We’re not boring — really!
Do Canadians spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince the rest of the world that they’re not boring?
No, here in Canada, Canadians just go about their business of having fun and don’t worry what other people think.
But if you read the U.S. media, you might think that dispelling the “boring” image is something of a national pastime. Even a spokesperson for the Canadian Tourism Commission apparently confessed to Forbes Traveler that “We’ve been told that Canada has had a kind of vanilla pudding image — safe and nice, like the girl next door — not the hot chick you’d want to go on vacation with.”
Canadian writer Eva Holland weighed in on the “boring” question recently over at WorldHum with “Eight Reasons Why Canada Isn’t Boring.” Among her arguments:
We can road trip to the Arctic Ocean.
We’ve got world-renowned coastline—and we’re protecting it.
and besides…
How could the country that produced the Cirque du Soleil possibly be dull?
Canada is a horribly boring place. I immigrates to Canada in 1994 and did my undergrad in Vancouver. I left for the US some years ago and now whenever I come back to visit family, I feel so happy to not live here. Vancouver in specific and Canada in general is filled with zombies. Robot people whose emotions have been locked up underneath the long, bone jarring winters. And people without emotions are boring people, hence boring culture. The pretense is that it is a safe place, but so is the inside a jail cell.
Ha ha ha, I love the denial in this posting. So much effort spent trying to deny the fact that Canada is a bit dull. Let’s face it: Canada IS dull. I’ve lived in Canada for almost 3 years now and think Canada is a bit boring, it just is. Funny enough its hard to put a finger on why it is dull here. I think there are a variety of causes, as follows:
• long, cold winters create a stay-at-home culture, society
• Canada collectively is a risk-averse, safety oriented society: this is a good thing, but the unintended trade-off is a “no fun”, hyper-safe living environment and implicit mindset. Take Vancouver for example: set in a beautiful region, somehow its government has earned the dubious nickname of “no fun city”, because they crush any efforts done to create a thriving arts/culture/nightlife scene on the scale of San Francisco, NYC, etc.
• The reknowned politeness of Canadians is a good thing: but is this implicitly required ‘reserve’ stifling human passion, creativity, good risk taking, spontaneity, etc? Writing on the wall confirming this suspicion includes the ‘Canada Dry’ softdrink: a nice enough flavor but not remarkable.
• With a massive immigration influx since 1980, is the ‘tossed salad’ (contra USA’s ‘melting pot’) self concept of Canada a failure? Has Canada become somewhat of a hodge-podge of numerous races, peoples, ethnicities all living ensconced within their own groups, largely indifferent to being part of a broader national identity? I certainly have gotten this impression from my time here. These are serious questions for Canada to face as a nation as it matures. To me it seems evident that Canada is arguably a fragmented country somehow lacking a collective identity on the world stage (of course aside from hockey).
• I think Canadians are, by and large, self absorbed. There is not a lot of interest in newcomers, that’s for sure. If you immigrate to Canada, be prepared for a less than enthusiastic “welcome” to your new home. There is a huge amount of passive aggressive indifference in the collective Canadian mindset.
• Etc, etc. Canada is a really difficult place to immigrate to: hard to find a good job in this expensive place; hard to make meaningful friendships (plenty of superficially happy neighbors and coworkers though (just don’t expect them to invite you to anything).
…finally its just boring here and hard to get anything going. I’m planning to leave this country–and yes I expect the door to hit my arse on the way out LOL 😀
I fucked up moving here and now I’m leaving. End of story, good bye.
Zam
Hi, Zam:
Thanks for your comments. You raise some interesting points about whether a polite, risk-averse culture can also have a downside — does it make Canada a comfortable place to live or a boring one? To me, it’s comfortable, but everyone needs to make his/her own decision.
I like your description of Canada’s multicultural society as a “tossed salad” of different communities co-existing together, rather than melding into one common culture as the U.S. “melting pot” ideal suggests. I think the “tossed salad” concept actually makes Canada more vibrant, by encouraging people to learn more about other ethnic groups. You’re right that it can have a polarizing effect, too, by making it easy for some immigrant communities to remain insular, but overall, I think that Canada’s multiculturalism is an asset. At a minimum, it makes Canada’s major cities interesting places to eat!
What do other readers think? Is Canada too boring, expensive, and insular? Or is it peaceful and multicultural?
Leave a comment and join the discussion. Thanks!