Canada is known as being a country full
of quiet polite and humble people but
how accurate is that assessment hi I’m
Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
with Canadian politician and NHL Hall of
Fame goalie Ken Dryden about Canadian
stereotypes and his book becoming Canada
so the book is called becoming Canada
why don’t you tell us about the premise
countries change over time circumstances
change the world changes and the
question for any country is is what is
it that we really are now today and not
all of the stories and mythology of our
past but really today and what
imaginably then for the future
what has driven me crazy most of my life
I used to think it was just funny and
then I started then I started to feel
annoying was the phrase you know
typically Canadian a as a way of
explaining everything that didn’t quite
work it really is crippling I mean it
really sets a ceiling of expectation and
ambition far less than what it is we are
sports fans call it a tradition what’s
the tradition of the team as a way of
explaining you know of why you win or
why you lose companies talk about
cultures you know we got the right
culture we got the wrong culture it’s
the same with a country you get the
right story of yourself or the wrong
story of yourself you’re more likely to
live out whatever that story is so you’d
better get the right one and how did
this book originate for you what started
as a speech that I was developing to
give at universities is really a chance
to talk to students this is their
country that they are most of them are
going to be living in another 60 plus
years of their life this is your country
so what do you want it to be people
would come up afterwards and say this is
exciting what can I do
I had no answer how do we create this
kind of national conversation for me
this is the fifth book that I’ve done
but it’s really pretty much the first of
where I did the book with the idea that
when it was over it was only the
beginning
what is the Canada that we would like to
build what does
it looked like what would this Canada do
about climate change what with this
Canada to do about an approach to
poverty what would this Canada do about
buying the f-35s are not buying the f-35
I think it’s time for us to have that
conversation what is a stereotypical
Canadian and what in reality is Canadian
to you
well the stereotypical Canadian I think
is polite nice respectful inoffensive
didn’t emerge out of revolution or it
has had no civil wars just kind of
decent I think we are most of those
things a hundred years or so ago when
when it was not a global world and where
you would have certain countries that
would be immensely powerful all of those
qualities that I described about us
they’re kind of useless and weak in a
global world in a real global world
there’s no country that is really
overwhelmingly powerful anymore I mean
you can just see in terms of the United
States I mean a country of the immense
military power of the United States is
struggling with two relatively minor
Wars the only way that a global world
works is you know without any
overpowering country and if where
countries find a way of dealing with
each other and of living with each other
we can’t separate ourselves anymore
you can’t put up borders and the rest of
it we cross borders all the time we’re
living in each other’s backyards all the
time the only way is to get along well
what are those qualities that are
essential to getting along being
respectful being polite being nice being
willing to listen being willing to
compromise to negotiate to discuss all
of those qualities that have been us for
so long now suddenly we’re where the
world is going we’re what the world
needs that’s the way a global world you
know has to function
of quiet polite and humble people but
how accurate is that assessment hi I’m
Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
with Canadian politician and NHL Hall of
Fame goalie Ken Dryden about Canadian
stereotypes and his book becoming Canada
so the book is called becoming Canada
why don’t you tell us about the premise
countries change over time circumstances
change the world changes and the
question for any country is is what is
it that we really are now today and not
all of the stories and mythology of our
past but really today and what
imaginably then for the future
what has driven me crazy most of my life
I used to think it was just funny and
then I started then I started to feel
annoying was the phrase you know
typically Canadian a as a way of
explaining everything that didn’t quite
work it really is crippling I mean it
really sets a ceiling of expectation and
ambition far less than what it is we are
sports fans call it a tradition what’s
the tradition of the team as a way of
explaining you know of why you win or
why you lose companies talk about
cultures you know we got the right
culture we got the wrong culture it’s
the same with a country you get the
right story of yourself or the wrong
story of yourself you’re more likely to
live out whatever that story is so you’d
better get the right one and how did
this book originate for you what started
as a speech that I was developing to
give at universities is really a chance
to talk to students this is their
country that they are most of them are
going to be living in another 60 plus
years of their life this is your country
so what do you want it to be people
would come up afterwards and say this is
exciting what can I do
I had no answer how do we create this
kind of national conversation for me
this is the fifth book that I’ve done
but it’s really pretty much the first of
where I did the book with the idea that
when it was over it was only the
beginning
what is the Canada that we would like to
build what does
it looked like what would this Canada do
about climate change what with this
Canada to do about an approach to
poverty what would this Canada do about
buying the f-35s are not buying the f-35
I think it’s time for us to have that
conversation what is a stereotypical
Canadian and what in reality is Canadian
to you
well the stereotypical Canadian I think
is polite nice respectful inoffensive
didn’t emerge out of revolution or it
has had no civil wars just kind of
decent I think we are most of those
things a hundred years or so ago when
when it was not a global world and where
you would have certain countries that
would be immensely powerful all of those
qualities that I described about us
they’re kind of useless and weak in a
global world in a real global world
there’s no country that is really
overwhelmingly powerful anymore I mean
you can just see in terms of the United
States I mean a country of the immense
military power of the United States is
struggling with two relatively minor
Wars the only way that a global world
works is you know without any
overpowering country and if where
countries find a way of dealing with
each other and of living with each other
we can’t separate ourselves anymore
you can’t put up borders and the rest of
it we cross borders all the time we’re
living in each other’s backyards all the
time the only way is to get along well
what are those qualities that are
essential to getting along being
respectful being polite being nice being
willing to listen being willing to
compromise to negotiate to discuss all
of those qualities that have been us for
so long now suddenly we’re where the
world is going we’re what the world
needs that’s the way a global world you
know has to function
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