Читать книгу Let It Snow. Keeping Canada's Winter Sports Alive онлайн

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The blending of American and Canadian cultures has become more pronounced in recent years. Canadians are offended by this development and rely on critical sustenance for their ability to differentiate themselves from Americans by virtue of being winter warriors.

This bond between Canada and winter is best described by French-Canadian singer Gilles Vigneault, who succinctly remarked, “My country’s not a country, it’s winter.” His country, however, was not necessarily Canada. It is symptomatic of the complex nature of Canadian identity that Vigneault is described as a poet, publisher, singer-songwriter, and well-known Quebec nationalist and sovereignist.

So, no sooner do Canadians find an artist who expresses his people’s attitude to their relationship with winter then he disavows his interest in such an identity.

Still, Canadians wear this relationship between themselves and climate as a badge of honour. Canadians travelling abroad check into international hostels with maple leaves attached to their backpacks and proudly tell a traveller from Spain, “If I can take a Canadian winter, I can certainly rough it in this hostel.” The Canadian then proudly annoys his indifferent host by describing his survival of major snowfalls. His host, on the other hand, wonders why he can find nothing to say about Canada’s cuisine or its major musical artists.