Culture

Canada's culture is a funny thing. Many people in Canada maintain that Canada doesn't really have a culture at all, but borrows heavily from French, British and American culture to create our own sense of identity. Or that we define ourselves by what we are not, as in we are not Americans.

And it is hard to define our culture or to say that something is part of Canadian culture. There are aspects in our society that we can say are uniquely Canadian, such as hockey or our entertainment scene.

There are traits that are not unique to Canadians, but they certainly seem to be more prevalent here than anywhere else. Being polite and courteous to a fault (and often beyond) is something that is attributed to Canadians. We also have a reputation for being level-headed thinkers, and we certainly love peace and would prefer to argue than fight physically.

We don't really have an internationally renowned dish, like blood pudding, pasta or sauerkraut, unless it's maple syrup.

What we do have is multiculturalism. We are willing to take in any culture and make it part of our own. We are a country of immigrants and that is our culture. In Canada, just about every language in the world is spoken. We have television channels and newspapers devoted to any cultural group that has a large enough market to support them.

In a city like Toronto, Vancouver or Montréal, you could have world-class dim sum for breakfast, kim chi for lunch and butter chicken for dinner and the next day have Belgian waffles and crêpes for breakfast, Yorkshire pudding for lunch and jerk chicken or kitfo for dinner. The possibilities are endless.

So, we've told you a little about Canadian culture, and you can read more about it in this section. But we think the best way to experience the inclusiveness of Canadian culture is to come to Canada and experience it for yourself.

• Hockey

Hockey is a sport that many Canadians love and excel at. It is the national winter sport of Canada; lacrosse is Canada's national summer sport.

There are two views as to how ice hockey came about. The first theory is that it was a combination of the British sport of field hockey and the Canadian Aboriginal sport of lacrosse.

There is a newer theory that says that hockey derives from a Irish game called hurling, which involved a “hurely” stick and a square wooden block instead of a ball.

Basically, hockey is a game played on a flat surface with two opposing teams of six players each. Players try to shoot a puck (a rubber disk) in the opposing team’s net, which is guarded by a goalie. When the goalie does not stop the puck and it enters the net, it is called a goal. The team with the most goals in a game wins.

There are two lines of players - the offensive line and the defensive line. The offensive line consists of the left wing, the right wing and the centre. The defensive line consists of two defense players and a goalie.

The puck is a small, round disk of rubber about 2.5 cm (1") thick, 7.5 cm (3'') in diameter and weighing about .17 kg (6 oz.). Players can only manipulate the puck with their feet (or skates) and hockey sticks.

A hockey stick can be made of wood or aluminum of which the length depends on how tall the player is. The hockey sticks of most players are thin, except for the stick of the goalie, which is fatter.

Hockey, as it is generally thought of in Canada, is played on a surface of ice with two nets at opposite ends of the playing surface. It can also be played inside (in a gymnasium or other large room) or outside without the ice surface. If played on grass, it is called field hockey. For indoor games or for field hockey, a small ball can be substituted for a puck.

The game is divided up into three twenty-minute segments called periods.

Hockey is played by young and old in Canada, with children as young as four or five playing in minor hockey leagues to senior citizens playing in senior leagues. Canadians will also play "pick up" games of hockey just about anywhere at any time. Friends will get together and create two teams, playing against each other with no equipment except a puck and some sticks or with as much equipment as professional players in the National Hockey League play with. Or they will play on frozen lakes or ponds, or even fields that have been flooded with water and then frozen.

A great tradition in Canadian suburbs or small towns is to play road hockey. Players will mark out a portion of a side road, with the curbs of the street marking out the boundaries of the playing area. Play continues until a car approaches, at which point the players will yell out "CAR!" and the hockey nets (goals) must be moved so that the car may pass. Once the car has driven through the playing area, the nets are replaced and play continues.

Needless to say, road hockey is played on only roads with very little traffic.

Canadians also spend time watching professional hockey players play games on television and in arenas much the same way that people in other parts of the world watch soccer (football). The most popular hockey league is the NHL or National Hockey League. The most popular television program that broadcasts hockey games is Hockey Night in Canada.

Hockey Night in Canada generally has some of the highest television ratings in Canada, with as many as three million people tuning in to watch a game. This is especially impressive when you consider that 31 million people live in Canada.

When you come to Canada, try to take in a hockey game, whether it is a minor league game or a NHL game. There's nothing like the roar of the crowd when the announcer yells out the well-known Canadian phrase, "He shoots! He scores!"

• Entertainment

Canada is directly north of, and shares the world's longest unprotected border with, the United States. We share other aspects of our culture with the Americans, such as a common heritage (both Canada and the United States are former British colonies) and language. We also still have very strong ties to the United Kingdom (the Queen of England is still our official head of state). Because of the relationships we have with the United States and the United Kingdom, Canadians make and enjoy entertainment that is often a blending of American and British ideas with a strong mix of unique Canadian tastes.

• Television

Most Canadians live very close to the border with the United States and watch quite a few American television programs. Canadians can watch American television networks like NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, UPN and the WB by using an antenna, through cable television or by satellite dish. The same American programs that are popular in the US, like American Idol, The West Wing, The Simpsons and Survivor are just as popular and accessible as they are in the United States.

There are Canadian television networks, such as CTV, CanWest Global and the CBC which produce Canadian television programs. Some of the most popular Canadian television programs in 2004 are Corner Gas, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Rick Mercer's Monday Report and, of course, Hockey Night in Canada.

Some British television programs are shown in Canada. For instance, many Canadians regularly watch the long-running British soap operas Coronation Street and Eastenders.

Canadian television excels at producing comedy programs and many world-famous comedians and comic actors, such as Mike Myers and John Candy, got their start on Canadian television programs.

Incidentally, you may be interested to know that the CBC, or Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is a public corporation, run through government funding.

The schedule of Canadian television networks is often filled with American-produced television shows, though there is a law that says Canadian networks must produce and broadcast a certain percentage of Canadian content.

But Canadians can have the reverse affect on American programming. For instance, because people living in Toronto can receive the Public Broadcasting System's (the American's version of the CBC, but shown commercial free) Channel 17 from Buffalo New York, they participate in that station's fund-raising drive. Canadians contribute enough money to the American channel that they identify themselves as serving Buffalo, an American city, and Toronto! The station will even show programming that focuses on the history and events that take place in Toronto.

Québec, along with much of New Brunswick, is like an island of French in a sea of English when it comes to television. While people in Québec enjoy the same English-language programs (sometimes translated to French or given French subtitles) as Americans and other Canadians do, Québec produces its own television programs that are extremely popular but which English Canada knows very little about, such as Les Bougon.

• Movies and Film

Canadians have very similar taste in movies as Americans do, and are lucky in that as soon as a film opens in the United States, it opens the same day in Canada.

This is not to say that Canadians and Americans always embrace the same movies. Sometimes a film will do much better or worse in Canada than it does in the United States

Canada produces some high quality and world-renowned films on its own, such as The Sweet Hereafter and Les Invasions barbares and commercial successes within Canada such as Men with Brooms.

Several Canadian cities have been competing in the last 25 years for the title of "Hollywood North", meaning that so many movies are shot on location in those cities that it becomes an unofficial northern movie production centre.

Some movies shot on location in Toronto include X-Men, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Chicago.

Some movies shot on location in Vancouver include The 6th Day, Elf and The X-Files.

Some movies shot on location in Montreal include The Score, Catch Me If You Can and The Whole Nine Yards.

• Books and Literature

Stephen King, Michael Crichton, John Grisham and J. K. Rowling are all tremendously popular in Canada. But then, there are several world-renowned Canadian authors too.

Margaret Atwood is a writer who has won acclaim and sold millions of copies of her books worldwide - among her most notable are A Handmaid's Tale, The Blind Assassin and Surfacing.

Farley Mowat has written in a wide variety and genres. He has written children's books, like Owls in the Family and Two Against the North. He has also written stories of his own experiences in the north such as Never Cry Wolf and he has written for his own and national newspapers.

• Sports and outdoor activities

Obviously sports and outdoor activities are a big part of what Canadians do to entertain themselves. But not every Canadian skates or goes downhill skiing. What kind of activity you participate in depends on where you live.

People from all over Canada enjoy downhill skiing and snowboarding, but that activity is far more popular in BC and Québec because of the mountain ranges that exist in those provinces. Many people enjoy tobogganing (where people sit or lie on a wooden, metal or plastic sled and slid down snow-covered hills) and ice skating.

People fail to realize that in most parts of Canada, even in the northern territories of the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, winter does not last all year. And Point Pelee, Canada's most southern point, is on the same degree of latitude as the northern border of the state of California.

In the spring and fall, Canadians enjoy such activities as biking, boating and running. In the summer, people extend their outdoor activities to swimming and water-skiing.

Once again, we must be careful not to make generalizations. Not everyone in Canada skis, loves maple syrup, plays hockey or skates well.

• Going out and social events

Because Canada is so vast a country with so many varied tastes, it is difficult to give specific examples of what people do when they go out without using generalizations.

People will go to pubs to drink and eat with their friends and families and they will go to dance clubs to dance the night away, listening to every musical style from reggae to rock to jazz to country to dance music. Many colleges and universities have their own campus pubs where people gather to socialize. Going out to coffee shops to socialize is common.

Indoor sports such as bowling and pool (billiards) and even indoor mini-putt are popular.

• Going to the cottage

The majority of Canadians live in cities or large urban areas. So a big part of their entertainment is the act of "getting out of the city" for the weekend. This might include going to a cottage (a second home in the country, often beside a lake). In many parts of Canada, people either have family cottages, have friends who own cottages or rent a cottage for a weekend, a couple of weeks or even the entire summer.

At the cottage, Canadians enjoy relaxing in the sun, swimming, boating and other activities. Some go to the cottage in the winter, enjoying activities like skating, skiing and sledding.

• Cultural events

Another advantage that Canadians enjoy is a large immigrant population (in fact, everyone in Canada, except aboriginal Canadians is an immigrant or descended from immigrants). Besides the mixture of British, American and French cultures, Canada has large Chinese, East Indian, Korean, Italian, African and Middle Eastern populations.

Canadians of all kinds gather to help celebrate and take part in events that highlight our multicultural society, which we call our cultural mosaic. Recently, the employees at EDge (who produce StudyinCanada.com) gathered to enjoy Chinese New Year, while in Vancouver in June there is a dragon boat festival. Montréal enjoys the International Caribbean Festival. Calgary enjoys Afrikadey (African Festival). Toronto, the largest city in Canada, has many different cultural events celebrating almost every culture from around the world, including A Taste of the Danforth - a celebration of Greek culture and food.

Aboriginal Canadian culture is celebrated across Canada as well from Vancouver's Native Arts and Craft Festival to the Nunavut Toonik Tyme to all of Canada's National Aboriginal Day.