Canada Day '02
Canada Day '03

We continue our journey looking for clues that could tell us what does it mean today to be Canadian. So far we made the following conclusions, that the Canadians are a peace-loving congregation of people with no clear feeling of nationhood, living in democracy and prosperity only because nobody from outside has tried to steal these precious gifts while Canadians are sleeping. We also indicated that people in Canada fear risk. All their market strategies and technologies have been tested before across the border. When deciding on making some important decision their instincts tell them to do nothing. Our present article will try to find out why the Canadian fear risking and going beyond the clichés of their life.

From its very beginning as an independent nation Canada has cherished the political and social imitation, not innovation. This sounds rude, but let's consider the facts as they are. The Constitution of 1867 proclaimed that the political institutions should be similar to those of Britain. That's why in Ottawa we have British-style parliament elected by British-style electoral system with British-style Prime minister leading British-style responsible government. In the constitutional theory there is little place for concepts such as popular sovereignty and separation of powers. Ask Canadian students why their institutions are made in such a way and they will answer that this is because they should be similar to those of Britain. To change them will mean taking risks. Rules can be improved, but can also be worsened. Canadians fear the later and as a result do not try. This is one of the reasons Canadian conservatism lies in history.

To risk means bypassing written or unwritten rules and being responsible not only for your own acts but also for the acts of people you don't know. The rational choice theory says that we should maximize our benefits and minimize our costs. If risking means no additional benefits but only eventual additional headaches then we'll stick to our standard operational procedures (SOP). They make us feel innocent even if we understand that risking may be more profitable. When you follow SOP and fail, you blame the SOP. When you risk on your own and fail, everybody blames you. This psychological problem isn't only Canadian. We can find it existing in every developed country, but Canada is a very notorious case.

Canadian society has well-defined system of grading success of each and every individual and showing initiative isn't something that gives you additional points in the total score. Initiative is tolerated but only in a sense that it doesn't contradict SOP rules. When you get high enough to be able to impose original ideas you're already too integrated into the system and feel better not to shake the boat too much. Once part of SOP, life becomes happier because people are stripped of personal responsibilities. To make everything standard and repeatable, to make people think less and act automatically, that's the first rule of Canadian society. To make people outside the system to become part of it is the second rule. Making people slaves to impersonal rules increases productivity. This is the economic reason why Canada tries to be a risk-free society. But if the humankind has reached something beyond the life in the cave, it was made through risks and sacrifices.

When exactly does a modern human stop being individual and begin life as an SOP particle? Is this the moment when our instincts tell us to call 911 instead of helping people who fall on the street? So we renounce our human nature and substitute it with SOP. We think this is better for us and for society we live in. But how can we be sure that this isn't the first step in turning ourselves into thinking machines?

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Canada.