Sourtoe Cocktail or the Grey Goose of Canadian Culture

We Canadians have a complex about our culture. And I firmly believe that because we just try too hard to be ourselves, our true culture becomes buried behind a lot of smoke screens unintentionally. Most cultures try too hard to create culture. It stems from the observation that people in essence try too hard to be themselves and end up just being irritating because who would appreciate the boring version? I have recently awakened to this realization: I over compensate when I feel like life doesn’t appear exciting enough. Similarly, like the rest of the culture I share with others, I think heaven forbid my true colours may shine through, like the Hudsons Bay Company colour scheme just may be shown to the world when the Olympics show up at our door. Oh wait, that’s already happened.

Heaven forbid Lululemon create clothing to mock the bureaucratic process by omitting any word that they could possibly be sued over just because they can make a mockery of it all. Who on earth would want to wear clothing with the phrase"Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 and 2011"? Now that is a sweater I would buy if I could find enough nickels between my couch cushions. Now that would be Canadian. Now that would be our true colours: our cheeky side, in essence. Oh wait a second, that actually happened too.

I find our culture amusing. We try too hard to be ourselves but in essence are defining what that looks like the more we try. Take for examples the astronomical amount of unnecessary large items in small towns all across Canada. Just so that the world knows that they exist, they’ll create the largest Ukranian Easter egg. I would know. I’ve done the Canadian family car ride across the prairies.

We assume people don’t want to enjoy the excitement of something flat and simplistic? That wouldn’t be complicated enough. So they have to ruin a perfectly good sunset with a fiberglass monument – an idol to everything ugly and unnecessary. We often overlook the true culture by misinterpreting the purpose of something that is innately part of us. It is common place to us so therefore no visitor to our culture would be able to appreciate it.

Similarly another example of us making it up as we go along and trying to prove extra hard of our cultural flavours is the Inukshuk. The unveiling of the 2010 icon created a sense of unity and awe as everyone tried to identify with an installed cultural symbol. Since the unveiling the tradition was born. people building Inukshuk balancing rocks all along the Stanley park seawall while the tides are out has become a natural occurring practice.

That act right there is almost the very root of Canadian culture. Let me explain. Douglas Coupland produced a documentary on Canada and to define Canadian culture, he bought a bland cookie cutter house in the suburbs in North Vancouver - where he grew up. He then filled the house with lots of odds and ends. Things that we have culturally clung to over the decades. Ironically enough some of his cultural references have already come and gone. He hosted a party to celebrate the unveiling of the house, and then, as an interactive artwork piece, he had the Canadian iconic home bulldozed. Granted I think this could also be a reflection of aging and an overall sense of irrelevancy once your ability to keep pace with cultural changes passes.
Just like the demolition of that house, those rock formations will crumble with the tides of time. It’s rather poetic on so many levels.

I recently discovered a gross but interesting nugget recently. And it brings me to the stories about our true heritage must be too strange to share or reveal which is why they become buried.

For example, up in Dawon's Creek, during the gold rush era a Saloon was trying to attract business and entice people with a specialty cocktail. They came up with the Sour Toe Cocktail. This concoction includes a floating toe that has been preserved. The first toe was donated by a miner that had it severed from his body for unknown reasons.

Over the years, they have created a club for people who partake in this tradition and one way to know you're a true "Northerner." Over the years when people have been inaugerated into the club, the toe accidentally is swallowed and a new toe is provided. Hence, the starting of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club. Authentically, and rancid Canadian heritage at its finest. http://www.sourtoecocktailclub.com/

Check it out. Now that is what you call a heritage. Why it's not broadcasted widely? Good question. I don't have the jammiest clue.

So I raise my glass to all things Canadian. However marginal, flat, simplistic, average or gross that they may be. There is nothing wrong with walking the middle of the road, It means that chances are you’ll survive that hair pin turn once the drastic cultural shift occurs. Change is inevitable and Canadians are prepared to weather it. After all, isn’t that why we are skilled at building igloos and keeping endangered species like Polar Bears for pets? Or we could settle on the grey goose of Canadian culture; it's just too strange/gross to be told.