Canadian Patriotism

I had the chance to attend a small talk by Michael Ignatieff two weeks ago. He was speaking about his latest book, "True Patriot Love", at the Ottawa Writers Conference.

He mentioned two points in particular which highlight his opinion on how patriotism can be defined in Canada.

1) Patriotism as a postive

People today often worry about the dangers of patriotism. Our memories are short and we remember the lies that can be told in the name of patriotism, and the lies that are perpetuated in other areas of the world, in the name of patriotism. But Canadian patriotism is about simply caring about the future of the country. If we ceased to care about our future and care about how we operate in the running of our country, than we would cease to exist as a country. 

2) How we define ourselves

Canada is unique in that, we have managed to define ourselves as a nation, in opposition to the greatest power the world has ever seen, without hating them. 

My thoughts

It's an interesting and worthy take and theres certainly some accuracies in it. 

In general, patriotism/identity is an area of extreme interest to me. Ever since I read Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" I've felt that that maybe nationalism and patriotism does more harm than good. 

I think I'm going to do my dissertation at LSE on the relationship between identity and conflict, in the context of a globalized world in which the identity of nation-states has become more or less, (depending on how that nation defines itself) easy to determine.  

As someone who grew up overseas my entire life, and always labelled myself a "Canadian", without even really knowing what that meant, I've felt firsthand, the irrationality of the fundamental need that we all have to identify with something. Since moving back to Canada I have found that people here don't identify themselves as Canadian, they identify themselves in regard to their ethnic heritage. But, over time those links begin to wither away, and the younger generations of immigrants more or less identify themselves as Canadians first, with their specific ancestry. 

Canada, in its purest sense, does not apply to Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Community" because we have done a terrible job of promoting our history and, as a result, it is not the focus of  what draws Canadians together. Instead, Canada exists as a nation state not based on any ethnic identity, but based on a socio-political contract between its citizens. (In someways it simply does not have a choice, as everyone here originally came from somewhere else). People move here because they agree with the way we live and they want to be a part of that social contract. 

(Some might say the US is similar, but they really perpetuate the myth of American exceptionalism, which plays right into Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" concept) 

And, I agree with Ignatieff, because this is the root of what brings us all together as Canadians, all citizens should care about what is happening in the country and care about trying to improve it and make it better.

                         What really brings Canadians together? Hockey.

In my opinion, in the era of globalization, a nation-state founded on purely ethnic terms is beginning to become outdated. Those countries that continue to rely on that ethnic identity to define themselves may face a much higher likelihood of conflict as globalization continues to take root in the international system. The very fact that Canada does not define itself in such a way, is precisely why we can define ourselves in opposition to the US, while at the same time, maintain a very healthy and functional relationship with the.