From the classic symbols like the beaver and a Tim Horton’s cup, to more niche Canadian references like bagged milk and the North American house hippo, Calgary-based artist Lynne Rennie is piecing together a “cultural mosaic” of Canadian-ness — one drawing at a time.
“I am very interested in how symbols create a shared sense of identity, not just for products or hockey teams, but also for countries as well,” she said.
Her artwork series called Drawn to Canada explores what a national Canadian brand looks like, with drawings completed within an hour and shared to social media every day for 100 days.
And the timing of her project is no coincidence.
“With the current geopolitical climate, I was frankly thrilled that I could see our entire country lean into Canadianisms, being proud of being Canadian because we were threatened,” Rennie said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 51st state comments.
Anne MacLennan, an associate professor at York University in the department of communication and media studies, describes this uptick in Canadian pride as “defensive nationalism” — a desire to assert that Canadians really are “Canadian,” and definitely not American.
“When we get a serious pushback like this, this is when there’s a rise in Canadian identity. This is when [Canadians] push back when they’re told they’re the same as Americans. That’s when people say, ‘No, no, no, Canadians are like this,'” MacLennan said.
Rennie also credits Canadian actor Mike Myers’s “elbows up” gesture on Saturday Night Live back in March as a “catalyst” for this wave of pro-Canadian nostalgia and sentiment, proving just how powerful a symbol can be.
“All of a sudden, people knew exactly what he was talking about,” she said of Myers’s hockey reference. “When you’re backed into the corner, you come out swinging. You don’t start the fight, but you defend yourself when you’re threatened.”
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Another symbol in Rennie’s collection of Canadiana: Degrassi, the much-beloved television franchise which followed children and, later, teens navigating their lives in Toronto.
Linda Schuyler, the original show’s co-creator and executive producer said she was delighted to see Degrassi make the list, as people have often told her, “Degrassi is like Tim Horton’s. It’s one of those just quintessentially Canadian things.”
Schuyler said Canadian values like embracing diversity were “hard-baked” into the Degrassi franchise, and it’s one of the things she’s most proud of.
“There’s such an unease about what is going on in the United States right now. And the manner in which this whole diversity and inclusion and equity is being dealt with. It is the antithesis of what we as Canadians believe.
“Our big mantra on the show was to help reassure young people that they are not alone. It didn’t matter what your cultural background is, what your skin colour is … it was an inclusive world that we were building,” she said.
The unapologetically Canadian franchise gained fans internationally, with Schuyler receiving fan mail from all over the world. In a storyline from Degrassi Junior High, when the character Spike became pregnant, Schuyler recalls people sending the show stuffed toys and baby blankets — a moment that helped her see how the show really resonated with people.
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For George Stroumboulopoulos, MuchMusic’s inclusion in Rennie’s project is a no-brainer.
The broadcaster and former VJ on the music channel said, “MuchMusic is a crucial part of Canadian storytelling and Canadian identity, and has been for decades.”
First airing in 1984, the channel was called “Canada’s answer to MTV.” Featuring charming VJ hosts with an obvious passion for music, Much reached the entire country from its studio space at 299 Queen St. W. in Toronto.
“It was about making the best stuff for music fans and it was keeping kids company across the country who weren’t connected otherwise,” he said.
“I was up in Nunavut, and I would meet kids who had never left Baffin Island and they had a connection to the rest of the country in a way that felt genuine.”
MuchMusic was also a launching pad for many artists. Musicians like Alanis Morissette and Barenaked Ladies came through its halls before becoming household names.
Stroumboulopoulos described it as “lightning in a bottle.” With no Teleprompters or studios, the team shot their shows from their workspace and prioritized their relationship with the audience.
“It was just a weird kind of punk rock experience and you can’t help but be authentic when you’re doing that,” he said.
“I would come in in the morning, start working on that show for the day. Suddenly I’d hear a drum set being tuned up and it would be the guys in the Foo Fighters would be in there getting rehearsing.… You have to walk by them to get to the bathroom, like it was just madness all the time.
“There had never been anything like that and there hasn’t been anything since like that,” he said.
“A lot of the things that are touchstones for Canada, people come up with fairly consistent ideas about what makes Canada ‘Canadian.’ And, one of the things is our media,” said MacLennan.
Mr. Dressup, Casey, and Finnegan, Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip, and Cirque de Soleil are some of the other media references included in Rennie’s project.
While MacLennan said there are some symbols that speak to the country’s national identity, she made it clear that it can’t necessarily be all-encompassing, as Canada is vastly diverse, containing numerous visions of Canadian identities.
“There’s always different points in Canada: regional politics, regional identities, different concerns across … It’s a large country. There’s all kinds of things that have to be integrated. So there’s a push and pull in Canadian identity,” she said.
For Rennie, the Canadian symbols she’s drawn are a way to express Canadian-ness in relation to American-ness. Primarily, she said she wanted to differentiate the country’s identity from the “melting pot” of the U.S.
“We are a cultural mosaic. We are allowed to express where we’re from,” she said.
While Rennie originally planned to do just 100 days of drawings, she said Drawn to Canada has been so satisfying, for both her creative side and her identity as a “fierce Canadian,” that she’ll keep the series going beyond those hundred days.
