Where in America Are You From?...I'm From Canada

My fellow Canadian travellers, I know you feel a way when someone asks you,

"So, where in America are you from?"

First off, I may be the least patriotic Canadian to travel(I don't even think I know all the words to the national anthem), so I don't take much offence when someone asks me that. I rather try to deploy empathy as there are only around 36,000,000 Canadians to 320,000,000 + Americans. I don't think that we should take offence to that question anyway as there are more of them, which makes it more likely that they will be travelling and we do have many similarities, even our accent.

I have many amazing American friends and have travelled to American cities which I loved (New York City, I love you)! To be honest, I love Americans and a lot of the great things that come from America.

"So, where in America are you from?"

This question bothers me, not because I don't want people to assume that I am American, but rather, I question what we can do as travelling Canadians to make our Canadian identity more profound.

Identity of a Canadian can be tricky, right. A nation full of immigrants, whether you like it or not, even if your skin is white, you more than likely come from an immigrant family. The only true Canadians are the Aboriginal people, who were on the land first (this is a discussion for another time).

Further more, although I was born and raised in Canada, same as my parents, my grandparents did immigrate to Canada from Italy after WW2 and became Canadian citizens. This story can hold true for many other European families as well.

This story also holds true for Asians and Africans as well at different points in history.

With so many ethnicities and cultures in Canada,

How do we identify as ONE?

How do we distinguish ourselves from Americans?

How do we allow people to know that, we are in fact Canadian, not American?

Should we even care that we are automatically assumed to be American?

I go through this conversation in my head everyday when I meet someone new and you can see their brain cranking...not wanting to ask "Where are you from?" because it does get rather annoying after a while, for any traveller.

But how can we automatically identify as a Canadian with a first impression (without eating maple syrup and poutine, saying sorry for something we never did wrong, and saying EH? all the time)? Do we carry around our hockey sticks and ride in on our dog sleds with our pet polar bear?

So my fellow Canadian travellers, I am looking to you for help.

How do create a unique form of Canadian identity when travelling?

Or

Do we need for others to be able to distinguish between us?

I'd love to hear how you feel about this conversation and how/if we need to create a form of travelling Canadian identity.