always be Canadian, no matter where I go and no matter where I live. I’m currently living in New Zealand, but I think like a Canadian. I was raised as a Canadian. I’m proud of those roots. I’m proud of whatever the societal influences were that give me the value system that I take out into the world and that I try to bestow on my children as well.
Oh, I think I feel like a member of a very unique club. There’s only 40 million of us. And for years, people would always ask me why there are so many people from Canada in comedy. And I think, oh, that’s a silly question. There’s no border to the arts. And then they just kept coming. Mike Myers and Seth Rogen, and so I think maybe there is something in Canada that we’re kind of the middle sibling of three siblings. The beautiful England, the sexy U.S., and we’re this kind of — maybe our confidence isn’t as much as the other two — but we have such soul and such wisdom. And we learn from everything around us.
It’s not hey look at me, look at me — that’s really not what it is. It’s about kind of doing it and making sure you’re doing a good job, do it right and everything will kind of take care of itself. So that’s feeling Canadian every single day, no question about it. Just not too much of a spotlight, thank you very much.
I think that I’m part of inventing the Canadian sound. Joni Mitchell might be part of inventing the Canadian sound. Neil Young. And Leonard Cohen. And growing up in Canada, we have a bit of like, we’re from too far away. We’re not from the centre of where everything is happening. So it means we have to work harder, try harder, and bring some talent to the table.
Am I like the most Canadian Canadian? I am, aren’t I? I had the most amazing thing that ever happened and it was sitting on Zoom watching my wife — this gorgeous, proud Argentinian woman — give her oath and become Canadian. And I cried so hard.
What about that maple leaf on the backpack? What is our image in the world?
As a Canadian, and having grown up as an international kid, if you like, I feel so strongly that we are a country that should feel at home in the world and we can work with all the people in the world in a way that doesn’t impose on other people but embraces them. So that spirit of being Canadian is very meaningful and very important to me.
I learned when I was at the UN that there is so much privilege being attached to being Canadian, we are so well thought of, rightly or wrongly, in the world that that’s the glow I embrace.
It means that we’re different. It means that we’re welcoming. It means that we care for other people. It means that we’re an example to the world. And when we travel, and we have that Canadian flag on our backpack, or our arm, and people see that, it means something to them, historically. And we, as Canadians, have to fight hard to make sure that we keep that identity, that when people look to us, they go, that’s a beacon of light. That’s where I want to be in life. And unfortunately, as a nation, we’re losing that, and we have to fight hard to reclaim it.
Canadians sometimes have a very romantic view of our place in the world. You know, that as long as you have a Canadian flag on your backpack, all doors will open and everybody loves you. We’re nice and we matter but I think when you arrive internationally you realize that the way people look at you also informs what you think of yourself. And then it becomes a little more challenging to live up to our internal conception of who we are. We can do more.
But travelling can make Canadians even more grateful when they get home.
What an extraordinary gift we have. We, as Canadians, live in a society that is imperfect, certainly. Our history is deeply imperfect. There’s a lot that we have to reconcile. But at the same time, we can send our children to school with a degree of confidence that they won’t experience horrific sexual violence or be murdered on the way there. We don’t fall asleep as millions of people do throughout the world listening to the staccato of automatic gunfire, feeling the deep vibrations of those bombs in the darkest of night and wondering whether we’ll be next or how we’re ever going to keep our children safe in that context. I’ve lived some of that and I know what that feels like. And every time I land here back in Canada and I can close my eyes and that is not my reality, I am so thankful and grateful to call myself a Canadian.
My prized possession in my life is my Canadian passport. This is one of the greatest places to live in the world, and I can say that because I’ve traveled all over the world. I know what people are facing out there. But I’m very, very proud to be Canadian and I’m going to stay here. I haven’t left. I live five miles (eight kilometres) from where I grew up. And, yeah, it’s pretty incredible to live here and to have the opportunities that I’ve had.
Wes Hall“It means that we’re different. It means that we’re welcoming. It means that we care for other people. It means that we’re an example to the world.”
We are not usually inclined to flag waving but we know what is of value in this country, including our staggering geography:
As Canadians we learn to be respectful of everyone, regardless of where they are in this supposed hierarchy, which is a word that is not so often used in our country. I realized I was conscious of this and I took this really at heart to bring this Canadian way of leading an orchestra and making music everywhere I went, and it seems to have worked.
Being Canadian is tied to the land for me. And the water. And secondly, I think of the word freedom. I’ve been very fortunate as a woman particularly to explore sport, to explore my potential in so many avenues. I’ve been given the freedom to do that and I never take that for granted. And we have to, as a country and a people, continue to value and to fight for that.
It’s heavily influenced my connection to the natural world of Earth. I think in Canada, we have these natural lands that Indigenous People have enjoyed their life supporting and learning from. And when I was growing up, it was that connection and trying to understand what the role is of a human being on the planet given all of this natural world that’s around us. So, I think being a Canadian has allowed me to experience that at a level that I might not have had had I been somewhere else in the world.
Our legal system to me represents our desire to be a fair country. Whether we always achieve that in every individual case is debatable. But there is this strong value that we are all equal in Canada and that we have an expectation that we should be treated as equals, human dignity, respected, all that boils down to fairness.
We don’t define wealth by the currency accumulated by the lucky few as much as the strength of social relations and the bonds of reciprocity that bind us all into a greater purpose, if you will. You know, we have a healthcare system that’s designed to cater to the collective not the individual, and certainly not the private investor who views every hospital bed as a rental property. And our motto in Canada is pretty boring: peace, order, and good government. But the amazing thing is that’s exactly what we’ve had since confederation.
Medicare is important to me. We have a system called equalization payments where the well-off provinces share some of their wealth with the poorer provinces. I love that whole idea.
Oh, every day I am so proud. I am relieved probably even more than proud to be a Canadian. What a great country it is, isn’t it? It has everything. It has democracy. It has freedom of speech. Gun controls. We have a social safety net — that is at times, of course, frayed. No place is perfect. And we have a lot to learn — a lot to make up for.
We were ahead of our time, in that we’ve always been very diverse. We’ve always had to recognize that in some way. Not sufficiently, to my mind, but we’ve always had to do that. And other countries are catching up.
I left Canada one day for a job in an American university. I started at 9, and at 5 o’clock I called my secretary; I said I’m finished being outside of Canada. I’m coming home. Where else would I want to be?
I believe Canadians don’t speak enough about what it means to be Canadian. I think they’re caught in lots of perspectives. You know? Everything from maple syrup to healthcare to hockey. But, you know, those are all things but if you strip it all away we’re a young country. We’re a big country. We’ve got a few people here. And we’re a colonial history with an Indigenous history that’s even deeper. And we’ve got, then, people from around the world who have come here. All of us have hopes and dreams. We all have the same core values that we need to really, really reflect on and pull out of what this great social experiment means to us and to the world. Because if we can’t do it here in Canada, where can you do it?
It means being open to the stranger because we’re constantly welcoming people from the outside. It means understanding how problematic our history is. It’s always a work in progress and right now we’re struggling to adjust and accept the fact that our Indigenous brothers and sisters don’t see themselves in the history we tell. It’s a kind of decency, modesty, it’s also an openness to the world, a curiosity about the world. And it’s also cold winter mornings. That shared experience of going to school when you’re a kid and hearing the sound of snow under your boots. That’s Canada.
I think it’s a place of places. And Canadians more than anyone I think that I’ve encountered on the planet understand and have this foundational relationship with place. And culture is nothing more than a human response to a place. We are the sum of all of our places. Our country is so big, and we are so few. I think that’s what makes us reach out and hold hands with other places. We know we need each other; we have a shared fate and I think we feel it because it’s not a benign geography, this geography of ours.
As an athlete it was, you know, just respect, self-respect, respect for others, fair play. This idea of travelling the globe with this beautiful maple leaf on my back, of being part of something bigger than myself, a responsibility. But being Canadian to me also means the other side of that responsibility, of realizing we have so much work to do, to reckon with this colonial space, reckon with the history that has yet to be not just taught, but accepted.
The fact of the matter is I’m a Quebecer, I’m a Canadian. I had a French-Canadian father; my mother was of Irish origin. We have multiple identities. We’re not a piece of sausage that you can cut up. And that’s all part of our modern life. And I’m very comfortable in that, in my skin. And I like the idea of who I am.
You know, I’ve always been very proud to be a Canadian. I feel so connected to the land. I grew up in the forest. I feel like we have this place to discover, to explore, to take care of, to be responsible for. I feel a great pride in taking on that responsibility.
Zita Cobb“Our country is so big, and we are so few. I think that’s what makes us reach out and hold hands with other places. We know we need each other.”
Prime Ministers had their own take:
I think it means virtually everything. No disrespect to Fort Smith, but I started from relatively humble beginnings. Sense of perseverance, which is the town motto. Sense of community. I’m the beneficiary of public education, public healthcare, public attitudes. A real sense of being in it together. So, that pretty much means everything.
I thought that my job was to be the cheerleader. Let’s go. Canada is the best. You remember that was the end of my speech. “Vive le Canada” and so on, because I always felt that it is.
And if you look back on Canada 150 years from now people will say there, there is a country.
It means not being afraid to be challenged by differences. We decided to build a country that would have people who were totally different — culturally, religiously, linguistically, historically — from each other. And yet we were Canadian. And then we just accumulated waves of people from every corner of the world. We get to define ourselves more by a set of values, pride in flag, pride in country, that no matter what part of the world you come from, you could be a full and complete part of. And that happens when you have that level of diversity, you have a level of resilience where all the different solutions, all the different stories that come together, are so much greater than the sum of their parts.
One warning that kept coming up was that we cannot be complacent about anything we have. We must work hard to keep our freedom, democracy, diversity and social safety net, even our sovereignty. We always have to try harder, be aspirational. We also must work at reconciliation with First Nations, Métis and Inuit and learn from the past.
It was so interesting to see a picture of Canada develop slowly in front of our eyes, conversation by conversation. It was not a question of who we aren’t, but who we are. And it is pretty clear. The consensus is, as Rick Mercer put it, “I’ve never wished to be anything else but.”
Canada Files is shown on WNED/PBS and PBS stations throughout Canada and the U.S., on YouTube and on the Air Canada entertainment system.
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