From tariffs and annexation threats to terminated trade talks, it’s been a difficult year for Canada.
Increasing uncertainty, growing hostility, and deepening political tension have forced us to question our relationship with the United States and our position on the world stage. But they have also sparked a more personal reckoning here at home.
For many Canadians, the on-again, off-again tariffs from what used to be our closest ally have felt like more than an economic blow — they’ve felt like a slap in the face. What started as tongue-in-cheek jokes about Canada being the “51st state” quickly turned uncomfortable. What followed was a renewed — and sometimes uneasy — effort to define what we are, not just in contrast to the U.S., but on our terms.
Are we really the polite peacekeepers the world thinks we are? The quiet neighbour standing in America’s shadow? Are we the morally superior — but less powerful — cousin, with public health care, bilingualism, and less restrictive immigration policies?
Or are we something more complex — still in the process of becoming?
Still becoming: What does it mean to be Canadian?
Canada’s national identity continues to evolve, with one commentator calling it an “unfinished story,” shaped by crises and compromises.
Tod Maffin, president of engageQ Digital and former CBC Radio host, has spent years exploring Canadian identity and culture. He says the question of whether a distinct Canadian identity exists is difficult to answer.
“I don’t think we’re as easy to define as other countries,” he said.
“Other countries have a story … but we are a young country and I think we’re still sort of working through the growing pains of what it means to reckon with our history and to understand where we fit in the world scheme.”
Maffin says one clear thing is that Canada is a country of compromise.
“We’re a country that makes impossible deals and improbable bargains,” he said. “And I think we see that most often when there is a crisis — that’s not new.”
He points to defining moments in our country’s history, such as the Oka Crisis in 1990 — an 11-week standoff between Mohawk protestors and Canadian forces — as examples of how the past has shaped our present.
Other major turning points — the FLQ crisis in 1970, the failure of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords in the 1990s, and our ongoing reckoning with the shameful history of residential schools — have helped forge our sense of self.
Now we are facing an unexpected challenge that has left many Canadians feeling confused and betrayed.
“We are now in this moment of great reckoning with a former friend, a former trading partner,” Maffin said.
And like other pivotal moments in our history, he says, this will force us to examine not just who we are, but who we want to be.
Canadians are more than ‘not American’
Often, when Canadians are asked what makes us unique, the responses are some variation of, “Well, I’m not sure … but we aren’t American.”
Thea McGaffey grew up in Edmonton, Alta., but moved to the United States in her twenties. A dual citizen from birth, she’s had the opportunity to reflect on Canadian identity from within the country and from across the border.
“Being born to American parents, I actually always felt a little bit more American than Canadian, and I kind of wanted to leave, go check out the States,” she said. “I really felt like they were more my people.”
After heading to California to go to college, things started to shift a bit.
“Since I’ve been gone, I’ve realized that a huge part of me is Canadian.”
Why? Well, first off, McGaffey says many of the positive stereotypes about Canada and Canadians are accurate.
“The generic things that people say about Canadians are really true, like, we’re really friendly,” McGaffey said. “When people find out that I’m Canadian, every single person I tell that to says, ‘Oh, that makes sense.'”
She also appreciates Canada’s role and image as a global peacekeeper. But what resonates most with her is the country’s diversity.
“I felt like Canada regularly celebrated other cultures,” she said, pointing to Edmonton’s annual Heritage Days festival as an example. “I just remember all the different cultural representations at that park. It was incredible … just to see that celebration of all the different cultures.”
In contrast, she says the current mood toward immigrants held by some people in the United States is upsetting to her.
“We’re all immigrants, every single person in this country, unless you’re Indigenous,” she said. “It infuriates me to see the United States acting like we’re too good to accept people from other cultures.”
Still, she’s careful not to generalize when speaking about the entire country, because there is good and bad everywhere.
“It’s hard to be here. It is, because I’m like, I don’t want to be an American right now,” she said. “But then I’m like, Oh, but wait, there’s so many, many amazing Americans. I don’t like to make those huge judgmental statements.”
Not anybody’s 51st anything
Living in the shadow of the world’s biggest superpower, Canadians have had to develop a sense of humour about ourselves — whether we like it or not. We hear it all from our neighbours to the south: our accents are funny, we say “sorry” too much, and we are behind the times (as Colby Smulders’ character on How I met your Mother once said, “The ’80s didn’t come to Canada until like ’93.” Smulders, for the record, is Canadian — born and raised in Vancouver).
But making fun of ourselves? That isn’t just acceptable. It’s essential.
Jessica Langer Kapalka and her husband, Jason, own a bar and grill on Toronto’s trendy Queen Street. What began as an outer-space-themed bar called Offworld soon became known for its playful pop-ups — full takeovers of the space with new names, menus, and decor. Hellbar was set up for Halloween, where you could order a themed cocktail for $6.66 — plus your soul, with a contract to sign. Then came Beachmode, which was established as “summer in the middle of winter.”
But as Beachmode was wrapping up, Canada-U.S. tensions were rising.
“The American president was elected and sworn in and then decided to slap a bunch of tariffs on us and then started talking the 51st state stuff,” Kapalka said.
“We were like, no, we’re not anybody’s 51st anything. We’re Canada.”
Wanting to celebrate the country as a sovereign nation and not just “America’s hat,” the couple thought it would be fun — and timely — to lean into all things Canadian.
Thus was born Grizzly Bar, billing itself as “Canada’s Most Canadian Bar and Grill.”
The restaurant serves distinctly Canadian food like Montreal smoked meat, a Nanaimo bar a la mode, and, of course, poutine. The cocktail list is just as themed and includes the Klondike Kiss, the Grizzly Caesar, and the Hadfield (Ground control to Major Rum).
Grizzly Bar has been well received, Kapalka says, and not just by locals.
“You don’t have to be Canadian to come to Grizzly Bar; you just have to love and support Canada and our sovereignty,” she said.
Quite a few Americans have visited, and they are always welcome.
“We’re like, ‘Please come in and find out why our beer is better than yours.’ Facetiously, but also true,” she added. “But it’s also, come in and find out more about Canada, more about your neighbours to the north, who really, really like you, in general.”
Neighbors helping neighbours
And it turns out a lot of Americans really like us, too.
After the tariff talk started heating up, the ‘Buy Canadian’ movement exploded almost overnight. People had a lot of questions: What’s the difference between “Made in Canada” and “Product of Canada?” How can we support Canadian companies? How can we avoid buying American altogether?
Maffin started answering these questions in videos posted to social media. They proved to be very popular, and not just among Canadians.
“In the comments, there were a lot of Americans, surprisingly, saying, ‘How can we help Canada? Because we don’t like this either,'” he said.
“So, I was bored one night, and I made a video kind of just off the top of my head saying, ‘Hey, if you Americans really do support Canada, then why don’t we pick a weekend you all come up here and spend your money on the Vancouver Island economy?'”
It turns out that many Americans were eager to do just that. Within 72 hours of issuing his open invitation, over 2,000 people had RSVP’d.
Maffin worked with the City of Nanaimo in putting an event together, The Nanaimo Infusion, that took place April 25-27 at Maffeo Sutton Park. Visitors were greeted with live music, food trucks, pop-up artisan markets, and even the mayor, Leonard Krog.
It was an enormous success.
“It was life-changing for me, truly,” Maffin said.
Neighbours helping neighbors
Since the event, he has found a new focus.
“One of the things that I noticed is that there were a lot of American health-care workers who had come up,” he said.
“They were checking out Vancouver Island to see if that was an escape hatch, essentially a place where they could bring their skills and get away from the circus down south.”
Maffin repurposed his website into a resource for U.S. health-care workers to relocate and work on Vancouver Island, helping break down all the necessary steps. He spoke to a number of different organizations, including Health Match BC, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the College of Nurses, and the Division of Family Practice, to help simplify things.
“Each organization has its own website, and those websites are usually really good, but none of those websites talk about where their organization fits in the whole process,” he said. “So that’s sort of what I tried to do, I called these groups and found out, like, where does it fit?”
His thinking was that even if he got only one nurse to move here, it would be worth it. His expectations have already been exceeded.
“I think we are up to five now because of that Infusion [event],” he said. “They’ve accepted jobs and they’re just currently booking moving trucks and things like that.”
He says he is also talking to a doctor from Alaska who is considering the move.
“So, hopefully we’ll make it six.”
The most Canadian thing that ever happened
Meanwhile, as we work to regain our footing after the initial shift in our relationship with the United States, we are embracing all things Canadian.
And according to Kapalka, “The most Canadian thing that ever happened, ever, happened at Grizzly Bar.”
She says they invited Chris Hadfield — the Canadian astronaut — to their opening party.
“He happened to be in town because he was performing at a benefit for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto,” Kapalka said. “So he stopped by the party.”
Toronto musician Jordo Arnott was performing for the crowd, playing a full Canadian setlist.
To everyone’s surprise, Hadfield decided to join Arnott on stage.
“Chris Hadfield, who, as you may remember, went viral for his cover of Space Oddity in space, decided to get up and do a surprise cover of Bobcaygeon by The Tragically Hip,” Kapalka said.
Someone filmed it and sent it to the band. The Hip posted it on social media, and tens of thousands of people saw it and shared it.
“That was Canadian times a million,” she said
“It might have been the proudest moment of my life.”
Hockey and holding grudges
Is it time for Canadians to stop underestimating ourselves? Maffin thinks so.
“We believe the story of Canadians being docile, resistant to change. And we’re not that,” he said.
“When you look at moments where our country has been tested, where our people have been tested, we come together in a way that I think no other nation does. We do not let people down. We don’t back away from things.”
In a year defined by uncertainty, Canada has shown an inner strength many didn’t know we had.
“I think that surprised the rest of the world. I think it surprised Trump,” Maffin said.
“I think the United States is expecting that Canadians would just be the polite people that they think we are, and that we would just roll over.”
They were wrong, and we will remember being underestimated.
“I always sort of joke that Canada has two official sports: hockey and holding grudges,” he said.
“And I think that sometimes the world forgets that.”
Or maybe they never really knew.
‘Oh, you’re a Canook?’ — Canada, misunderstood
There’s a general belief that Americans, primarily, have no idea what we are up to at all — something McGaffey says isn’t untrue.
“It’s interesting to me how little people know about Canada down here,” McGaffey said.
“A lot of people don’t know any of the provinces. I’ll tell them I’m from Edmonton, Alberta, and they’ll be like, I don’t know where that is.”
That doesn’t mean they aren’t interested.
“Most people think it’s pretty cool,” she said. “A lot of people, lately, with the climate down here, say, ‘Oh, you’re really lucky.'”
And almost everyone says the same thing: “Oh, you’re a Canuck?,” mispronouncing the word as “Canook.”
“They all say ‘Canook,’ every single one of them,” she laughed. “I’m like, that’s not how it’s pronounced.”
McGaffey says it’s interesting to her that while she didn’t claim Canada for a long time, she now claims it almost exclusively.
“I’m Canadian,” she said. “I was born to American parents in Canada, born and raised Canadian.”
The story we are writing
Like McGaffey, many Canadians are finding new appreciation for the Great White North.
But Maffin says it’s important to note that Canada is far from perfect.
“We have a lot of work to do,” he said. “Our relationship with Indigenous people, for one, has been a nightmare. It’s getting better, but it’s far from done.”
With so much change happening right now, Canada has a rare opportunity to reevaluate our priorities.
“Every time we as a people begin to reckon with our past, by definition, we set the course for the future,” he said. “I think moments like this, we can use it as a bit of a springing-point to not just sort of look at what Canada is, but to redefine what Canada can be.”
For his part, he says he is excited to continue exploring what it means to be Canadian.
“I’ve written about 80 essays or so — some people call them rants,” he said. “I’m putting together a collection of a bunch of them, and I’m going to give it away on Canada Day. It’ll be like a download from my website.”
But for Maffin, writing is about more than sharing ideas — it’s about capturing how we arrived here and shaping the path ahead.
“I always think about my nephew,” he said. “When he is a grandparent, and I’m long gone, he will be telling the story of Canada’s history.”
“The story he’ll be telling is today.”