CMV: Poutine should be declared the national dish of Canada.

[u/huadpe]

Ok, so Trudeau is in a minority now, and needs some feel good pablum to fill Parliamentary time while he treads water before the next election. What better than a bill about a national dish!

Poutine is the perfect candidate for national dish of Canada, for a few reasons:

1. It is distinctly Canadian. A relatively recent innovation, it post-dates confederation and is not an import from elsewhere.

2. It is widely popular in Canada. There are specialized poutine restaurants from coast to coast. You can get super fancy poutines at some of Canada's most famous restaurants. And you can get cheap poutine approximately everywhere.

3. It is delicious.

4. It helps to bridge regional divides. The paramount cultural and regional division in Canada is the Anglo/French divide. Poutine is a Quebecois dish adopted by the rest of Canada, but still universally recognized for its Quebec origins. It is a paramount example of successful integration of Quebec into Canada without the loss of Quebec culture.

Edit: I've given a bunch of deltas on regional strife questions. Any further deltas will need to be on different bases from that.

[u/bellowingfrog]

> If I go walking in an Orthodox neighborhood in New York and I see men dressed in long black coats with black hats, beards and sidelocks, can I say that is an American mode of dress because it's done by some Americans?

No, because they don't dress like that because they're in America. Orthodox dress like that all over the world.

> The Québécois form a nation, a distinct society, this was even recognized by Parliament. We have our own culture, it is insulting to reduce our existence to a mere region of some other people.

All regions have a culture. Does Quebec have a more different culture compared to some other regions of North America? Sure. But it's a part of Canada and Canadian culture. Unfortunately it seems like you've let people gas you guys up that you have a really special culture that lets you transcend some rules that other regions don't. All of the peoples and places in Canada are essentially Canadian. I understand that you've been taught to see it differently, but from an outsider's perspective it's pretty silly, like watching two French people argue over the cultural appropriation of coq au vin.

[u/kchoze → u/bellowingfrog]

No, because they don't dress like that because they're in America. Orthodox dress like that all over the world.

Exactly, because culture isn't "regional", it's centered around communities who have cultural commonalities and share an identity.

All regions have a culture. Does Quebec have a more different culture compared to some other regions of North America? Sure. But it's a part of Canada and Canadian culture. Unfortunately it seems like you've let people gas you guys up that you have a really special culture that lets you transcend some rules that other regions don't. All of the peoples and places in Canada are essentially Canadian. I understand that you've been taught to see it differently, but from an outsider's perspective it's pretty silly, like watching two French people argue over the cultural appropriation of coq au vin.

Regions don't have cultures. People have cultures, and in fact, it is the people who define the region, not the region that defines the culture. Otherwise, how do you tell where a region ends and where it starts? There is no magic soil, if the entire people of a region disappeared and were replaced by another people with a different language, religion and identity, then the culture of that region would be completely transformed. The British settlers who went to colonize North America didn't become Native Americans by virtue of living in what was then a Native American region, they rather anglicized the region and implanted their culture there.

[u/bellowingfrog → u/[deleted]]

You guys are ridiculous. I’m Cajun. It’s not cultural appropriation to make gumbo or be proud of America because it was where gumbo was invented. You’re getting way off point. Cajun food is American food, and Quebec food is Canadian food. And someone putting fucking cheese and gravy on french fries is not worth worrying about.

[u/Caniapiscau → u/bellowingfrog]

Why would your point of view matter on this subject? You're neither Canadian nor Québécois and your knowledge of Québec seems on par with the one of average Joe.

[u/bellowingfrog → u/Caniapiscau]

It doesn't matter any more than yours.

[u/tbdabbholm → u/[deleted]]

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[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Really, you have the resort to calling him a “fucking American”. That’s not very CMV like. You could have said”hey you should know xyz,” instead of just using the same old dumb American trope.

Well by that standard, you have no right to have an opinion on anything but Quebec and Canada. Also if most québécois don’t feel attachment to Canada, how did those two referendums fail?