I Am Canadian!

Canadians have been referred to in many terms. We have been called overly polite, always apologizing for everything, even in some extremes just 'being there'. We have been referred to as weak, humble, and a nation who has hung on the shirt tails of the United States of America. We have, over a 50 year period, been seen as a nation where our military was whittled away by years of neutering. In fact it would be fair to say that for many, a sense of community pride was only regional, with Canada Day celebrated with some confusion only sparking a hint of national pride.

On the eve of the Team Canada and Russia's fateful Olympic game on February 26th, the Russian newspaper Pravda, in an editorial, described Canada in this manner. “The abject cruelty shown by Canadian soldiers in international conflicts is scantily referred to, as indeed is the utter incapacity of this country to host a major international event, due to its inferiority complex, born of a trauma being the skinny and weakling bro to a beefy United States and a colonial outpost to the United Kingdom, whose Queen smiles happily from Canadian postage stamps,"

Yes, it can be said that for the average Canadian, national pride was something we held to ourselves, and so in some respect Canadians are really a population of folks who have a sense of “National Humility.” And, it is this humility that gave credence to an international rag like Pravda, the ability to 'dis' our nation to the world.

That was until the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The last two weeks have really welled up feelings that perhaps the old Maple Leaf is something to be reckoned with. With a total of 14 gold metals, Canada has gone down in history as the nation with the most gold won at a Winter Olympics since the inception of the winter games. This feeling of pride may have started when Montreal born Alexandre Bilodeau won our first Gold but the fervor hit when our Canadian woman's hockey team took the gold from the USA followed by the men's Team Canada trouncing the Russians, knocking the former red giant from the games. That event alone was the first time in the Olympics since 1960 Canada has won a game against Russia.

Of course, the crowning achievements came Saturday and Sunday. First when Alberta's own Team Martin, skipped by Kevin Martin, won Gold, then with what can only be described as hair raising intensity, Team Canada fought head-to-head with Team USA to a squeaking overtime win. Yes, it can be easily said that Canada owned the championship spot on the podium for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

This growing sense of Canadian Pride, is something that has been building over the past four years. In a survey conducted in 2006, by University of Chicago, Canada ranked sixth out of the top thirty-four countries as those nations whose citizens clearly conveyed an emotional tie to their international identity. In that survey the United Sates was ranked first followed by Venezuela, Ireland, South Africa and Australia.

Jump ahead to October 2009, with Canada taking a more dominant stance on the international stage and the Canadian economy holding stronger than most other countries and the world pride-o-meter shifted.

In a survey released that month by The Economist, Canada rose to second spot on National Pride, just behind the first place Australians. Followed only by Finland, Austria and Singapore. This sense of National Pride was already coming to a head for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics when the CEO of VANOC, John Furlong, announced that the committee wanted the Olympic flame to be carried across Canada on a route that would touch as many Canadians as possible on a personal level. People from Hobbema, Wetaskiwin to Leduc all had the opportunity to see the flame only to be overtaken by a well of proud emotions.

This sense of National Pride was very evident and reported by media out-side of Canada. Pravda aside, NBC reported on the heels of the USA's Sean White taking Gold for snowboarding, they stated, “Americans dominate this sport but Canadian National Pride is everywhere in the stands.”

So really what is pride? The standard definition is simply a sense of one's own proper dignity or value as it speaks to national self respect. A secondary definition is a pleasure or satisfaction taken in an achievement. In this understanding, the achievements of our athletes in the field of competition definitely brought us pride as we understand it.  And, it was clearly displayed in the closing ceremonies. From the humble and yet humorous display of a mime repairing the malfunctioned Olympic Flame as exposed in the opening ceremonies, to seeing William Shatner and Micheal J. Fox end the closing ceremonies with an elaborately expanded version of “I Am Canadian”  from the popular  “The Rant”  beer commercial.

It was a real emotional ride for all Canadians that had the ability to witness Vancouver host the Olympics and see Canadians whose hard work and dedication to not only to their athletic ambitions, but also, to their dedication to our nation. These athletes are National Heroes. People who bravely competed in sports, that in many cases have been proven dangerous, and who in a sense, became the real leaders of this country for a brief moment in history.

I personally like the other definition of pride;  A company of Lions. Because quite frankly, our athletes, volunteers, and the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) have never roared so loudly in an international event. Our thanks go to these people for upping the stakes on a international Canadian identity.

“CANADA IS THE SECOND LARGEST LANDMASS, THE FIRST NATION OF HOCKEY AND THE BEST PART OF NORTH AMERICA. MY NAME IS BRIAN AND ‘I AM CANADIAN!’”

Die Englische Sprache

Can you relate? You are sitting in your father’s living room watching the evening news. All of a sudden, your father clenches his raised fist and yells, “That’s not how you say it!” The word is “Auspice’ not Ass…….ss!” Your father gets up and starts to write a letter to the TV station manager. Thirty minutes later he emerges with a smile saying… “I faxed it!”
This is not a fictional account. In the last six years my Pops has made a point of taking on the badge of ‘English Language Enforcer,’ identifying the media offenders on radio, TV and newsprint. A single word can send my Pops into a rant that causes the family to bow their heads in capitulation.

Like an episode of “All in the Family” my Pops and I get into a tense discussion on the English language. My position is that English is a living language with new words and expressions salting speech in an ever-evolving process, and his position is that a language is static. Words don’t change, only people pervert the spoken word. But my Pops position is one that has been instilled by his heritage, since he was raised in a two-language family. His mother and father’s native tongue was German and my father as well as his siblings all learned German in their youth.

So why is this an important fact?
German is the second largest language on the planet, closely followed by Russian. German has 185,000 words, with Russian holding onto to third place with 130,000 words. With that many words to its credit, a German game of “Kratzen” should be a cakewalk. The interesting part is that Germans do not add many words yearly to their language. So to a man of German heritage there may be only one way of expression, depending on what the topic is.

English is a beast that cannot be tamed!
English is a language that has 616,500 words with over 1,000 words added to it every year. Many of these words come to us from other languages, and more are added because of how they are used. “Ain’t, ain’t in the dictionary” is no longer a statement of fact. This example demonstrates how English is a living language, with new words and expressions salting speech in an ever-evolving process.

This simple fact should not leave one aghast, alarmed, amazed, appalled, astonished, bewildered, blown away, bowled over, confounded, dumbfounded, electrified, flabbergasted, flummoxed, overwhelmed, shocked, startled, stunned, stupefied, surprised, taken back, or thunderstruck at this capacious cornucopia we call the English language.

Canadians have a unique English experience. English Canada was founded on the Queen’s English, which is spoken by only 16% of all the English speakers in the world today. In contrast, are the ‘twisters’ of the language our American cousins to the south, who strongly influence Canada through Television, Radio and Newspapers. Over 66% of English speakers use American English in their written and spoken word.

By the end of the 21st century, the Queen’s English will have bit the dust, bought the farm, breathed its last breath, came to an end, cashed in its chips, deep-sixed, expired, gave up the ghost, kicked off, kicked the bucket, lay with the lilies, permanently changed its address, sprouted wings, took the dirt nap, went belly up, went to his final reward, punctuated its last period. In short, it may die.

The Americans have invaded the purity of the English that was taught in the classroom 50 years ago and it started long before that nation was formed. Because the English language is made up of 300 other spoken tongues, with the users of our language changing words yearly in contravention of the rules your grade three English teacher laid out.

One example of how our American cousins have changed the Queen’s English, is that at the end of World War II, according to Sir Winston Churchill, the Allied leaders nearly came to blows over the use of a single word during their negotiations, when some diplomats suggested that it was time to “table” an important motion. This small word, to the Canadians and British meant for the motion to be put on the table for discussion. But to the Americans it meant just the opposite. It means to put-off the motion to a later meeting. To anyone today who have served on a committee or a board, we now understand the term “to table” in the same way the Americans do. It took less than 50 years for us to toss out a snippet of the Queen’s English usage of a word.

Has English changed more since then?
So, when you are watching the news on TV and your father jumps from a daze and mumbles some incoherent insult at the News Anchor, remember that it will only get worse, devalue, degrade or rot away, … you get the picture.