Sometimes Canadians get tired of talking about national identity. Luckily, a couple of opinionated New Yorkers were ready to take up the matter.
That’s exactly what happened last Sunday, March 30, when Maclean’s magazine brought Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Gopnik to Convocation Hall for a debate on that very subject.
The two staff writers for the New Yorker live full-time in Manhattan, but both grew up north of the border.
Gladwell, born in the U.K., graduated from U of T’s Trinity College in 1989 and worked for the Washington Post before being hired at the New Yorker in 1996. Gladwell wrote two best-selling books, Blink explaining the thinking behind quick decisions and The Tipping Point, which examined how “social epidemics” begin.
Hailing from Philadelphia, Gopnik, who has won three National Magazine Awards for his writing in the New Yorker, grew up in Montreal and attended McGill. Before this appearance, Gopnik and Gladwell had debated the Canadian system of health care published in the Washington Monthly in 2000.
In Saturday’s debate, entitled “Canada: Nation or Notion?” Gladwell presented the argument of Canada’s “small” international profile as a powerful advantage. In an example, he likened Canada to businesses operated by Chinese immigrants. According to Gladwell, being a minority outside of the mainstream allows one to be unburdened by the needs and considerations of a broad group of constituents, allowing one to “be mean” if necessary and forcing one to be connected on a greater scale in order to succeed. Gladwell added that he didn’t mean to imply these traits were inherent to Chinese businesspeople.
“That might be the best argument for the separation of Quebec I’ve ever heard,” Gopnik said of Gladwell’s remarks. Gopnik called his vision of Canada “notionalism.” Canada, he said, was not unburdened and mean, but encumbered by its history—why else did Toronto have signs in two languages when so few Torontonians speak or read French?
If Gladwell’s idea of Canada lurking in the wings of the international stage was a bit cynical, Gopnik’s notion of the country was downright sentimental. After sharing his love of the CBC and anecdotes about Don Cherry’s quixotic charm, he went on to define Canada in everyone’s favourite way: by comparing us to the U.S. According to Gopnik, U.S. nationalism is tied to “flags and fears,” whereas Canadian nationalism springs from “hopes and holidays.”
On a basic level, Gopnik’s argument for Canada as “notion” was yet another stab at giving the country a national identity—one, in this case, of common sense and inclusivity. Canada, he said, was not a place where people just come for the short term.
Among those seated in the front row were former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, her husband the acclaimed essayist John Ralston Saul and author Douglas Coupland, of jPod fame.
“What role or mission do we have—or should we simply be a happy little country fond of our habits?” Clarkson asked, opening the event’s question period. Gladwell responded by commenting on Canada’s need to speak up and serve as the place for experimentation. “I think it’s time for us to tell the world what we’ve accomplished and to experiment and show the world new direction. The world really needs that kind of example.”
