Comments on: The Christmas Sermon 2012 – “On Not Believing In Canada”

By: engels

engels — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 20:14:10 +0000

‘You can’t play hockey on ice! It’s like “Swamp Cricket” or “Pogo Darts” or something.’

Beach tennis? Indoor sailing?

By: SusanC

SusanC — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 22:02:25 +0000

@103. This joke works for any country (as they’re all socially constructed/part imaginary), but works particularly well for Canada (and probably Wales too). Christianity has a “Death of God” problem not when atheists/other religions (Buddhists, etc) don’t believe it, but when even the people who call themselves Christians are starting to have difficulty taking it seriously/overreact to suggestions that it might not be true. Similarly, “Canada” has a potential problem if even the Canadians have their doubts. Strong cultural influence of a more powerful neighbour (US), mixed linguistic and cultural groups (First Nations, French-speaking European ancestry, English-speaking European ancestry) possibly saps ones confidence that there is a “Canadian” cultural identity.

I put “Welsh” as my ethnicity on census forms. But then, some people gave “Jedi Knight” as their religion in the census, so this is no reliable guide to it actually existing…

P.S. I’ve mentioned this before on another CT thread, but as a child I didn’t believe in Sweden. I first encountered “Sweden” in somewhat fantastical children’s books translated from the Swedish, and had no reason to distinguish it from other fantasy fiction with made-up places I was reading at the same time (Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea, etc.) The place-names in some implausible language are the give-away. (Still have difficulty believing in in, despite having actually been there several times).

By: Harold

Harold — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 19:38:35 +0000

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2012/01/20/wales-finally-meets-the-standard-to-be-known-as-a-country-91466-30160843/

By: tomslee

tomslee — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:27:17 +0000

Not so: at least wales online says.

By: Tim Worstall

Tim Worstall — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:27:24 +0000

“Someone from a fictitious country called “Wales””

Wales doesn’t even pretend to be a country. It’s a principality.

By: trevelyan

trevelyan — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 04:10:01 +0000

Robertson Davies used to tell a story about a preacher from Manitoba who was getting on in years, and who told his congregation that soon he would be going to that place from which no man has ever returned. And how his congregation nodded solemnly, firm in the understanding that he was moving south of the border.

By: engels

engels — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 02:45:40 +0000

Human life is pointless without maple syrup. Maple syrup makes no sense without a belief in Canada. Therefore Canada exists.

By: Sophia Walker

Sophia Walker — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 01:37:38 +0000

Someone from a fictitious country called “Wales” says Canada doesn’t exist? Now that is funny.

By: Mike Schilling

Mike Schilling — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 18:54:25 +0000

I don’t believe in Guess Who
I don’t believe in Rush
I don’t believe in Neil Young
I don’t believe in Bachman
I just believe in me
Springsteen and me
That’s reality.

By: Georgina

Georgina — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 22:26:50 +0000

Like Utopia – derived from the Greek meaning “no such place” – the name “Canada” derives from the German “Keine Da” (pronounced KenaDar in the local dialect), meaning, of course, “Nobody Lives There”.

By: JP Stormcrow

JP Stormcrow — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 21:30:13 +0000

You can’t play hockey on ice!

Exactly. If you could there’d certainly be a professional league.

By: Leon Despair

Leon Despair — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 19:18:24 +0000

If there is no Canada, then why did Mike Huckabee endorse the effort to save the Canadian national igloo?

By: gray

gray — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 18:34:23 +0000

If you are only real if you invade your neighbour then look at this;

http://www.standingonguard.com/cart2.html

By: Yastreblyansky

Yastreblyansky — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 17:14:09 +0000

Alain at 99:

Of course, it’s that simple. It doesn’t even take much clapping, at least compared to fairies.

Or:
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds….

Not believe in Canada! You might as well not believe in the Higgs particle! Did you ever see Higgs particles dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s not proof that they aren’t there…

By: Antonin

Antonin — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:25:08 +0000

I see what you did there, but Canada is among the worst examples for this sort of send-up. Canada refers both to a territory (changing throughout its short history) and a federative political entity, the latter of which is the most abstract and illegitimate Western “country” at this historical stage. Yes, I am Québécois.