Unify Action - October 22, 2025


Here's Why Quebec And Alberta Want OUT - Canada's Identity CRISIS


Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

179.2

Word count

3,022

Sentence count

98

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we discuss the importance of our national identity and what we should focus on in order to maintain it. We also talk about our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and why we should be thankful for them.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 all right guys it was a quiet week on the university so we decided to take a step back
00:00:04.560 in time to what we used to do a month ago and do some on the street interviews and we decided that
00:00:10.800 it was an important enough topic to ask people what they thought canada's national identity was
00:00:15.840 and we had some of the typical answers so of course people said that our national identity
00:00:21.040 has got to be our diversity freedom to be diverse right or our politeness and kind to others being
00:00:28.800 hospitable your friendliest neighbor in the street um but probably the most important one that we got
00:00:35.200 was our freedom the freedoms of our charters of rights maintaining a country that's uh free and
00:00:41.440 yes freedom is a particularly good identity to have and our freedoms differ a little bit than
00:00:46.880 what they have in the united states and i will get to that but what i want to touch on right now and
00:00:52.160 what will probably step on a few people's toes is diversity people often say that we are a
00:00:57.440 a multicultural society and our diversity is our strength. And I fundamentally disagree with that
00:01:02.880 and I'm sure that I'm going to get some heat in the comments for saying this, but I don't think
00:01:07.140 diversity is our strength. I think unity is our strength. So diversity itself is not an identity.
00:01:13.800 I would say it's more of the opposite of a unifying force. And I'm not saying that it's wrong to have
00:01:20.380 many different people from different backgrounds in a country, but there's got to be one standard
00:01:26.860 in one culture that you all align with or things begin to break down. And obviously, don't take me
00:01:35.000 wrong, this is not saying something bad about the cultures, but this is saying that we need a single
00:01:41.440 culture, one culture that we all align with. And I honestly, I don't think that our main focus
00:01:49.040 should be diversity. And I'm not saying we should throw politeness out either. I think politeness
00:01:54.560 is a good characteristic that we should have in our country, but we need something more. We need
00:01:58.560 a unified culture, right? So when you think of a country, there are a few things that stand out
00:02:06.000 about that country. So it has borders, it has a particular language or a few languages,
00:02:14.240 and it has a culture. So those are the things that kind of hold the country together.
00:02:19.680 another thing that people would often say about our country and our identity is our freedom and
00:02:24.880 yes i think this is a very good characteristic that we should have but our freedoms differ a
00:02:31.200 lot from what they have in the united states so people actually brought this up that oh we are
00:02:37.760 free but we don't we don't harp on our freedom we don't toss it around we don't gloat about it
00:02:42.560 yeah so as for freedoms you said about how we don't harp on about it as much
00:02:46.480 that's because we don't need to and yes our freedoms are quite different from what they
00:02:52.960 would say that they have in the united states and that's actually pretty core to like our
00:02:58.320 constitutions and our legislation so in the united states when you read the constitution
00:03:02.640 and especially the declaration of independence um what you'll see is that the framers of those
00:03:09.520 documents thought, their fundamental thinking was that our rights don't come
00:03:15.760 from man or from one government, they come from God. So the fundamental reason
00:03:21.260 that a government should exist is to preserve those rights, and that's
00:03:24.520 something that's very explicit that you read in the Declaration of Independence.
00:03:28.000 So in the United States, their rights come from God, and it is the government's
00:03:33.820 existence and purpose is to ensure those rights, all right? But in Canada, we have a Charter of
00:03:40.920 Rights and Freedoms, and the basic premise of that is that our rights come from government.
00:03:47.740 They are preserved by government. This is something that the government is allowing us
00:03:51.480 in this country. So it's quite different. So in the United States, their rights should never be
00:03:55.920 taken away because then that would be a crime and a sin against God. In Canada, our freedoms are
00:04:01.200 more of a privilege, not exactly a right. And we might think they are, but in our legislation,
00:04:06.300 it's not really framed out that way. When you think of it that way, that it's much easier for
00:04:11.840 someone to say we can take away those rights because they are a privilege avowed to us by
00:04:16.380 the government. And if the government thinks that we are not using our privilege correctly,
00:04:20.380 then they might want to take away our freedoms. So we see that in some of these cases with the
00:04:25.360 hate speech laws that they're trying to put through. And we saw that with COVID and with
00:04:30.800 the freedom convoy as well. Our rights in Canada, they come from government, not from God. At least
00:04:37.620 that's part of the legislation. So that's kind of where we defer. And yes, I would say we have a lot
00:04:43.120 of freedoms and we should be so thankful for them. And one of the things that actually came up
00:04:48.480 when I was talking to a lot of these people is that they saw an increase and a rise in patriotism
00:04:56.500 due to the threats of Trump on our country.
00:04:59.600 And one of the questions that I posed to people was,
00:05:02.420 so you're saying that Donald Trump has made Canada more unified?
00:05:05.860 I think so, yes.
00:05:07.260 Why weren't we unified before?
00:05:09.220 It's a good question.
00:05:10.220 Why weren't we thinking about loving our country and standing up for our country?
00:05:13.960 And one of the reasons I think that has caused that,
00:05:17.500 the lack of patriotism, is because we don't have shared goals.
00:05:20.880 we don't want to actively work to better our country or preserve our freedoms right so we
00:05:28.100 don't have shared goals in this country and that patriotism that rose when trump threatened our
00:05:34.140 country that was a result of us finally having something unified to go around and bring us
00:05:40.140 together and be okay we're standing up to trump this is our sole purpose this is who we are this
00:05:45.740 is our goal. We're standing up to Trump. This is basically what we're going to do. And in my
00:05:51.160 opinion, that is not quite a good enough reason to love your country or to stand up for it. I think
00:05:55.440 we should love our country because of how amazing our country is, not because of some threat
00:06:01.720 externally. And the sad thing for me was that this rise in patriotism, it probably will fall away
00:06:08.760 when the Trump threat goes away. So I think we need to begin to appreciate our country.
00:06:15.320 And part of that actually comes from understanding our history. And when I talk to people and ask
00:06:23.180 them what our national identity is, they had a really hard time answering, like a really hard
00:06:28.920 time. I was surprised. People, eventually they came up with things like freedom and diversity
00:06:34.160 and politeness but it took them a bit and some people actually couldn't answer me even after
00:06:40.800 sitting there and thinking for a bit what do you think canada's national identity is
00:06:48.880 i really don't national i don't know what the nationals i don't know what it would be and when
00:06:55.680 i told them the questions even off camera what i would like them to answer they're like oh i cannot
00:07:00.320 answer these questions so i'm sorry i can't do the interview and that was actually quite shocking to
00:07:05.520 me like people don't think about who we are as a country and we should right and that's probably
00:07:14.080 one of the reasons we saw that rise of patriotism to trump uh because oh we're like oh we are a
00:07:20.000 country yes we should rise up but the sad thing is it's probably going to die away once the threats
00:07:26.080 go away. And when I say threats, it's threats fairly loosely. They're really more like suggestions
00:07:32.880 and Trump trolling, not exactly an actual threat, like it's actually going to happen.
00:07:38.860 All right, now I want to switch and talk about something that would actually unify us.
00:07:43.880 So we talked about culture already, but there are other things that can bring a country together.
00:07:50.260 And one of those, as we touched on, was a shared goal. And what are our shared goals in this
00:07:55.620 country, right? Like when we have an endpoint that we're all trying to arrive at, we're going to all
00:08:02.620 work towards that, but we don't have an endpoint, right? In the United States, that endpoint seems
00:08:08.280 to be being the greatest and the best and being perfect. We call it American exceptionalism,
00:08:13.520 but in Canada, what goal do we have? And you guys can throw around ideas in the comments,
00:08:20.520 but right now it just seems like we're trying to be polite and mediocre and I
00:08:25.640 don't think that's good enough for a goal as a country but you guys can help
00:08:29.740 me out with that in the comments. So as a country we need to have shared goals. We
00:08:34.760 also need to have shared values and then of course shared culture. And now what
00:08:40.320 are our values in this country? Because they used to be Judeo-Christian but we've 0.95
00:08:45.660 obviously thrown that out the window and now we're trying to be as secular as
00:08:49.020 possible. So what are our values, right? And those radically differ based on who
00:08:56.580 you ask. So people will of course say, well we should have the value of being
00:09:00.360 inclusive and diverse, and of course we should have the value of politeness, but
00:09:04.180 those are just face values. We need to have deeper values like the respect for
00:09:08.940 human life and actual value for the human person, because if we don't hold
00:09:16.020 those things supreme, then eventually really, really bad things could happen. So we need to
00:09:21.380 have shared values, absolutely. And unfortunately that doesn't come, values don't exactly stay the
00:09:29.780 same with every culture that you ask, right? So we need to have values that are uniquely Canadian.
00:09:35.540 And then we also need to have uniquely Canadian culture. And part of our culture is an acceptance
00:09:41.860 and a knowledge of our history so i actually asked a couple people this at the market and
00:09:50.500 one young man he was probably just out of high school and i asked him what he thought of
00:09:58.180 canadian history and if when he had been learning it if he thought it was fairly dry and just
00:10:03.780 disinterested him when when you took that canadian history did you get any love for
00:10:08.500 your country from it or did it feel dry honestly it wasn't it no wasn't much love at all it was just
00:10:15.860 kind of uh showing that the creators of this country were just coming here forcibly uh it
00:10:23.380 wasn't really like something to be proud of i guess they didn't frame it in that sense
00:10:27.780 and that is one of the sad things in this country we are not teaching our history and we're not
00:10:33.140 through the study of our history we're not giving people a love for our country
00:10:36.820 In fact, it's quite the opposite. We harp on all the bad things that have happened in this country,
00:10:41.940 and we don't tell anyone the good things. There are so many more good things that happened in our
00:10:46.500 past than the bad things, right? It seems really disingenuous to say that we have to talk all
00:10:54.900 about the bad and ugly things, but not also talk about the good things. Right at that point, it's
00:11:00.660 basically propaganda so we need to talk about the good things in our history and that is one of the
00:11:07.380 sad things about their school system so with that young man i was able to actually encourage him to
00:11:12.260 go and actually read his history and learn it i should get onto it more people should get onto it
00:11:18.660 because it's it's there's no pride in it and i think it's ironic the people that are trying to
00:11:24.100 be prideful now because of trump were the ones you know hating on it beforehand but it is something
00:11:30.020 that i definitely question like yeah the federal government's not doing the best about it but right
00:11:35.860 and they are trying to hide some of the good things about our history so recently we went to
00:11:42.500 john a mcdonald's uh home and it was actually really heartbreaking to walk around that house
00:11:49.460 and only hear the bad things about john mcdonald and no one i didn't we were fairly quick in what
00:11:58.820 what we did and going through that house. But I didn't see a single plaque celebrating what he did
00:12:04.220 in bringing all the provinces together and unifying all the different factions in the
00:12:09.200 Ontario's, in Ontario's government. No one talked about that. So they were harping all about his
00:12:14.640 bad faults, but no one was talking about, oh, his leadership skills and the fact that he was able to
00:12:18.920 join the French and the English provinces together and actually bring them into one country. That was
00:12:25.240 an incredible accomplishment. And I don't think anyone has unified the French and the English
00:12:29.220 parts of our culture and our country like he did since then. I don't think anyone has done that.
00:12:35.200 So they didn't visit the good things about his past and his career and accomplishments,
00:12:42.600 but they were very happy to visit the bad things. So at that point, it becomes propaganda.
00:12:49.760 All right, so I guess the key takeaway here is that we need to learn our history and we need to
00:12:53.740 love our country. And you guys, in the comments, write down what you think Canada's identity is.
00:13:01.100 Help me out here. I really, I would love to know this, what you think Canada's identity is,
00:13:05.760 and not just characteristics like politeness or diversity, but actually who we are as a core.
00:13:11.020 And I would love to say that we are free, and I hope it stays that way, and I hope we continue
00:13:17.060 to have governments that actually keep us free. But just help me out in the comments what you
00:13:21.120 think about canada's nationality and our identity all right guys um that'll do it for me and for fun
00:13:28.160 i'll just leave you guys off with a video uh from the market of the one person who truly
00:13:33.440 understand understood canada and understood who we are as a country understood our history and
00:13:39.120 this man happens to be a veteran so i hope you enjoy that video all right bye what does it mean
00:13:45.840 to be Canadian? Well for me it's maintaining a country that's free to be able to do whatever
00:13:54.580 you want of course within the law and to follow your dream. We're generally accepting of everybody
00:14:01.940 that wants to come here and be Canadian but not change our way of life to suit them. Come here
00:14:09.420 and be canadian you know to me that that's what it's about yeah what do you think is our national
00:14:15.800 identity do we have a strong national identity i think we do i think it's it's tied to the land
00:14:21.500 to the you know to the rocky mountains to the prairies you know to the maritimes and everything
00:14:26.840 in between you know canada has always been a kind of country of explorers and entrepreneurs
00:14:32.160 yours. And I think that's part of our big heritage and our national identity. And the
00:14:39.480 things that we've done overseas, especially, you know, World War I, Vimy Ridge and all
00:14:44.060 these other things, right? Cap Yong, you know, in the Korean War, that type of thing. That
00:14:49.600 helps with our can-do type of identity. That if you want something done, give it to the
00:14:55.980 Canadians and they'll get it done. 0.99
00:14:57.420 Yeah, yeah. So you're showing history, right? And a lot of people,
00:15:01.660 when i ask them these questions that's not something they bring up right like our i feel
00:15:06.840 like our national pride definitely is strongly attached to our history like in many countries
00:15:11.040 it is like especially in quebec like their culture their history they they really they hold on to
00:15:16.280 that and that is who they are but a lot of canadians don't even recognize what their history
00:15:21.440 is and when i ask them if they love our history or if they ever learned our history properly
00:15:27.940 they're like, oh, I don't really care too much.
00:15:30.560 That's because I don't think it's being taught enough in schools.
00:15:34.860 You know, I mean, they're worried about, I guess,
00:15:37.380 it's been a long time since I've been in school,
00:15:39.660 or university, but, you know, grade school and that type of thing.
00:15:43.960 But if you don't teach it to the kids and make it important,
00:15:47.080 then they're not going to bother.
00:15:48.880 So that's what we need to do is get back to teaching people
00:15:51.900 what it's like to be Canadian and what our history is
00:15:54.340 and the geography of this wonderful country.
00:15:57.040 And he is a veteran. He is a veteran, and so his heart is here in this country, too.
00:16:01.980 Yeah, absolutely.
00:16:02.380 Yeah, thank you for your service.
00:16:04.960 Yeah, so just even being abroad and, like, serving our country,
00:16:09.620 you feel like our national identity is more who we are and our history
00:16:16.580 rather than our diversity and other things, yeah?
00:16:21.820 Absolutely, absolutely.
00:16:23.380 Like both said to my grandparents, came here from other places.
00:16:26.420 but when they got here they were they became Canadian right and uh so my parents felt the
00:16:34.060 same thing right what happened in the old country wherever they were from can stay there and you
00:16:39.980 build a new life here as a Canadian all right guys if you like the video make sure to give it a
00:16:46.900 thumbs up and subscribe and comment it really helps the channel out all right thanks bye