The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are

by Andrew Cohen

The award-winning, bestselling author of While Canada Slept gives his view of a country wasted on Canadians.

What is national character? What makes the Americans, the British, the French, the Russians, and the Chinese who they are? In this homogenized world, where globalization is a byword for a deadening sameness, why do peoples who live in the same region, use the same money, read the same books, and watch the same movies remain different from one another? As much as Canada may be seen as a copy, clone, or colony of America, we are unquestionably distinctive. It is a result of our geography, history, and politics. It comes from our demography and prosperity. Most of all, it comes from our character.

In The Unfinished Canadian , Andrew Cohen delves into our past and present in search of our defining national characteristics. He questions hoary shibboleths, soothing mythologies, and old saws with irreverence, humour, and flintiness, unencumbered by our proverbial politeness (itself a great misperception) and our suffocating political correctness. We are so much, in so many shades, and it’s time we took an honest look at ourselves. In this provocative, passionate, and elegant book, Cohen argues that our mythology, our jealousy, our complacency, our apathy, our amnesia, and our moderation are all part of the unbearable lightness of being Canadian.

Genres: Nonfiction, Canada, Politics, History, Cultural

280 pages, Hardcover

First published May 8, 2007

Reviews

[Szplug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cohen examines the Canadian Identity circa 2006 and finds much that is wanting: our widespread ignorance regarding our Canadian past; our petty, reflexive and inferiority-complex fueled antipathy to our American neighbors; our casual indifference to the responsibilities of Canadian citizenship and how this impacts our remarkably lax immigration policy; the penny-pinching, concrete ugly, lacking-all-rhyme-and-reason urban gulag that we call our national capital, Ottawa, and how this dreary blechopolis came to be and what it says about our country as a whole; the roots of our pervasive acceptance of mediocrity and suspicion of success, the self-satisfied smugness that coats our constant iterations of how well-liked Canadians are globally, how tolerant and decent, polite and multicultural we all are, and how this perception fares against reality; and concludes with a reasonable outline of how these disturbing trends and traits can be ameliorated, our devolving tendencies halted, how we can amend and/or reverse our failures and accentuate our strengths, firm up our institutions for the inevitable and increasing tests of the future—an outline that, of course, has zero chance of ever being implemented.

Cohen is a fine writer, with appreciable wit and a nicely-rounded understanding of the Canadian Identity and all of those unique, northern-influenced foibles and idiosyncrasies that bubble below the (ofttimes frozen) surface. He admits from the start that his book is more polemic and less analysis—that the bounty of nature and our good fortune in having America as continental sibling have created the potentiality for greatness, but we have only managed to aspire to good—and even as he cuts with his passionately infused essays, he acknowledges the many concrete achievements Canadians have managed to cobble together over 140-plus years of nationhood. The same innate conservatism and desire for stability that has produced our uniform systems of government and culture have also left their stamp in our sometimes small-minded and petty outlook on life. Like all of Cohen's books, I enjoyed reading it, I learned from it, I disagreed with some small portion of it—but when finished, it slipped easily from my mind and I moved onto the next square object approaching upon the conveyor belt without missing much of a beat. It strikes me that these tacked on solutions always take roughly ten percent of the space devoted to detailing the problems they will solve—they just aren't serious. The society he criticizes has been structured—via the immigrant vote, our hedonistic, instantaneous needs with no eye to the future, our distrust of politicians spending our money, etc—to resist being pointed towards goals that require self-sacrifice, and that many of his ideas would be centered in and around Ottawa would inflame the very parochialism that he believes would be lessened by bringing them to fruition; the resultant likelihood being that it would amount to political suicide to steer the Canadian ship of state towards the multiple ends Cohen envisages. Looking at the governing landscape as it currently exists, I see no politician of sufficient ability and stature to accomplish one of Cohen's suggestions, let alone the miracle of seeing all of them through; and this is why prescriptions like his are apt to be unachievable, even if desirable.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is something of a backhanded compliment to say of someone, "they have potential." The dual implication being that the person(s) in question has good attributes but that they have neglected to cultivate them. Cohen seems to think that Canada has potential, though as the book nears its conclusion he unfortunately summarizes the point in an uncharacteristic clunker: "In the language of nations, let it be said, Canada isn't a question mark; it is a colon." Uh, I can't see "we are the colon of nations!" becoming a real rallying point for national pride. Cohen's assessment of the Canadian national character is, predictably, ambivalent: he thinks Canadians spend too much time worrying about the United States and how they are or are not like their neighbors to the south, he thinks they don't spend nearly enough time and money learning about and honoring their past, he thinks Ottawa is a disgraceful excuse for a national capital, despite its magnificent natural setting, but he also thinks Canadians are sensible, have many achievements they can celebrate, and is confident in the end that the characteristic Canadian eschewal of the flamboyant and extreme will preserve the nation from the reefs that have shipwrecked others. As with pretty much all questions of identity, whether national or personal, answers are as easy as they are incomplete and unsatisfying (just ask yourself, "who am I, REALLY?" and you'll soon see the point) and so I found myself, an American, thinking, "whatever you are, Canada, keep being that thing, because you are really good at it and no one else on the scene can match it." My personal emblem of Canada was the year my wife and I celebrated the arrival of the new year in Vancouver at Canada Centre with thousands of people, mostly younger than us, of every imaginable shade of color and without a trace of aggression, drunken belligerence, or proud vulgarity on display. What was on display seemed to us a model of health, cheerful politeness, and joie de vivre along with the fireworks over the water. As an American, I agree with the sentiment that the world could use a little more Canada, and I wish Cohen had captured more of that spirit in this book for his fellow citizens.

[Victoria Borrows · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read. I agreed with most of his arguments. I was horrified to discover the state of Canadian History in Canada. I recommend this book to any Canadian who is interested in what it means to be Canadian in today's modern world.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughtful, but it lost me a few times in disbelief and needless paragraphs on covered material.

[jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Cohen tackles the quintessential Canadian question, "what is a Canadian?" in his latest book. He makes the case that Canadians ask this question because they have lost a sense history, and because ambiguity is in fact, a cultural characteristic. Cohen believes that if Canadians paid more attention to the nation's history, honored those who built and continue to build the country (political and social leaders), developed and nurtured national institutions, understood more fully the nature of Canada's relationship with the US, among other things, that the country could, as a whole, answer that fundamental question. The book is an interesting snapshot of current Canadian society and poses challenging questions about the future of the country.

[Alejandra Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a first generation immigrant to Canada, I found this book very interesting and at the same time a bit worrisome. Andrew Cohen's book offers an overview of important aspects of the Canadian society and highlights issues that if left unaddressed may negatively impact the course of Canada (e.g. Asking little of our citizenship). Canadians should be more involved in shaping the future of their beautiful country. Learning about it from different perspectives, such as the one presented by Cohen, is a good place to start.

[TheTyee.ca]

If I were the author of fiction, and wanted to use all my creativity to describe an early-afternoon visit to a right-wing think tank, I would avoid certain flourishes that might make me seem like an agitprop-writing leftist hack.

My characters, for instance, wouldn't have to walk through a Lexus dealership to get to their offices. There would also be no wholesomely pretty interns in tight, perky...
Read more...
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2007/06/20/Co...

[Minli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cohen brings up a lot of really interesting ideas; his flaw is that he whines far too much, and places too much expectation on government without closely examining a people's culture. His treatise is prescriptive, and he treats many things (like the lack of nationalism) as bad, and Canada should do X or Y.

[Itisme · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a library find. I found it well written and the subject matter of great interest and importance. I do recommend this book with one condition... I support many of his ideas/suggestions but one that stands on my last nerve is his position on immigration. White privilege and racism reared its ugly and for that shame on Andrew Cohen.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Cohen has a passionate attachement to Canada and this book demonstrates his fervour in arguing that Canada is better in potential than in practive.

[Dylan Blanchard]

Not as good as I thought it was going to be...
Read like an academic paper, and it's tough to have a good flow, or consistent voice, when the whole thing is basically quotes.
Abandoned, yo.

[Stephen Wong]

Just finished listening to the author on TVO's Big Ideas podcast. I will try to go through the book next.

[Judy Budd wood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea but I am sure if it interested you it would be good.