True north strong and free.

In Obasan Aunt Emily says that; "-Everything a Canadian does is Canadian." (57) This statement although inherently circular makes sense to some degree. Canadians are not defined by their colour or food, not even by a language or music. Canadians are simply inhabitants of a country with values and ideals that can only be described as Canadian. The moment you label yourself a Canadian you become Canadian. Simple as that, all that is required to attain Canadian status is an appreciation for Canadian ideals and the passport to prove it. In conclusion Canada is a tossed salad covered in dressing, that dressing in this case is the value of equality and peace. There may be different ingredients in this salad, but it's the dressing that most people are concerned about.

With glowing hearts, we see thee rise.

Along with being recognised as peacekeepers and for our strong education system, Canadians are known for our universal healthcare system, although it occasionally receives flack for it's ovary socialist ideals. The value of universal healthcare is one that draws quite a lot of attention from people wishing to emigrate from their countries of origin to start a new life. Also many Canadians who wouldn't otherwise have the means to attain proper medical attention benefit from this. This fair system is viewed as uncontroversially Canadian.

True patriot love, in all thy sons command.

Along with it's high value of education Canada is known as a peaceful country as opposed to the more aggressive "war-mongrel" type county America is viewed as. All over the world Canada is known for it's peace keeping efforts, yet another value Canadians takes pride in, and one that draws people to move to this country. Presently Canada's biggest peace keeping effort is going on in the Middle East. The people in places like Afghanistan are in danger and Canada is there working to rebuild what has been destroyed or damaged in the war, along with protecting the civilians caught in the war. Some have made the choice to leave their war torn countries and come to Canada, where they could live a peaceful and profitable life out of the dangers of war. Because of Canada's reputation as a peace loving and rich country this makes us appealing to families wanting more opportunity for themselves and their future generations. This also helps us with our global relations, Canadians are welcomed with open arms in places like Belgium and France, where we were active in the WW1 war effort against Germany.

Our home and native land.

There is a general consensus that Canada has a strong and inclusive education system. When you think of Canada something that comes to mind, would be free public schools. This is a big reason why people are drawn to move here or are living here already quite happily. People come from places all over the world come to take advantage of our school systems to either enter into the Canadian workforce or to return to their country to profit from their Canadian education. The asian community is well known for putting a lot of enfaces on education and knowledge, we see this clearly in Obasan when even during a time of persecution and turmoil for the Japanese-Canadians, families remain adamant that their children's schooling continue uninterrupted. Aunt Emily's Dad receives a letter from one of his old friends Kawaguchi, who had been sent to a camp in Princeton, asking the family to; "-see what we can do to keep Jack's education from being disturbed." (96). Even during a time of great personal stress and fear, Kawaguchi, chose to focus on his son's education and did what he could to make sure nothing was disturbed more than necessary.

Oh Canada.

A lot of negation can be used to describe a Canadian. For instance a Canadian is not an American, we don't live in igloos or ride moose, not all of us speak french and drugs aren't free, Kenneth Boulding once said; "Canada has no cultural unity, no religious unity, no economic unity, no geographic unity. All it has is unity." With all of these "not's" and "don'ts" you start to wonder, if we aren't all these things then what are we? Part of the issue Canadians have in defining themselves is that as a nation we are so young compared to old geezer's like England, France and Greece. We are like the youngest sibling in a big loud family, full of dominating personalities. Canada like that younger sibling is just looking for a name for itself in this big filled up world. The advantage to having started after most others is that we can see what worked and what didn't. We take the values and ideals respected by most and use them to define us. For instance we support equal education, universal healthcare and we work to keep the peace on a global and national front. It's not always easy as we see from the events that take place in Obasan but we try our best to keep the Canadian way of life alive and recognised.