In a year following the release of CBC TV's The Greatest Canadian" and CBC Radio's "BC Almanac's Greatest British Columbians" there is a book titled: "What is a Canadian? 43 Thought -Provoking Responses. Each of these essays begins with the words “A Canadian is . . .”. Each one is very different, producing a fascinating book for all thinking Canadians..... A Canadian is a transplanted snail called James who sat down on a brick. A Canadian is a big fat street party on the Danforth in Toronto, 2004. A Canadian is hockey night in Canada on a small patch of ice created by buckets of water in the backyard. A Canadian is a plane full of people from Vancouver flying to Quebec with signs saying: “WE LOVE YOU.” A Canadian is the wind on the prairies that who has seen. And a red-headed girl in a green-gabled house on an island with red soil. And the Mounties who always always get their man. A Canadian trusts the law. And since we generally rank either second or third or fourth or whatever, we try harder. But weren’t we proud when Gorbachev said, “Look at Canada. They don’t kill people there.”    more »