Why are Canadian holidays so controversial?

JJ is really nailing the late 80's gym teacher look. That hair is glorious.

Those who think Canada is blameless don't know much about our history. And those who think Canada is terrible don't know much about the rest of the world

as an Albertan who grew up in an agricultural community and has a lot of farmers in my family i was always lead to believe that Canadian Thanksgiving was to celebrate the harvest. it made sense as to why it was celebrated earlier because of how soon winter comes out here.

I love how in the Anglosphere national holidays such as Canada day or U.S indepencence day are such happy celebrations with fireworks and bbq, and here in Finland the independence day is a melancholic day of patriotic rememberance on a usually rainy december day spent watching a sad warmovie on tv for the millionth time and criticising celebrty outfits at the presidential reception.

I’ve learned more about Canadian culture and history here in the last 3 months than the first 30 years of my life combined.

I feel like the United States handles Remembrance Day better by declaring it as "Veterans' Day" making remembering current Veterans the main focus. We have a separate day for remembering war dead, however Memorial Day in the US is more of a day off from work than it is as a solemn day of reflection.

That excerpt about Thanksgiving from the New Yorker was fantastic.

As a canadian, I never assumed Remembrance Day to be how it's claimed here. I always genuinely saw it as a day of reflection, and even cried several times, not just for canadians who fought and died in war, but all who were effected. It's not "nostalgia" for war. I even HAD an ancestor who was a war hero, whom I was barely able to meet in my toddler days. I really hope other people can feel me on this.

Veterans' organizations like the American Legion also exist in the USA. They tend to restrict membership to veterans (especially World War vets, which also gives them a very "old people" vibe). In fact, many of the locations have interiors similar to the ones JJ referred to as outdated. Depending on the community, they can still be somewhat popular. In my town, they host fundraisers and fish fry dinners to help out the local area and preserve some historic sites.

"In America, Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas." Laughs in Halloween-to-Christmas commercialism

"He seemed to imply immigrants can't wear poppies. He is stepping down immediately." is the most Canadian controversy 😂

Its funny because newfoundland had a war memorial day on July 1st which got overwritten by Canada day, so the atmosphere of Canada day in Newfoundland is extremely somber and tragic as opposed to jubilant in the rest of Canada. Newfoundland also has a bunch of other holidays that are not celebrated in the rest of Canada.

The idea of "veteran culture" being "old people culture" is very foreign to me as an American, for obvious reasons. My uncle served in Vietnam, and I entered adulthood with many friends who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now I live in Israel, where military service is mandatory and military service in general has ironically come to be associated with youthful immaturity (but the memorial day for fallen soldiers is extremely serious and also inclusive of civilian deaths). I know Canada has not been absent from global conflict since the World Wars, so perhaps the issue is not so much one of remembrance itself being inherently backward-looking, but a failure to recognize it beyond what you describe as the standards of the British Empire.

As an American, the main problem I see with Canada's Rememberance Day as it only seems to be about the World Wars and not about the other wars Canada fought in. Rememberance Day should be rebranded to include ALL of the wars Canadians lost their lives in, not just those two, which are growing more and more distant and their veterans are either dead or in their 90s.

I love how you always try and shed light on many perspectives on a topic even if you don't agree with them

There is a reason that Remembrance Day focuses heavily on WW1 and WW2. Its simply about the scale of the wars and the effect they had, not only on soldiers, but un civilians, as well. During WW1 the population of Canada was around 8 million. 650,000 served, 172,000 were wounded, and 61,000 died. As a proportion of the population, it would have had a massive effect. It would be rare to find a Canadian that did not directly know someone who served, or was injured or killed. The story for WW2 would be very similar. Everyone knew someone involved. In Afghanistan, however, 40,000 people served and 158 died. With a population of 34 million at the time, most Canadians would not have known anyone involved. It hardly effected most people who watched it on the news, and for those who didn't pay attention to the news, it basically was like it wasn't even happening. In addition, the treat during the world wars was far greater than it was during more recent wars and conflicts. Even if the Germans had taken all of Europe, and stopped, the effect on us would be profound, since we were still heavily tied to the UK. Still, veterans from any war, or conflict Canada has been involved in, deserve our highest respect. Likewise for people who have served in our military, but who are not veterans of any wars. Without a military, you cannot have a nation, or, at least, you cannot have one for long. On the topic of poppies, any color but red is completely unacceptable. Why? Simply because tradition has value. Just because you can change something, that does not mean you should. This is not true for all traditions, but for many it is. Now, to be a bit more controversial. Canadians should also be thankful for the American military. They spend a ton of money on their military, and that has allowed us to spend far less. They have a vested interest in having a friendly neighbor on their longest border, and, as such, will immediately come to our aid in the event of any incursion into our territory. The rest of the world knows this, and, thus, does not threaten us.

“Simply doing an American thing in a way that is slightly different than what is done in America is usually enough to give something a sense of meaning in Canada.” Oof! 🤩

Question for Quebec-based JJ fans (all five of you): Is Remembrance Day at all a big deal in Quebec? With all the British symbolism it seems like it might be a bit of sore spot with French Canadians. If you still do stuff, do y'all focus less on WWI/WWII?

As an American I really love Thanksgiving in the US. I don’t know how much the narrative of pilgrims and Indians really matters to the holiday. For me and most people I know it really is about being thankful as family and as a society with what we have. I suppose my friendly neighborly advice to Canadians would be to embrace such a holiday as a holiday of gratitude. Gratitude is a healthy thing for a society to have. While I think it is important for both countries to work on addressing issues about racism and treatment of indigenous peoples, society also needs time to reflect on things to be thankful for positive things we’ve accomplished as well. Only focusing on the failings of society seems to me just as unhealthy as being jingoistic and ignoring injustices that need to be addressed.

I tend to miss out on any controversy on these holidays, since with my close-knit family, it's more "enjoy a stat day off and spend some time reflecting on family history." My mother's side of the family being post-WW2 Dutch immigrants, so our personal Remembrance Day is more focused on discussing/reflecting on my grandparents' struggles during WW2 and respecting the Canadians that helped liberate the Netherlands (having immigrated out of gratitude).