QUESTIONS FOR CANADA DAY
These questions can be posed at your next Canada Day gathering, or any other time you feel Canadian. Print them out, cut them up, and put them in a bag. Participants can pull one out and try to answer it, or ask the group.
Teachers: Use these questions for classroom journal-writing activities. The naughtier questions are listed separately.
Americans and others: Feel free to change the word Canadian to any other word, although the questions tend to have a Canadian sensibility.
1. What reminds you that you are Canadian?
2. When you are out of the country, what do you miss most about Canada?
3. What do you wish –– for Canada?
4. What movie, literary work, or art piece is most Canadian for you
5. What do you feel you have in common with other Canadians?
6. What three (or more) words would you use to describe Canada?
7. What is your earliest memory of Canada or awareness that you are Canadian?
8. What is the most Canadian moment of your life?
9. Canadians are not known for their nationalism. How grateful are you for that?
10. What is the most nationalistic you get?
11. What do you do that’s quietly nationalistic?
12. If you could be a hyphenated Canadian, what would you be?
13. What does Canada smell like to you?
14. Is there a story your parents or grandparents tell you that feels very Canadian?
15. Among your self-description words, you might include your job, your faith association, your family role, and so on. Where among that list would you put Canadian? (In other words, how important is “Canadian” to your sense of identity?)
16. What do you remember from elementary school that made you feel Canadian?
17. Tell us about a childhood Canadian holiday vacation.
18. Tell us about a specific Canadian landscape that moved you, shocked you, or shaped your life.
19. How are you connected to the land?
20. What embodies, for you, the spirit of Canada?
21. Bridges connect us with everywhere. Tell us about your experience on a bridge in Canada.
22. Water surrounds us. Tell us about an experience on a Canadian body of water.
23. Tell us an event in which your computer connected you to the Canadian zeitgeist.
24. If you could sprinkle Canada dust anywhere in the world, where would you sprinkle it? What would happen?
25. Tell us about an encounter with a vegetable that felt Canadian.
26. “We stand on guard for thee.” What do these words from the anthem mean for you? How do you stand on guard for Canada?
27. Who is the most fiercely Canadian person you know? Note: This person need not be Canadian.
28. You’ve been asked to augment the Canadian Studies curriculum. What book, film, art work, or field trip would you insist on including?
29. Is there a particular object you associate with Canada?
30. What unsung personal Canadian hero of yours would you give the Order of Canada to?
31. You’ve just won the Miss Canada contest. Give us your thank-you speech which might include how you will represent Canada.
32. Preston Manning started the Reform Party to focus on Western values. If you could start a new party in Canada, what would you call it and what would it stand for?
33. Sing a song that feels Canadian. We’ll sing along.
ADULT QUESTIONS FOR CANADA DAY
34. Canada is considered bilingual, bicultural, and bisexual. Which are you?
35. Trudeau said, “The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.” What are the top three things that DO have a place in the Canadian bedroom?
36. Canadians are defined as people who have sex in canoes. How would you define Canadians?
37. Canadians are defined as people who have sex in a canoe. Where’s the most unconventional Canadian location where you’ve had sex.
38. Describe a sexy Canadian man?
39. Describe a sexy Canadian woman?
40. You are going to get a Canadian tattoo. What is on the tattoo and where on your body would you put it
