Who We Are

There’s one particular thing about this show that I really, really enjoy, and that’s us. That’s because one of the main characters – Robin Scherbatsky (played by Canadian actress Cobie Smulders) – is Canadian. As you would expect, there are times when the writers of the show hit the Canadian references perfectly, and other times when they are just a little bit off: take for example the oft-repeated pronunciation of “a-boat” for about. This despite the assertion by many long-voweled Americans that we Canucks pronounce it “a-boot”. I personally believe we pronounce the word perfectly, and they say “a-baawt”. But hey, whatevs. 

All this watching (I will admit to sitting through five or six episodes in a row – thank god I figured out how to take my Netflix watching off my Facebook feed) has got me to thinking though. If Robin is the lens through which Canadians are viewed south of the border, what does it say about us? 

We’re very, very nice. And we love donuts. And we’re afraid of the dark (or at least we don’t like it very much):

We are fanatical about hockey (we also say “eh” and have a slightly Irish accent):

We’re obsessed with Tim Horton’s:

And nobody takes us seriously:

Here’s my list of things that they got right:

1. We are nice, mostly. 
2. We do love Tim Hortons.
3. We do have a slightly different way of pronouncing some vowels.
4. Most of us love – or at least appreciate – hockey.

1. That random weird accent Robin has in the scene with the hockey stick. That is not a Canadian accent – the actress is from Vancouver after all – just let her speak normally and you’re guaranteed to have an authentic Canadian accent! But I get the point – it’s funny.
2. The thing about the dark. I mean, we don’t love it, but…
3. Our money isn’t a joke. It’s awesome and plastic and yes: colourful.

So what do you think? What makes us uniquely Canadian? Are we more than just blue fivers and Timmies and hockey?