OTTAWA - While notable Canadians have predictably diverse opinions about what defines this country, they share an almost universal optimism about the national trajectory as we head towards our sesquicentennial.
The Canadian Press asked artists, comics, politicians, soldiers, media commentators - even pugilists - for their assessment of a country that's arguably maturing out of adolescence at 140 years old.
For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canadians need look no further than the words of O Canada - the true North strong and free - for a powerful symbol of a geographically and culturally diverse country.
"We say Canada is a country of regional diversity but I think the North and the Arctic is for many Canadians the thing that really does define us," Harper said in an interview at his Langevin Block office across the street from Parliament Hill.
"It defines both the fact we're a northern country and it defines the great untapped promise of the country at the same time."
The Conservative prime minister has long held little patience for what he sees as reactive anti-Americanism, so the old fall-back definition of Canadians - We're NOT Americans! - holds little appeal.
"I tend to see the country more for what it is and what we have achieved, and I think that's how you build pride," said Harper. "If you just define the country by being 'not the United States,' then you'll define it by jealousy and envy and hostility. But if you define it for what is, you'll feel pride and affection and true devotion."
Defining Canada for what it is: No small endeavour.
Consider just a few definitions.
- "What the country stands for - a country of accessibility and inclusivity for all," said Rick Hansen, who this year celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Man in Motion wheelchair odyssey to raise funds for spinal cord injury research.
- "We're a very, very mixed wonderful, experiment going on," said environmental advocate David Suzuki.
- -I've always felt we had the opportunity to be the most peace-loving (country) and at the same time distant from the political situation in the United States and Britain and everywhere else," observed 83-year-old Arthur Erickson, an internationally recognized Canadian architect who has designed buildings in B.C., Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington, D.C., and California.
Soldiers: The ultimate Canadians?
For a peace-loving country, some of our most eloquent advocates are men of war.
"Where ever we go and whatever we do, our soldiers at the end of the day are the ones that represent, I think, the true value of what it means to be in Canada and to be Canadian," said Col. Ryan Jestin, commanding officer of CFB Gagetown, N.B.
"That's hope, prosperity, incredible economic value here, being friendly to each other and ultimately being a voice of reason and compromise around the world. That's what I think it means to be Canadian."
Painter Mary Pratt, speaking at her home in St. Johns, Nfld., listed another defining Canadian trait: respect for the rule of law.
"You can talk about compassion and what a wonderful social conscience we have in this country - which we do, I think - but none of it would work without the legal system that we have," she said.
Pratt refuses to be shoe-horned into the right-left, political party boxes that so divide some bloody-minded partisans in this country.
"It's really astonishing that Conservative governments put in the CBC (in 1932) and the Canada Council (in 1951)," she said. "If we're that conservative, there's no such thing as a conservative party in Canada. We're all liberal and that's all there is to it. We are a liberal country."
Painter Alex Colville says he's an unabashed Conservative party supporter, but he's just as happy as Pratt to call Canada home.
"I don't have any desire to escape Canada," Colville said in an interview at his home in Wolfville, N.S. "For instance, I never go on holidays. To me, this is a holiday. There's no place that I think of where I would rather be . . . I don't think I'm a kind of freak in this."
Notwithstanding the current prime minister's disdain, a little anti-Americanism creeps into many definitions of Canada.
"Certainly right now if it was just on a neighbourly battle, we can only look better than America these days politically," said Jason Reitman, the 30-year-old actor, writer, producer and director whose most recent credit includes the acerbic comedy Thank You for Smoking.
Of course, you can always combine love of country and good-natured Yankee-baiting.
Professional wrestler Bret (Hitman) Hart is a fiercely proud Calgarian who has spent much of his career working south of the border.
"I always wanted to be Canadian," said Hart. "I thought it gave me credibility around the world."
He fondly recalled a 1997 storyline in the then World Wrestling Federation that featured a group of Canadian wrestlers dissing the stars and stripes.
"I don't think Americans to this day have forgiven me for my remarks about the U.S. -- that America was shaped like a toilet bowl," Hart said.
Canadians, afterall, like to believe themselves above such petty nationalist sensitivities when it comes to deprecating humour.
Actress and comedian Catherine O'Hara, speaking at the Walk of Fame in Toronto, said Canadians really don't require the self-congratulation that drives such events.
"I don't think we're quite as needy as other countries in this regard. I'd like to think (so), anyway."
Not all Canadian artists are so self-effacing.
"Back in the day, you could only get Canadian artists to go to the Junos," said Chad Kroeger, lead singer of Nickelback, when asked about Canada's national development.
"Now it's getting international recognition. It's about time!"
Canada could be better
All this is not to say there's no room for improvement in what all-and-sundry call a great country.
Vancouver entrepreneur Jim Pattison, owner of the Jim Pattison Group, the third largest privately held company in Canada, said July 1 is a special day to think about a great country.
"I wish that our country becomes stronger as a nation, that we continue to grow and become more of an aggressive trading partner in the world and that we can just be stronger economically than we are," he said.
Ed Schreyer, the former Manitoba premier, member of Parliament and governor general, lamented what he sees as a growing income divide.
"There are some trends at work, especially these past 20 years . . . which should be cause for concern for any genuine democrat, for any fair-minded citizen," he said in his living room in Winnipeg.
Justin Trudeau, son of a famous prime minister and aspiring federal Liberal party candidate, said Canada's place in the world is being undermined.
"We're slipping, we're coasting, we're not doing the work that should be done here in Canada to keep us on the cutting edge of where this planet needs to go."
But there's a countervailing sense among some that all that touchy-feely Canadianism might just be giving way to something more robust.
Alex Baumann, former Olympic gold medallist swimmer, returned to Canada last year after 15 years in Australia to run the Road to Excellence program for Canada's summer sport athletes.
"For a long time post-1988, particularly in the sports system, we didn't really focus on excellence, we were more interested in just participation," said Baumann.
"I believe very strongly we should strive to be the best that we can in the world. It doesn't mean winning is everything, but we should strive to be the best and we can compete with the best in the world."
Anne McLellan, a former Liberal cabinet minister, wants Canada to become more narrowly focused with its foreign aid.
"We can't be all things to all people. All countries aren't of equal relevance or importance to us as Canadians. And I know that that may sound a little harsh but it's, to me, common sense."
Others don't see any evidence that Canada's glossy reputation abroad has been diminished.
"Only up, baby, only up," said Jill Hennessy, the Edmonton-born, Kitchener, Ont.,-raised actress known for her television roles on Law & Order and Crossing Jordan.
"The more I travel around the world, whether it's in United States or abroad in Europe, everybody you meet is so impressed with not only Canadians as individuals but Canadians on a political level, environmental level. The standing of Canadians internationally is so incredibly high and it keeps moving upwards."
Looked at it from the other side the border, the sentiment might come out something like this:
"I like Canada," said Chris (The Crippler) Leben, an American middleweight in mixed martial arts. "I kind of look at it like your attic: It's a little colder up there but when you go up there you're like 'it's cold,' but then like 'Oh I forgot, there's all this cool shit up here.' I like Canada."
George Stromboulopoulos, the laconic hipster host of CBC's The Hour likens Canada to a growing 12-year-old.
"We're a young country and we're going through a very difficult transition period where there are high highs and low lows," he said. "I think it's a beautiful country."
Stromboulopoulos gets the last word on this 140th Canadian birthday:
"My favourite thing about being a Canadian is that I don't have to think about it."
