Growing up in Calgary, I often felt the city did not have a unified image or culture. For whatever reason, this lack of cohesion across the social spectrum bothered me as I felt a city (and by extension country) should represent a collective ideology. These insecurities arguably stemmed from the influx of American media that all Canadians are susceptible to. This type of media, moreover, is entrenched with “Americanisms” that force the individual to view the United States as a synthetic paradigm to the world. Although this strategic unification of American methodology often goes insane (Iraq anyone?), one can’t help but marvel at the pride inherent to the constitution of the United States.
In a similar vein, I began to think about our conversation, which centered on stereotyping urban spaces. Admittedly, my insights on the good ‘ol U. S of A are stereotypical; that said, they hold some merit when coupled with Canada’s struggle for identity. Many American cities undoubtedly have stereotypical associations—Dallas (cowboys), Houston (oil), Nashville (hillbillies), Seattle (grunge), San Francisco (homosexuals)—nevertheless, these metropolises still characterize, in their own unique way, a unified American identity.
What, then, should Edmonton come to represent? What truly constitutes Canadian identity? If we as a country can’t accurately define the whole, how are we to define the sum of its parts? In my opinion, this is why many of our classmates personified Edmonton as a Minotaur, Mermaid, or Satyr. Not in the sense that Edmonton is monstrous or deformed, but that this city cannot define itself because there may be a tension between two entities. Of course, what these two halves should represent (city and country perhaps?) is open to debate and arguably not the issue. The issue, to me at least, is that Edmonton has become a microcosm to the insecurities that characterize Canada as a whole. Who are we as a country? What defines us and should it be defined? Or, should we break free from the throngs of American society and stop trying to define that indefinable quality of Canadian space? Should we stop trying to force an idealized sense of unity across a county as disparate and unique as Canada?