During my brief abode in Toronto some 50 years ago, I was struck by how American many Torontonians were, or aspired to be. At work I heard tales of weekend trips across the border, and trying to lose the «eh?» and other telltale Canadianisms in their speech.
Having grown up in the U.S. and then lived abroad, I valued my Canadian identity. That’s likely part of the reason I ended up in Quebec. Because, it turns out, the French fact is a major trait of that identity, more so than many realize.
Look, we waved past Flag Day two weeks ago. It’s a passage of more than usual note, as we collectively strengthen our Canadian spine against threats from south of the border. Even Premier Legault is sounding particularly Canadian these days.
But did you realize the Maple Leaf came to us from French Canada? In fact, both the flag and the national anthem have their origins in Quebec.
I used to play pétanque ― the French version of lawn bowling ― next to the Centre culturel Calixa Lavallée in Montreal. I had no idea Calixa had composed the music for “O Canada”, a poem written by Adolphe-Basile Routhier. It was first performed in 1880, in Quebec City at a banquet marking Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day and honouring the Congrès national des Canadiens français. Only in the 1900s did it acquire an English translation.
Back to the Maple Leaf. In 1834 the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste was founded and adopted the maple leaf as its emblem; two years later Le Canadien newspaper called it the emblem of Lower Canada. After that, it was used on publications, on pennies, and in the last decades of the 19th century on all Canadian coins. It bedecked Canadian military uniforms, and finally, in 1965, after a great flag debate, it rose to adorn the official flag of Canada. This flag I always wore visibly when I travelled abroad, to make sure I was not mistaken for an American. (Canada: friendly; U.S.: domineering.)
It’s in the U.S. where I should have displayed the Maple Leaf―it seems our Canadian identity, no matter our origins or languages, needs reiterating to the elephant south of us as it stirs in its sleep.
“What will be the result of our present unsettled relations with the neighbouring republic, it is very difficult to say. The government is composed of such unprincipled men, that to calculate on it by the ordinary rules of action would be perfectly absurd” (gutenberg.org).
That quote, my friends, came from Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, hero of the War of 1812, a war started by the U.S., and which united Canada like never before.
Here we go again!
