Another Loss for Team Canada: How Americanization Has Been Stealing Canadian Identity in Sport since the 1930s

Undergraduate Review Volume 17 Article 20 2023 Another Loss for Team Canada: How Americanization Has Been Stealing Canadian Identity in Sport since the 1930s Nicholas Follett Bridgewater State University Follow this and additional works at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev Recommended Citation Follett, Nicholas (2023). Another Loss for Team Canada: How Americanization Has Been Stealing Canadian Identity in Sport since the 1930s. Undergraduate Review, 17, p. 235-254. Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev/vol17/iss1/20 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Copyright © 2023 Nicholas Follett COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Another Loss for Team Canada: How Americanization Has Been Stealing Canadian Identity in Sport since the 1930s NICHOLAS FOLLET T The Importance of Identity cultures is a piece of their identity in which Canadians The establishment of a national identity is crucial take great pride. 2 Canadians are also known for their to the development of a nation. When held positively, progressiveness. According to the Social Progressive national identity can unite people around a desire for Imperative, Canada is the second-most progressive good government, economic development, strong nation in the world behind Finland. 3 Canada became the character, trust, and support of one another.1 The nation first nation in North America to enact national socialized of Canada has had to struggle with its identity for many healthcare and Canadians consider Medicare as a point centuries. Once a French colony, it became a territory of pride. Canada has also led the way in the reconciliation of the British Empire, then a Dominion that could not with Indigenous people through their decolonization amend its constitution, and lastly an independent nation. efforts, beginning with a formal apology for Indian Canada is best labeled as a “multicultural state;” there residential schools in 2008. 4 But perhaps what makes are many people who live within the borders of Canada Canadians the proudest of their national identity is their including white Europeans, Africans, Asians, Pacific independence within North America. The colonies that Islanders, Latino/a, and Indigenous populations. Within became the nation today rejected joining the United the context of this diversity, a singular Canadian identity States of America following the American Revolution, seems impossible, and the people of Canada have tried became a self-governing Dominion under the authority to establish what it means to be a Canadian by focusing of Britain in 1867, and earned their full independence in on what is on the inside rather than the outside. 1982. The path toward independence was an “evolution” The Canadian identity is built upon respect rather than a “revolution;” it was a slow and methodical for diversity. Canada is a “multicultural” nation, which transition to responsible government rather than a is considered a uniquely Canadian creation because sudden break from an imperial power. The autonomy to of its mosaic of diverse cultures that emerged from define their national identity and create their own culture its Indigenous roots, its European settlers, and more in the face of other Western nations defines much of the recent immigration from around the globe. These Canadian concept of their collective identity. cultures are different and have past tense relations; However, many feel that the Canadian identity Canada’s dedication to fostering respect for diversity of faces a persistent threat: Americanization. Best defined 235 | UNDERGRADUATE REVIEW 2022 • 2023 COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES as the process by which American cultural influence is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's COVID-19 measures were manifested in other countries. 5 Considering its proximity influenced by the January 6 protests to the election of to the United States, it is understandable that Canadians Joe Biden in the United States by right-wing American have feared Americanization since its inception in 1867. extremist groups. Since the end of the Second World War, the United States Many Canadians fear such Americanization emerged as a global superpower that influences world because the United States is far less progressive than politics and economics and has been matched only by Canada. Mainstream Canada’s response to the Convoy nations such as the former Soviet Union and today’s Protest, for example, was rooted in the that the attitudes China. In the private sector, American corporations held by American January 6 protestors were gaining like McDonalds and Nike have taken advantage of this momentum across the border, which would threaten global dominance to spread goods into new markets and the progressiveness of Canadian identity. 9 At its most change the consumer culture of entire nations. Canadians extreme, Americanization threatens the full social and fear that Americanization is a threat to their cultural political annexation by the United States if there is a distinctiveness, political independence, and economic failure to protect the uniqueness of the Canadian cultural sufficiency.6 identity. It would allow American scholars, politicians, and The United States is far less progressive than corporations to take advantage of Canadians for their Canada with a history of imperialism and meddling in agendas and profit. With such foreign involvement in the foreign politics and culture, Canada included. There lives of the people, Canadians lose that sense of autonomy are many examples of the Americanization of Canadian to be their people and create a culture independent of culture. The Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau foreign influence.10 The United States is a superpower in was established in 1918 to advertise Canada through the every sense of the word, and the need to protect Canadian distribution of Canadian films and documentaries, yet by culture and identity from it requires constant attention. It the 1930s it had become part of the powerful American is a task that many Canadians feel is important, but the film industry. American filmmakers used the Bureau to level of political or social activism required is too complex film in new locations and distribute movies across the and demanding for Canadian citizens to engage with. So, world at the expense of Canadian filmmakers and the how can the ordinary people of Canada protect who they establishment of a profitable domestic film industry.7 The are in the face of Americanization? With a ball or a puck. Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act of 1962 led many doctors to seek private practice opportunities in Sport and Cultural Identity the United States. Montana and other border states had Across the world, sports (...truncated)