DCHP-1 Online

Canadianism

• 1a n. support for or devotion to the concept of Canada as a separate and distinct nation.

  • 1875  In other words, the feeling of Canadianism is not yet sufficiently strong to override all conflicting local feelings and interests.
  • 1946  These deep realities will merge into a genuine Canadianism only as Canada itself becomes a political community, a nation with a life and a soul of its own.
  • 1963  Within our sight is the one hundredth year of Confederation, an occasion that will either be marred by a deepening disunity or marked by a resurgence of a strong and vital Canadianism.

• 1b n. the nature of Canadian identity or nationhood; the fact of Canada's existence as a distinct and separate nation.

  • 1911  (1912)  Some Canadian club will some day claim the honor of having been the first to advocate the higher Canadianism.
  • 1964  . . . Mr. Pearson . . . brought his emotions to bear on the question of national unity and the meaning of Canadianism as he saw it.

• 2 n. any linguistic feature, as of pronunciation, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, orthography, that is characteristic of Canadian English.

  • 1957  By all means let us have a list of Canadianisms and jargon, but do not let us honor it by the title of "Dictionary."
  • 1962  Canadians have made do with imported French-English dictionaries, even though they take no account of such Canadianisms as Socreds and separate schools, the mounties and the muskellunge, or maple taffy in the snow.

• 3 n. any instance of behavior that is regarded as Canadian.

  • 1963  "How good and kind they all had been, chuckling at my Canadianisms and my provincial awkwardness. . . ."