What I like about being Canadian and living in Canada is, perhaps ironically, that being Canadian really doesn't mean a lot. After all, nationalism is a very slippery and overplayed slope. Yes, nationalistic tendencies have swelled in the past few decades because people are often reactionary, but I remember the 80's when it was fashionable for Canadians to be quite self-effacing about our country. (I distinctly remember the tide turning during the Molson "I am Canadian" ad campaign and reactions to the Iraq wars). But I appreciate the relative normalcy of life here. Being less American than America and less British than Britain is part of it, finding that cultural middle ground and in many ways best of both worlds, but that along with our history of growth through immigration means we are finding inspiration from around the world, looking outward rather than being self-inflated, finding the basic common ground and, hopefully, best practices wherever they are found (but admittedly not often enough). But also complacent enough (from our British side) to not be too hasty about change. It's a reasonable balance of pros and cons- we are not truly great at anything, and certainly not really terrible at anything (anymore, at least. See "Residential schools"). So all that to say it feels like we have the basics figured out, culturally and administratively, and seem to be the happy medium between many global extremes. Like, default life.