Canada Posteriori

When I started this blog I set out to find the Canadian samosa and to analyze a few hypotheses I had about Canada. In this blog, the last post about my life in Canada, I will examine both.

What is Canada's samosa?
I originally hypothesized that every unique culture has their own samosa; dough on the outside and sweet or savory stuffing on the inside. India has the potato and pea samosa. America has McDonald's handheld apple pie. Spain has the empanada. Italy has ravioli. When I moved to Canada, I began my quest for the Canadian samosa and found two contenders. At the Granville Island Public Market I found a bread roll stuffed with salmon that almost seemed like a samosa. Salmon is on almost every menu at Vancouver restaurants, so the salmon roll is more of a local/Provincial samosa than a federal-Canadian samosa. Plus, the salmon roll doesn't have an iconic place in Canadian cuisine, so I don't feel right dubbing it Canada's samosa. My husband joined in on my samosa search and identified Tim Horton's Canadian Maple Filled Donut as the iconic Canadian samosa. There are several features of this product that qualify it as Canada's samosa. First of all, Tim Horton was a Canadian hockey player who founded Canada's largest restaurant chain. Second, the maple taste is classic Canadian. In one fried, doughy pocket Canada has stuffed hockey, maple syrup, and established national identity from coast to coast, imprinting into the subconscious mind of Canadians everywhere. What I love most about the Canadian samosa is that it is a breakfast food. I would love to start my day by eating an Indian samosa, but the thought is a bit revolting. But a Canadian samosa is a maple glazed donut, the perfect way to start the day.

My Hypotheses about Canada
Before my move to Vancouver, I made some broad stereotypes about Canada which I wanted to explore and determine if they were true. Here is my original blog post, with some conclusions based on three years of living in Vancouver:

1.Canada is cold
TRUE.
Even the summers in Vancouver are cool and damp. For example, I started writing this post on July 6th while a misty, 55F (13C) rain blanketed my neighborhood.

2.Canada is huge
TRUE, but also kinda FALSE.
Canada is geographically huge, but since there are only 30 million people in the country, they tend to cluster in several major metropolitan areas. Many of these metro regions are close to the US border. If you remapped Canada by population clusters, it would be small.

3.Canadians are nice
FALSE.
If you are Canadian and you are reading this, sorry to burst your bubble. Canadian customer service is pretty lame, drivers are as rude as in any other country, people at work are cranky, riders on the bus pick their nose and touch the hand rails, etc. etc. I could go on, but it would just be a long boring rant. Canadians are as nice as any other people, and as rude as other people.

4.Canadian socialized health care is better that what we have in the US
TRUE
My first job in Canada was as a research assistant for a community birth program where I learned a little bit about the provincial health care plan. I was energized and encouraged to learn that every expectant mother was covered by the provincial health insurance plan and they all had access to nurses and doctors who supported their health and the baby's development. Even more profound was the fact that every baby was covered by the provincial health insurance from the moment they were born. All the parents have to do to enroll their newborn in the provincial health plan is to file some documents. Easy and cheap (in my case, I paid $93/month for the provincial health insurance plan). The Canadian system is certainly a superior option when compared to being born with no health insurance, as many babies are in the US.

5.Hockey is the national obsession (analogous to celebrity gossip in the US)
TRUE. Canadians, watch, play, read, write, live, and love hockey.

6.Drinking beer is the national pastime (analogous to shopping in the US)
TRUE but FALSE.
Drinking beer while watching hockey is the national pastime.

7.Everything is metric (Celsius, Liters, Meters, etc.)
TRUE but sometimes FALSE.
I LOVED this part of Canada the most because I stink at math, and the metric system is easier for those who are computationally challenged. (Which is easier to calculate, the price per ounce of a $4.99 pound bag of cookies, or the price per gram for a 500g bag of cookies?) Unfortunately, some Canadians use metric units, while other Canadians use the Imperial system, and swapping back and forth between the two units is confusing.

8.The Maple syrup is tasty
TRUE. See my description of Canada's samosa above.

9.The taxes are outrageous
TRUE. We pay federal and provincial income tax, federal and provincial sales tax, sin taxes on alcohol/cigarettes, etc. Believe it or not, Canadians even pay taxes on postage stamps. How many times can the government tax the same dollar?

10.Canadian federal law is more permissive to the rights of Canadians to have guns, smoke dope etc.
TRUE. Vancouver has a nasty drug problem (not just dope, but heroine, meth and cocaine too) which is paired with a disturbing gang problem, and the police are not very active about law enforcement. Drug deals take place on the bus, the street corner, tourists areas, etc. and no one seems to mind. People seem pretty comfortable with looking the other way.

11.Canadians are still connected with the British Monarchy
TRUE. The Queen is on all the currency, the British Flag is miniaturized on the province of BC's flag, UK holidays are observed in Canada (boxing day, Victoria day) and Canadian places are named after British battles, leaders, and British townships.

12.Wayne Gretzky is the King of Canada
FALSE. There are several contenders for King of Canada beside Wayne Gretzky. CBC asked Canadians to choose the greatest Canadian and the top ten list included scientist Frederik Banting, environmentalist David Suzuki, inventor Alexander Graham Bell, inspirational runner Terry Fox and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

This is my last post about life in Canada. I recently returned to the US, where I am spending $500 for one month of gap-coverage health insurance until my new health plan kicks in. My time in Canada was beautiful but lonely, and I am glad to be living in the South where people are warm and friendly. Sure, there is a strong gun culture in the South, but I learned in Vancouver that Canada has serious gun violence too. No matter where you live these days, it seems to be part of life. As far as this blog is concerned, I maintain authorship on the Samosa Culture Hypothesis : ) and will continue to be on the lookout for samosas of the world. From here on out I imagine I will be writing mostly about random themes in life that we all experience. Stay tuned. In the meantime, eat a samosa.