Saturday, February 14, 2009

What's in a name?

















According to Blogging Tory and sometime writer for the National Post Raphael Alexander, it's the difference between being a "Canadian" and a real Canadian.

Some years ago Peter Gzowski (hmm, that last name...I don't know...) famously asked CBC listeners to complete the following sentence in 25 words or less: "As Canadian as..." The winning entry was, "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances." I still get a chuckle out of that, but it's an artful dodge. What makes us Canadian? How do we distinguish Canadians from, well, other people?

Could names be the touchstone? I invite readers to submit names that are "real" Canadian names, as opposed to merely "Canadian" names, and explain what makes those names Canadian. I'm looking forward to this.

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