BjornP wrote: Your tribe is who you feel loyalty and kinship to, who you feel beholden to sacrifice for - besides yourself and your own family. If that's Canadian, your tribe's Canadian. Ethnic identities on this side of the Atlantic and on your side of the Atlantic are different for obvious historical-cultural reasons, but you're as human as everyone else, and so as much a social animal as anyone else. Tribe is community, loyalty, kinship, an alliance of families. If those are sentiments you direct at being Canadian, then it should be obvious what tribe you are. Canadian is more of a tribal federation, technically, but as long as you have a shared identity that isn't simply judicial, what you have is a tribe.
You are not Spanish unless the Spanish of Spain consider you Spanish, not German unless Germans of Germany consider you German. You are Canadian with a Spanish, German, and Swiss ancestry. A Canadian or American with Danish ancestors, may count as "ethnically Danish" to other Americans or Canadian, but only to them, and not to Danes, just like your "Irish" North Americans are not Irish and your Poles not Poles. Not unless they keep alive their culture, language, customs and traditions. If not, they are simply Canadian or American. When they no longer live the life of their old culture, they are no longer part of the old culture. They're just the descendents of former members of tribesmembers. Who they are instead...? Not my business to figure out.
So Canadian it is...
But Canada is anything but a tribe from a kinship point of view.
Canada is among the most multiethnic collection of people under the banner of a state that there is.
Canada has been officially defined as multicultural since the 60s under Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
And yet this is what I identify most with...
This is a supertribe that includes Italian Canadians, Asian Canadians, Muslim Canadians, Indiginous Canadians...
And I am comfortable interacting with all of these groups. I have them in my workplace and in my friendgroup.
But as I have mentioned in other threads... my friends all relate as Canadians...
None of the groups I interact with speak patois or with a strong accent of any kind... except for the odd Aussi or Brit...
I have noticed some of these friends "code-switch" when interacting with their families and I always find that interesting...
My family spoke "Canadian" except when we were interacting with family from abroad.
