Dave Kearns believes that 'Canadians are smart about identity'.
Canadians love it when Americans pay attention to us (but not to our softwood lumber or beef), so this prompted me to search on 'canadian identity complex'. The results led me to Kaliya's previous post on the subject of Canadian Cultural Identity.
The theory seems to be that Canadians pay attention to identity because of two forces - our proximity to the US is an external push threatening to squash us as a distinct culture/society, and the English/French divide is an internal tidal pull threatening to tear us apart. We are squeezed from North to South and torn apart from East to West.
It seems fitting that these forces are best summarized by a beer commercial (which seems strangely similar to another 'identity-focussed' presentation that has emerged from Canada).
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