Sunday, April 18, 2010

Don't call us ----

Helen Gordon McPherson, a Canadian writer, made the following perceptive observation about Canadian "identity":
Canadians have been so busy explaining to the Americans that we aren't British, and to the British that we aren't Americans that we haven't had time to become Canadians.

It has been said that Canadians define ourselves more by negation (what we aren't) than by affirmation (what we are). This is somewhat analogous to describing yourself as someone who doesn't like horror movies, doesn't play tennis, and doesn't speak Russian - kind of strange, right? What do you think? Is what you aren't just as important as what you are?

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