4. Why do the Canadians have problems in determining it own identity?
All citizens in all countries determine their own identity by looking at themselves and comparing themselves to other citizens all over the world. What makes them special? Sometimes it is easier to say what you are not, instead of saying what you are.
Over the course of our Canada project we looked upon the Canadians. This is where Canada/Canadians are unique and stick out of the crowd.

Geographically
Canada is the second largest country in the world (9.093.507 km2) (1). It has been divided in 10 provinces, and has a population of 32 million people. The country contains lots of different climatic conditions. The southern area (close to the US border) has the biggest density of people per square km - the largest cities are placed near this area. Most crops are also found growing here because of the rich soil. At the west in BC(2) you will see temperate rainforest caused by the Rocky Mountains that stretch from the US(3) up in the western area of Canada. The north is almost laid dead because of the freezing tundra; it is, however, possible to find Inuits who have survived there for hundreds of years. Most of the land is covered by huge areas of trees. The logging industry provides work for 8 percent, and indirectly for 15 percent, of the population in BC(4).
The fact that Canada is a “nature country” gives many people the impression that Canadians are people who live in the forest who lack technological progress. The logging and forest industry means a lot to the Canadian society but the tourist industry and “modern” industry means almost more now.
When we spoke to a Canadian university class about their relationship to the US, they made it clear to us that they are not all living in the forest and travel by snow scooter which many Americans believe. 70 % of the Canadian population lives in the cities!

Population
Each year Canada receives more than 200.000 immigrants(5). These immigrants bring their own cultures, religions and values. Since immigration is such a big part of the Canadian population, the different cultures, religions and values have inflicted most of Canada - somewhere more than other places. One can see this with the Asian immigrants, who tend to immigrate and stick together – making it easy to find a “China Town” in any large city.
When we where in BC we went to their China Town and discovered that it is far from all whose speaks English - often they only know the most important words. Even though they do not speak English or French fluently they still consider themselves a Canadian.

You can clearly see the big increase of immigrants in Canada, the last 50 years.

Birth-rate and how it inflicts Canada
The birth-rate of Canada is below 2,1(6) and therefore Canada depend on the huge immigration. This combined with the fact that Canada is a very young country results in the Canadians being very open minded and overall have a positive attitude toward their immigration. The university group in BC said that they had few parties who were against immigration but they never receive enough votes so they have no say in the immigration debate.

The media and their presentation of the minorities
The media often have a big influence on people’s reputation and opinions; and for that reason we decided to look at a newspaper and how it presented the minorities.   
The newspapers often write articles about immigration and how it affects the population and the minorities in Canada. In this article we are looking 12 years ahead and comparing the minorities’ growth to the rest of Canada’s growth.(7)

“Depending on the growth scenario, this would be an increase ranging from 56% to 111% from 2001, when their number was estimated at about 4.0 million. In contrast, the projected increase for the rest of the population was estimated at between only 1% and 7% between 2001 and 2017.”

History
A joke with a historic touch:  “Canada could have enjoyed English government, French culture and American know-how, instead it ended up with English know-how, French government and American culture.”(8)

Two Nations
This title is obviously referring to Canada’s two official languages. Because of their difference in language there has been drawn a cliff through this immense land. This quote is from an interview with 3 young Canadian students.
“Mark: There is a very strong anti-English feeling in Quebec just like there is an anti-French feeling in the west of Canada. There is antagonism(9) on both sides.”(10)
Because of the two official languages the public service gives information in both French and English.

The East/West relationship
For a long period, the west was powerless in the government. During the Trudeau-period the Liberals had no power base in the West and the Conservatives no support in the East. Traditionally, the centre of power has been the triangle Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. As a result of this, people from the periphery tend to feel an antagonism towards the Triangle. Another problem lies in the fact that Canada’s economy is regional (because of the climatic and natural conditions and the uneven distribution of the population). The average size of a farm in the prairies is 6 square miles, units in Ontario are 1/6 f the sections in the prairies. This gives a more intensive farming, also heavily mechanized, but with smaller machines. The West exports energy, the East imports energy. The regional economy results in pockets of unemployment, enhanced by the seasonal industries. Therefore a certain redistribution of wealth within the country is necessary.

"The US/Canada relationship" ... Can people even tell the difference?

The US/Canada relationship
There are differences in the historic development of the two countries; the US had revolution, whereas Canada had evolution. They have had different frontier traditions; the US had no natural East-West routes, but Canada had the waterways. The European cultures could settle and keep their ties with the European background. To quote Pierre Berton from his preface to his book “The Wild Frontier” (1978) “Our barriers have been largely environmental; in the United States they have also been human. Canadian frontier literature deals with starvation, loneliness, long portages, crushing pack loads, exhausting climbs, the tracking of canoes, and the natural hazards of the trail. The Americans write more often in terms of violence of scalping, arrows in the chest, cabins in flames, war drums, smoke signal, and the massacre of wagon trains”
Canada has been a refuge for people from the US, for the Loyalist (at the time of the American Revolution), for the slaves to escape (the Underground Railway), and for the Vietnam draft resisters. Of course there has also been a flow the other way, but for economic reasons.(11)

Often people consider US and CA to be almost identical – is this displayed in their way of determining their own identity?
Many people outside America look upon the US and Canada and they are not able to find the difference. The Canadians are aware of this and therefore they often want to make it clear that they are not identical. One will often hear Canadians say that they are not like the US when you ask them to define themselves. This is mainly because they do not agree with their politic and way of living. The Canadians are very focused on their health. In the weekends you will e.g. see many people running and biking – they often do this in smaller groups so they can push each other.

What problem is US facing in determining their own identity? – Is it the same as CA?
As mentioned previously, Canada’s immense amount of immigration has a large influence on their identity. The US has not the same amount of immigrants and they do not depend on it - they have a higher birth-rate!
The US has a lot of different cultures, religions, etc. But one thing that keeps them together is their idea of a free world. This is almost a certain feeling. Of course there are different concepts of liberalism but the US has made it very clear that they believe in the free market.
In the last years the US has been more and more active at an international level. It is not rare to see a US marine in a foreign country. In these days you often see them in connection with Iraq.  The citizens in US feels more united when they are having some points to unite at.
Of course they have a lot of the same issues as Canada but the biggest difference is that Canada does not have some points where they all can unite. They have not found their own common way of thinking. This leads us back to their split history.

How did the students at UBC(12) describe the identity of a Canadian citizen?
When you ask the Canadians how important it is for them to feel like a Canadian and what it is that makes them feel like Canadians or what characterizes a Canadian; you will find very different answers.
The ones we talked with were students at UBC who were currently studying to become teachers. They all had their own definition of what characterizes a Canadian.
Some of the students think that the problem, concerning the lack of a simple way to characterise a Canadian, which all Canadians can agree on, is largest among new immigrants. To be accepted as a Canadian, or in any other society, you will have to blend in - but how do you blend in when you do not know how everyone else is.
At this point it is possible to compare with Denmark. The teacher at UBC compared Denmark with an old man, and Canada as a teenager. That meant that Denmark already a long time ago realised its identity. But Canada is still in the progress of learning who it is – as puberty. Another reason is that we, in Denmark, only speak Danish; whereas in Canada, they have two main languages which separate the media - thus also splitting the country. This is furthermore enlarged because of the fact, that Canada is the host for many people with different backgrounds and religions, almost every Canadian has ancestors who emigrated from a foreign country, thus they tend to have two connections, and it is therefore impossible to define a Canadian.
The only answer that a lot of the students could agree on was that a Canadian is someone who lives in Canada.