The One Story of Canada and Canadians

Canada’s story is often told through memes on social media. And the story is often inaccurate, exaggerated, and altogether false. As you can see from these memes, Canada appears to be cold and snowing all the time and the people seem to be careless (or drunk) and dependent. Pictures of massive amounts of snow portray that Canada is no land for humans and any other creature for that matter. Similarly, these pictures make the country look like one giant party sponsored by drunks and celebrity dropouts (Strange Brew Poster). And the messages sent through memes often refer to Canada’s free health care and how it has allowed the people to become dependent and lazy i.e. “I go to the hospital to get my feelings checked.” These messages are sent out on a daily bases to people all over the world you know little to nothing about Canada. The notion of these messages that people receive is that Canada is no place you would ever want to visit or live and that Canadians in general and lower-class, uneducated, and lazy.

These implications and stereotypes are limiting for Canada. They prevent people from visiting Canada, from thinking highly of Canadians, and perhaps from doing business with Canadians. If the latter reflects the feelings of any business that has refused transacting with Canada, such stereotypical messages are legitimately damaging the country’s economic success and therefore adding to the one-story stereotype that Canada is subpar. Furthermore, when it comes to personal relationships with Canadian, one-storied messages can dissuade non-Canadians from marrying or becoming friends with Canadians. These relationship-damaging messages prevent Canada from taking on greater transactions with non-Canadians. The only people these messages benefit are Canadians. These jokes and images allow them to laugh about situations only they can relate to and therefore these messages can have a unifying effect. But only among Canadians.

These artifacts I’ve chosen clearly portray Canada as cold, careless, and dependent. Though it’s hard to find a meme that praises a place or person, memes in general are generated because people feel strongly about one aspect of a place or person. Therefore, memes and pictures alike are one the most modern forms of rhetoric that often ruin reputation.