Canada as the 51st State? Forget About It!

By Debra Perron / Calgary, Alberta

My family and I live in often sunny, sometimes chilly Calgary, more than 2,000 miles northwest of New York.

Located near the Rocky Mountains, our city has a population of over 1.4 million, Here, as in most places in Canada, being called an American has become the worst insult a Canadian can dump upon a fellow resident.

Quiet, peaceful, generally non-gun-toting Canada– it is a polite (usually), kind (mostly), hockey-loving (always) nation.

I have lived my life as an American citizen in Canada. Growing up in Sarnia, a Canadian border town, I saw that Canadians often end their sentences with "eh".  I saw that my American parents had "an accent"... my father said "RUF", while my friends more "Canadianly" referred to a house covering as a "ROOF".

But those were the biggest differences back then between the Canadian and American cultures for me.  And truly, I do not recall any negativity from either country until the U.S. lost its collective mind, and re-elected Donald Trump as President.

I never felt I needed to hide my citizenship from anyone here in Canada...until the President of the United States unilaterally decreed last year that America needed to own Greenland, and Canada should become the 51st State. Suddenly, I found myself avoiding discussing my place of birth, and chanting "Elbows up. “

Elbows up” traditionally meant “be ready to defend yourself” or “stand your ground.” It comes from hockey, where players would raise their elbows to protect themselves or fight back. In today’s Canada, though, it has also become a slogan meaning resistance, toughness, and national pride.

My (Canadian) husband and I now actively shop Canadian labels at the grocery store, and as we saw our neighbourhood (yes, I know, you spell it "neighborhood"!) peppered with Canadian symbols, we put a Canadian flag in our kitchen window. It's not about hating Americans. It is about Canadians holding tight to an identity that feels increasingly under threat from an orange man who believes he should be king.

This does not mean Canadians never debate immigration or other important national policy. But the tone of that debate matters. There is still civil discourse in this country.

Canada experiences natural disasters–we've seen our share of floods, wildfires, and the melting of polar ice caps.  But Trump's battle against windmills has become a sad  national joke, and it brings Canadians together more firmly against our neighbour to the south with respect to climate denial.

There is a genuine fear among Canadians that the U.S. is presently led by an uneducated, ineffective businessman, who ignores clear evidence of the need to protect our environment.

While Canada is not free from political polarization, the majority of Canadians expect government officials to work across the aisle. Because of this, those who say they want an uncompromising, winner-takes-all approach in politics are often described as "too American"– a warning, not a compliment.

That being said, Canadians do identify with some item that are 100 percent  of and for this country.

Canada's national symbols tell a story that is practical, quirky, and if I may say, typically Canadian. We do not rally around the powerful symbolism of eagles or lions. Canada treasures the beaver, a buck-toothed rodent. The beaver's industrious nature and landscape-transforming abilities reflect Canadian values of hard work and adaptation. Beavers represent the foundations upon which Canada was built. And beavers are kinda cute.

And then there's The Timbit–a donut hole that captures Canadian hearts. It was a simple product innovation in 1976, when Tim Horton’s launched Timbits as a way to use leftover donut dough, transforming what could have been waste into a national treasure. The Timbit represents Canada's ability to elevate a simple, unpretentious thing to iconic status.

There's no explanation required when a Canadian orders a Timmy's "Double Double" (Tim Horton's coffee with two creams and two sugars) and "a Timbit Sixpack.” Canadians use the terms so naturally that they forget they're not universal. The Double-Double is actually referenced in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, though most Americans still need a quick translation

Canadians are famously polite, but Americans often find their apologizing a bit excessive. A Canadian might say sorry if someone else bumps into them, if asking a question, or even just for sharing space. This habit runs so deep that the Province of Ontario passed a law in 2009 stating that an apology doesn't count as an admission of guilt in court.

Ask a Canadian how far away a place is, and they'll likely say "about two hours" instead of giving an actual distance. It makes sense in a country where long drives between cities are the norm, but Americans find it annoyingly vague. Americans want to know if it's 50 or 150 miles, while Canadians only care how long they'll be driving.

It's even more confusing since Canada uses kilometers officially but measures travel in time, creating a system that works here, but befuddles travelers!

Canadians have a strict No-Shoes-Indoors Rule that many Americans find a bit much. My American parents never got used to that. Canadians see wearing shoes inside anyone's home as downright rude, no matter how clean the shoes may be. The habit began for practical reasons, since snow/ salt/ slush is an actual Canadian season. Personally, in our home. the choice of shoes or no shoes is left up to our guests, but I'd wager that most Canadians (and now we too) slip off shoes at the front door.

So, here it is in a nutshell: We live in Canada, which is part of North America. We accept that the Gulf of Mexico is NOT the Gulf of America. Canadians are NOT Americans. Wind turbines do NOT kill birds.

If Trump and his minions would just go away, I do believe that we could get back to being civil neighbours/neighbors again, with renewed cross-border shopping, increased tourism without fear of ICE reprisal, and successful cooperation between our countries to save our planet together.

So, Dear United States of America, soon you will be celebrating your 250th Anniversary, celebrating no longer having a king. Accordingly, anything we can do to assist in the exit of your present ‘king wannabe’, just let us know. We’ll bring the Timbits.

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The author and her husband Steve Perron

Debra is happily retired in Alberta, Canada, with her husband, Steve and their dog Keita. She stays in touch with family and friends who still reside in the U.S., and keeps a spare room available in her home for anyone who needs an escape from the chaos in Trumpland. She buys local, supports kindness, and looks forward to visiting wondrous places in the United States…once Trump is exiled to join the penguins on McDonald Island.