Comparing our Cultures

Both American and Canadian cultures are broadly-based. The diversity of the US—the South, Midwest, coastal extremes of the Pacific and New England—is a spread that can’t be stereotyped.

Likewise Canada from Newfoundland to BC through the Maritimes, Québec, Ontario, the prairies and northern territories—more than one nation but a series, like a flight over Europe.

Yet generalize we do in expressions like “American as apple pie” or the tea towel that combines a Mountie, a cowboy, Québec lumberjack, Inuit kayaker and Niagara Falls (Canadian side).

If we were limited to a single sense to express the American spirit and its Canadian counterpart, we would find that American culture can best be heard while Canadian culture can best be seen.

Both countries have strong literatures that are not included in this generalization. Literature is in a class by itself: it can be both heard and seen, and conjures up both internal pictures and sound.

The musical is an American medium par excellence. The works of Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe and others have shared the American experience with the world. “South Pacific” set a treatment of racism on a foreign atoll, far from the Little Rock, Arkansas home of its heroine.

High pressure sales is exposed in “The Music Man.” “West Side Story” sets “Romeo and Juliet” in the streets of Harlem. Seen on stage or screen, the musicals offer a multisensory experience.

But the songs stand on their own. It’s the words to the songs in context that convey the American spirit. This depends on a common language which, until now, has transcended regionalism.

Canada has produced a strong cadre of singer songwriters in the past two generations. Yet because of the lack of a common language, Canadian culture is generally regional unless stardom propels it to the international statue of a Céline Dion, Avril Lavigne or Shania Twain.

There is, however, a common theme in Canadian experience, and that is the land itself. This can be powerfully described in word and song but its best expression is through the eyes of artists.

It is found in the works of First Nations from Cape Dorset in the Arctic to Haida Gwai on the west coast. The Group of Seven were the first Canadians of European origin to evoke it. So did Emily Carr and Marc-Aurele Fortin.

The visual media link Canadians more closely to each other and to our aboriginal forebears—a strand that was overlaid rather than incorporated into US culture. The more we try to talk about it, the farther we get from the experience we share.

This explains why Canada has produced so few leaders who were great orators. Those whose words resonated strongly in parts of the country had others where their words fell on deaf ears.
Diefenbaker roused English speaking Canadians but left French Canadians cold. René Lévesque and Lucien Bouchard roused passion among francophone compatriots and fear among others.

Wilfrid Laurier and Pierre Trudeau spoke with eloquence in both languages and made enemies in both camps. This points out the limits of language to express who we are. It is also a protection against despots.

The internet offers possibilities to combine visual and verbal media to span our solitudes. It also offers an avenue for Canadians and Americans to share our respective strengths Over The Fence.