I was recently asked to put some thoughts together about what it means to be Canadian. It is for a CBC publicity initiative that will be posted online closer to Canada Day:
What do I think it means to be Canadian?
I think it means – you’re pretty open to other ideas – and adopting what works best.
Britain and France fostered the makings of our nation, and naturally we adopted traditions from both.
We adopt the way we spell words from different countries. From our UK heritage, we keep the OU’s like in Rumour. We adopt American spellings for other words.
We’ve adopted the metric system, but still borrow pounds and inches to weigh and measure ourselves.
You can see it in our attitudes towards immigration and multiculturalism – especially here in the GTA…
Adoption. openness. Taking the best the world has to offer and give it our own spin.
It even affects how we eat.
What is Canadian cuisine? A bit of everything from around the world.
I might just celebrate this Canada Day with my new favourite food: a butter chicken pizza.
A quintessentially Canadian dish.
UPDATE:
The video of this message is now available online:
Mike Wise 
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