True Patriot Love - What Makes Canadian Thanksgiving So Different？

00:00:00.000 maybe it's because I've been born in October or I love apples but Thanksgiving traditionally is

00:00:10.400 one of my favorite times of the year in this country and to talk more about it thrilled to

00:00:13.920 be joined by our very own jasmine boudoir jasmine how are you I'm good how are you Jim good good

00:00:18.360 what's okay Thanksgiving talk to me what's up Thanksgiving for you um I'm just going by my

00:00:23.100 parents place I'm gonna be eating some turkey yes stereotypical Thanksgiving spread I'm very

00:00:29.160 excited for my belly is very excited for well and it's funny because what's happened in canada is

00:00:33.940 actually a real amalgamation of traditional thanksgiving some people have turkey or ham

00:00:39.520 or prime rib and cultural foods and sort of ethnic foods native to their culture so you'll have half

00:00:47.860 of the traditional and they mix it with a half and i kind of like that that canada has evolved that

00:00:52.240 way yes i think it's very interesting um definitely our family will do throw in a few west indian

00:00:58.040 foods here in there little seafood um occasionally occasionally there is a bit of seafood there's uh

00:01:04.680 usually doubles uh that's a traditional trinidadian food oh sorry explain doubles uh doubles it's

00:01:11.880 basically two pieces of fried dough okay and then you put um we call it chana but it's chickpeas

00:01:18.280 it's like chickpea almost like a spread okay sounds good but it has whole chickpeas in it as

00:01:23.240 well and it's you eat it and it's a little bit spicy people put spice on it okay very good okay

00:01:27.640 I see that's and that's all what it's all about and a lot of people don't realize because we're

00:01:32.200 so inundated with American Thanksgiving and movies about American Thanksgiving and Netflix

00:01:37.200 specials but Thanksgiving in Canada was officially recognized as a holiday in 1879 like it's been

00:01:44.100 around a long time a really long time and in the late 1950s the governor general Vincent Massey

00:01:49.880 he of Massey Hall fame they changed it to the second Monday of October based on our climate

00:01:55.620 in our weather. So I like the fact that it's the second Monday of October. It's a nice three-day

00:02:01.860 holiday, especially when our daughters were in university. It would be often our first time we

00:02:08.200 would see them since going back to school in early September. And I find it's a nice bridge for

00:02:14.000 Canadians between that end of summer, end of fall before winter really hits. Yes, I find that having

00:02:20.460 it, it's right in the sweet spot, especially for students, like you said, that's typically when the

00:02:25.100 reading week is for university students yes and then college students I remember when I was in

00:02:29.700 college a few years ago it was the week after so it's like you get a nice break you get to relax

00:02:35.340 and you also get to study I and I had spent some time in the United States my father was there with

00:02:42.180 the military and Thanksgiving there it's like a big production it's uh you know parades and this

00:02:48.180 and that and it's almost like uh you know there's gifts and crazy stuff and I just like the fact

00:02:53.980 the canadian thanksgiving is a little more chill it's a little more about getting together with

00:02:57.900 some family and friends and having somebody eat and hanging out and it's not so intense and i

00:03:03.100 guess that's almost like us as canadians yes i would agree with that um my friends from the

00:03:09.660 states i have a few friends from the states and first they always get confused when i say it's

00:03:13.900 thanksgiving exactly they always are like what do you mean thanksgiving isn't happening yet and i

00:03:18.220 have to explain to them that we have a different time for thanksgiving um and then whenever it

00:03:23.500 comes down to what they do for thanksgiving for them it's an all-weekend affair exactly

00:03:28.780 and it's a four-day weekend yeah and that surprises me every time that's like my culture

00:03:33.900 shock on their end because i feel like wow it's very different and it's very like you said it's

00:03:41.100 very uh production wise they do the whole parade and everything very very interesting i um you know

00:03:47.820 i know my my father was the military and um the one thing i like is sometimes you think they show

00:03:53.500 video or photos over the weekend canadians who are posted overseas canadian who live overseas

00:03:59.260 who are working overseas who are with the diplomatic corps of the military or just

00:04:04.220 expats and they'll celebrate canadian thanksgiving wherever they are and i think that's kind of cool

00:04:10.220 that is very cool actually i didn't know people would do that that's very very sweet and anita

00:04:15.660 dobrev who is from the vampire diaries pretty a-list actress she was originally born in

00:04:22.620 bulgaria but grew up in scarborough went to wexford collegiate the art school went to the

00:04:28.080 toronto metropolitan university and she'll whatever she is she'll celebrate canadian 0.99

00:04:33.160 thanksgiving and force her uh castmates to wear roots gear and eat canadian food when she's i

00:04:39.620 think that's i like that that that bit of canada being spreading around the world yeah and it's

00:04:44.520 it's very very sweet i think that's very it's very canadian yes it's very canadian of us to be very

00:04:50.280 like i love canada we're going to celebrate this canadian holiday yeah i find that that's very

00:04:55.560 canadian of us you know jasmine unfortunately the only sad part about it this year is

00:05:01.400 food banks across the country have it's a tough time and the amount of people visiting food banks

00:05:07.960 and needing to visit food banks are going up so for people watching this or listening if you're

00:05:14.120 going to your local store picking up some items if you can pick up an extra non-perishable food item

00:05:20.200 a canned good whatever it is it all adds up it makes a difference because there are a lot of

00:05:23.960 people that need it yeah and um especially i find a lot of students every yeah whenever i was in

00:05:31.240 going to uh college there would always be a food drive and it would go to other students and i

00:05:36.760 found that that was very uh kind it was always stacked up like there was really a lot of food

00:05:42.520 and so every once in a while when i would go to the grocery store i'd pick up a can of soup

00:05:46.840 and i'd add to the the little pile up because i thought you know i get i'm so fortunate that i

00:05:52.600 get i'm so thankful yes i have a family that cooks for me and things like that but i know that there

00:05:57.080 are people that aren't as fortunate as me and that's i'm glad you brought that up jasmine

00:06:00.760 because i think as canadians we don't think that college university students they are not everyone

00:06:05.960 has a home to go to or a lot of food to go back to and they're kind of on their own and that's

00:06:10.840 i'm glad you're highlighting that because some of them need help as well yes definitely it's like

00:06:15.160 whenever you picture people needing food you usually picture a family yes not a single person

00:06:20.520 who goes to university that doesn't really know is like trying to make it on their own

00:06:25.240 so it's like i think that they're they need a little bit of spotlight as well i mean there are

00:06:30.840 single parents out there there are people struggling to pay rent um it's a it's a good time

00:06:36.360 of year and this is where the technology comes in i know we have one daughter that can't make it home

00:06:41.160 this year for thanksgiving so we'll be doing our facetime group chat like one will be in edmonton

00:06:46.360 and one will be with us or where we live and and and that's that's kind of nice too because there

00:06:51.560 are times when you can't get together and the technology through video chat and zoom and

00:06:55.960 facetime you can all connect to each other yes and i think that that's really important not for

00:07:01.080 thanksgiving but for me uh last holidays like the winter holidays i was in french polynesia

00:07:07.240 and uh how i celebrated christmas and new year's was i was facetiming on my phone to speak to my

00:07:13.640 my brother and my parents time out on the play here but what brought you to french polynesia

00:07:18.040 uh my boyfriend's family goes is from french polynesia so we were in tahiti i guess that

00:07:22.600 didn't suck no another thing i'm very thankful yeah and that's the one thing i also i think it's

00:07:31.300 it's a nice time here for canadians um who i know we are want to complain about this and complain 0.66

00:07:37.160 about that and have an issue with that but it's also a smart time to pause jasmine and think you

00:07:41.520 know what we're not perfect but i'm thankful for this i'm thankful i'm thankful for living in

00:07:46.240 canada i'm thankful uh for my family i'm thankful for like there's so many things we're thankful

00:07:51.020 for and it's one of those things you just take a moment just to realize what you are thankful for

00:07:55.580 yeah like what do you think you're thankful for definitely my my wife and kids my pets um

00:08:01.020 you know my circle of friends um you know knock on wood um uh things like simple things like the

00:08:08.300 fact that we live here and we see what's going on in paris we see um the nonsense with american

00:08:15.580 politics we see what's happening with the poor people of ukraine um in different parts of the

00:08:21.260 world we're like we have a pretty good here i'm thankful to be canadian i'm thankful to live in

00:08:26.420 this country i can deal with some of the other problems because i don't have to enjoy the

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00:08:40.320 visit tplmedia.ca and sign up today yes i agree i definitely i'm thankful for like my friends and

00:08:49.300 my family but i am also very very thankful to be canadian like we have access to free healthcare

00:08:54.420 we have so many things going for us that i feel like a lot of people don't take the time to

00:08:59.160 appreciate on a regular basis yeah i mean people forget that in canada you if you're in the united

00:09:04.920 states and you go to the hospital you get a bill yeah and they expect to be paid or they'll call

00:09:10.680 credit collections on you and we we never think of that yeah it's something that i personally again

00:09:16.840 with my friends from the states they get culture shock when i tell them oh i was at the hospital

00:09:20.920 or oh i went to the doctors today they're like oh god how much did that cost you because that's what

00:09:25.240 they live with and i'm like it it didn't cost me anything i'm like i have a health card and like

00:09:31.640 they're like what's a health card you just show it you just then you go home yeah yeah and that's

00:09:36.360 for them like they're not as fortunate to have that experience so when they get sick or when

00:09:40.600 they get injured it's i think the other thing i'm thankful for jasmine is um the environment and

00:09:47.080 nature and geography of canada the fact that we have the the forest and lakes and the maritimes

00:09:54.520 and the mountains and the prairies and i've been lucky enough to see pretty much canada coast to

00:09:59.560 the coast the only place i haven't been is the yukon and nunavut but from basically from the

00:10:04.560 pacific ocean the atlantic ocean all points in between i've been there at one point and we're

00:10:08.780 we're really lucky we're really blessed in this country to have the environment and geography we

00:10:14.260 do and even in a big city like montreal or toronto you don't have to drive far and you're in you're

00:10:18.860 in the country yeah it's it's beautiful i love i sometimes i'll just take a drive i'll just be like

00:10:26.500 i want to go take a drive and see the sights and at night i fly down the 400 and just go up with

00:10:31.900 the speed limit within the speed limit and we me and my partner we go and we see how beautiful

00:10:38.580 yeah like especially the green belts i love driving when the leaves change yes yeah or even

00:10:44.720 even whenever it's a little bit like there's a little bit of snow hitting the trees the pine

00:10:48.500 trees absolutely beautiful yeah so this is you know um i think more than anything this year as

00:10:54.520 Canadians we have to say hey just tap the brakes a bit hey what are we thankful for what you know

00:10:59.400 yes you're maybe not happy with these things but let's think about the things we do have

00:11:04.300 let's think about the things we get out of this country let's think about things that we're 0.99

00:11:09.160 grateful and thankful for and then you know come Tuesday you can carry on your life and bitch and

00:11:14.040 complain about other things but just take a break once a while and be thankful yeah and I think that

00:11:18.940 it's really important to express that gratitude I think it's really great for us as people and

00:11:23.660 as Canadians and honestly like it's good for your mental health instead of being negative all the

00:11:29.040 time it'd be nice to be like have a day to be like you know what things are going pretty good

00:11:33.740 I'm glad you brought that up because we bring up stories and we have stories about uh young people

00:11:38.620 and doom scrolling and feeling a little helpless you're one of the youngest staff members how do

00:11:44.180 you get around that um honestly I have my moments of doom scrolling and making comparisons to people

00:11:49.920 and instagram and things like that but at the end of the day i look at it this is a little bit nerdy

00:11:55.460 of a metaphor but i look at it like i'm my own superhero yeah and i'm like there's any there's

00:12:02.360 a quote from spider-man uh bring it on anyone can wear the mask stanley says that in into the

00:12:10.600 spider-verse and i always thought that that was very meaningful because it's like i can wear the

00:12:14.480 mask every day i wake up and i do my best every morning when i get up to come to work i also say

00:12:19.600 a Deadpool quote I get up from the couch to get my backpack and stuff after eating breakfast and

00:12:24.140 I say maximum effort and I find that that's because like I find that that helps me get

00:12:28.980 excuse me get through the day because I'm putting my maximum effort for that day I like that yeah

00:12:35.240 okay yeah no that's I never thought about that that's really cool I use pop culture references

00:12:40.300 to get myself through the day look at based on uh society and social media people use pop culture

00:12:47.000 every single day so why not you yeah yeah we have a lot to be thankful for uh i hope wherever you are

00:12:52.760 with your friends and family you have a good thanksgiving and if you can we'll say it again

00:12:57.080 if you can donate anything to a local food bank in this country they could really use your help

00:13:02.440 Happy Thanksgiving.

00:13:03.560 Happy Thanksgiving.

True Patriot Love - October 10, 2026

What Makes Canadian Thanksgiving So Different？

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