Canada quotes

If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada isparanoid schizophrenia.

- Margaret Eleanor Atwood
  The Journals of Susanna Moodie: Poems by Margaret Atwood, afterword.

Possibly the symbol for America is the Frontier† The corresponding symbol for England is the Island† The central symbol for Canada†is undoubtedly Survival, la Survivance.

- Margaret Eleanor Atwood
  Survival: a Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, ch.1, 'Survival'.

Canada was open for business. And closed for everything else.

- Margaret Eleanor Atwood
  Essay on censorship in The Globe and Mail,'The Porn Patrol',18 Feb. Collected in Douglas Fetherling (ed) Best Canadian Essays (1989).

Canada is so far away it hardly exists.

-Jorge Luis Borges
  Response to the question,'What do you think of when you think of Canada?', when interviewed in Buenos  Aires by Canadian poet and broadcaster Robert Zend, 4 Oct.

Canada could have enjoyed: English government, French culture, And American know-how. Instead it ended up with: English know-how, French government, And American culture.

-John Robert Colombo
  'O Canada', collected in  Al Purdy (ed)  The New Romans (1968).

Canada isnot reallya placewhereyouare encouragedto have large spiritual adventures.

- Robertson Davies
  Interviewed by Peter C Newman,'The Master's Voice', in Maclean's, Sep.

Vive le Que  bec! Vive le Que  bec libre! Vive le Canada fran c° ais! Vive la France!

- Charles de Gaulle
  Address to the crowd before Montreal's City Hall, 24  Jul. The slogan'Que  bec libre' was identified with the separatist cause.

All we want is an independent Quebec within a strong and united Canada.

-Yvon Deschamps
Quoted by Peter C Newman in Maclean's,13 Nov1978. This has become the classic formulation of Quebec's national and political aspirations.

My generation of Canadians grew up believing that, if we were very good or very smart, or both, we would someday graduate from Canada.

- Robert Fulford
  'Notebook', in Saturday Night, Oct.

Hail our Great Queen in her regalia; One foot in Canada, the other in Australia.

-James Gay
Attributed to Gay by William  Arthur Deacon in TheFour Jameses (1927).

Canada only needs to be known in order to be great.

-J Castell Hopkins
The Story of the Dominion, preface.

Canadian nationalism was systematically encouraged and exploited by American capital.Canada moved from colony to nation to colony.

- Harold Adams Innis
  'Great Britain, the United States and Canada', collected in Mary Quayle Innis (ed) Essays in Canadian Economic History (1956).

The Dutch may havetheir Holland, the Spaniard have his Spain, TheYankee to the south of us must south of us remain; For not a man dare lift a hand against the men who brag That they were born in Canada beneath the British flag.

- Pauline Johnson
  'Canadian Born', collected in Flint and Feather (1912).

Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity.

- (Herbert) Marshall McLuhan
  'Canada:  A Borderline Case', CBC radio broadcast, 29 May.

   If these sketches should prove the means of deterring onefamily fromsinking their property, andshipwrecking all their hopes, by going to reside in the backwoods of Canada, I shall consider myself amply repaid for revealing the secrets of the prison-house, and feel that I have not toiled and suffered in the wilderness in vain.

- Susanna ne  e Strickland Moodie
  Roughing It in the Bush; or,  A Life in Canada, vol.2, ch.14, 'Adieu to the Woods'.

Will they ever forgive me for writing Roughing It? They know that it was thetruth, but have I not been a mark for every vulgar editor of a village journal, throughout the length and breadth of the land to hurl a stone at, and point out as the enemy to Canada.

- Susanna ne  e Strickland Moodie
  Letter to her publisher, Richard Bentley,19  Aug.

The genius of Canada remains essentiallya deflationary genius.

-Jan formerly James Morris Morris
  'On the Confederation Special,' in Travels.

I didn't know at first that there were two languages in Canada.Ijustthoughtthatthere was oneway tospeak to my father and another to talk to my mother.

- Louis Saint Laurent
Attributed. Quoted in Dale C Thomson Louis St. Laurent (1967).

   I fear that I have not got much to sayabout Canada, not having seen much; what I got by going to Canada was a cold.

- Henry David Thoreau
  AYankee in Canada.

You know that thesetwo nationshave been at war overa fewacres of snow near Canada, and that they are spending on this fine struggle more than Canada itself is worth.

-Voltaire pseudonym of  Fran c° ois Marie Arouet
  Of the French and English struggle in Quebec. Candide, ch.23.

   No matter how we definetheterm,Canada has an acute shortage of rich people. 916

- Michael Wilson
  Giving one reason why taxing the wealthy would not ensure the continuation of Canada's social programs, at the Canadian Economics Association, Montreal, 30 May.