As chaos reigns south of the border, we Canadians are asking: Who do we want to be? What is this moment asking of us?

What it means to be Canadian is nearly impossible to define. But to explore this question is nothing short of a creative act.

Despite our reflex to define ourselves as Not American, our cultural identity has long been shaped by the dominance of the American ethos - culturally, politically, economically. As fellow Substack writer and futurist Jesse Hirsh points out in The Americanization of Canadian Minds, “Canada is not being annexed through force or law. What we’re experiencing is far more subtle—and in many ways, far more effective. We are absorbing American political culture through our screens, our parties, our news cycles, and ultimately, our imagination.”

If Canada doesn’t actively invest in cultivating and sharing our own distinctive cultural expressions—both domestically and globally—our identity risks being left to the imagination of others.

What would it take to move beyond the old narrative of the mosaic and embrace a more complex, inclusive view of who we are and who we are becoming?