A country in love with itself

The entire back wall of Indigo bookstore’s Bay and Bloor branch in Toronto is plastered with the slogan “The World Needs More Canada” — or at least it was when I visited recently. It’s a phrase associated with U2 lead singer Bono, who used it at the Liberal party’s leadership convention in 2003, where he appeared at the invitation of new leader Paul Martin to praise Canada and demand more foreign aid from us. Unfortunately, not many years later Canadians decided that whatever Bono and the world might think they themselves didn’t need more of Mr. Martin.

But now “The World Needs More Canada” is the title of a new coffee table book from Indigo, published in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday. In the nature of book campaigns these days, you can also get T- shirts, coffee mugs, tea towels and other paraphernalia, all emblazoned with “The World Needs More Canada,” a slogan which, the front- matter pages of the book inform us, is now a trademark of Indigo Books and Music, Inc., with “All rights reserved.” I hope I haven’t infringed any by using the phrase three times in two paragraphs.

The book is the latest handsomely produced version of what is possibly the most common Canadian book genre of all time: the “what- Canada-means-to-me” compendium. This one features thoughts by well- known cultural and other worthies (Peter Mansbridge, Cynthia Dale, Robert Lantos, Alanis Morissette, Karen Kain, Norman Jewison and so on), as well as several others whose love for their country is, they tell us, profound and enduring, if not quite strong enough for them to actually live here. The great majority of contributors, as always in these volumes, are English- Canadian. It’s harder to find French Canadians who will rhapsodize unreservedly over Canada. Céline Dion does make an appearance but her statement is an ambiguous “Je serais un Québécois- Canadien. Je viens du Québec et je le dis chaque fois que je visite un autre pays. C’est mes racines, mes origines, et la chose la plus importante pour moi.” ( That is, she considers herself, above all, a Quebecois- Canadian and lets everyone know it).

In her own “Ode to Canada,” French and English versions of which modestly assume the centrefold, selfdescribed “Entrepreneur- Booklover” Heather Reisman, who runs Indigo, expresses her love for the Canadian values, which are, as she sees them: equality, health care as a right, creatives ( sic) punching above their weight in all fields, multiculturalism, caring about climate change, and the fact we’re finally “beginning to embrace the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission … though it took time,” along with several other progressive nostrums. She ends with the thought that “I would love Canada just a little bit more if … we would more boldly celebrate our achievements and the things that make us so special.”

Really? It seems to me we do little else these days than boldly celebrate our achievements and the things we think — perfectly presumptuously — make us so special. Several entries in “The World Needs More Canada” do describe unmistakable acts of compassion — the taking in of Vietnamese boat people, for instance — but then suggest kindness is definitively, maybe even uniquely Canadian, as if the Sermon on the Mount had been delivered in Nanaimo. Swedes do kind things, too, you know. Lots of other nationalities, as well. Even Americans, who in fact give more to charities than we do.

I remember Canada’s 100th birthday and especially Expo 67, which went with it. There was extreme anxiety as the clock ticked down to the April 27th opening about whether we could pull it off and what the world’s reaction would be. And then, when the reviews came in and were almost uniformly positive and it was clear we Canadians had actually achieved something the world admired, anxiety gave way to a thoroughly charming surprise and satisfaction that were based on genuine modesty.

There was a time when we Canadians thought boasting about your country was something Americans did. In the 50 years since 1967, we’ve learned to do it, too, even to the extent of boasting about our modesty. In terms of brand promotion, it seems, we are all Trumps now.

I’m no cultural relativist. I do believe the world needs more countries like Canada: prosperous constitutional democracies with effective if sometimes imperfect guarantees of liberty, in which tolerance is at least given lip service, even if it is not always practised, even by those who profess to value it most. But we should let the world say whether it needs more Canada, not declare it ourselves on the world’s behalf.

A good resolution for the next 150 years would be to spend less time worrying about what it means to be Canadian and more time actually doing it. And to leave it to others to tell us how admirable we are or aren’t.

LET THE WORLD SAY WHETHER IT NEEDS MORE CANADA, AND NOT DECLARE IT OURSELVES.