Our Canadian Identity

Our Canadian Identity
By Kathie Wallace

In 1972, when Paul Henderson became the “Magic Man” in hockey for Canada, I and millions of Canadians stopped our lives to listen breathlessly as we won the Summit Series over the Russians.

The score was tied 5-5 and the series was also tied. With 34 seconds left in the game, Henderson scored to win for Canada. It was called “the goal heard around the world”.
I will always remember feeling an amazing connected oneness in that moment as a Canadian, in the collective energy field. We were all so proud of proving that we were indeed supreme in our national sport: hockey.

We Canadians are a reserved people. But, as “still waters run deep”, I believe we have a profound sensibility rooted in the land we love.

I grew up on a farm in Ontario and I will remember for all time the blissful years of oneness with nature that I felt and lived as a child. This love of nature and the land broadened in me as I lived in different landscapes across Canada: the prairies of Calgary and now the mountains and ocean of Vancouver.

I believe we are embedded in our land and carry its qualities with us: a gentle strength, endurance, beauty, joy, openness and trust, kindness, largesse and a love of freedom which includes the freedom to do what we want and to speak what we wish to. There is also an intrinsic “natural” integrity of knowing what is right and wrong that we carry below our quiet surfaces as Canadians.

In 1988, I was living in Calgary during the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. They were such fun: simple and innocent fun. We Calgarians romped and played throughout the event. Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, Britain’s first and only ski jumper, finished dead last in both his events. His failures and personality endeared him to everyone and he became a symbol of those Olympics. Perhaps we Canadians saw a mirror for ourselves in admiring a man who was simply himself, giving his absolute best yet able to be playful and humorous about his own failed performances.

I think we Canadians like and respect ourselves, living deeply grounded and safe in our land.

What will the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics hold for our Canadian identity? What will the collective energy field of Vancouver reveal about what it means to be a Canadian?

I know that with these Olympics I am disillusioned to see the huge shadow cast over the events by the “shock and awe” tactics of the security measures in place here. Rather than the simple curiousity and delight I felt with the Calgary Olympics, I feel a partial dread and sadness as to what is going to happen in the next few weeks here in our home, Vancouver.

I am going to track the collective energy field in Vancouver over this coming month. I invite readers to contribute to that ongoing record of how people are feeling about what is happening. Comments are welcome here.

Right now the feeling in the field seems to be: reserved, not engaged, watching, holding back, and an inkling of beginning excitement in the downtown and along Hastings that is not evident in outer areas like Marpole where life goes on as usual.

I also invite a pondering from readers as to how you would describe “Our Canadian Identity” and our relation to the land and nature. Comments are welcome here on that topic as well.

I will also be Twittering my thoughts on both topics under “kathiewallace” and “VO2010” on Twitter.

Please join in the conversation!

This article has already appeared in the on-line Vancouver Observer.