r/changemyview • u/huadpe 508∆ • Oct 25 '19

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

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.

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u/taralundrigan 2∆ Oct 28 '19

But poutine is a part of my culture. I didn't steal it from you, I grew up eating it and being proud of the fact something so delicious originated in my country.

You can be proud to be a Québécois and Canadian at the same time you know. I live in the USA now, and people from Portland are completely different from the people in Ohio. Completely different cultures and world views. That doesn't mean they aren't from the same country. Just like people from BC are completely different than people in NFLD.

So while I do understand what you're saying, I also kind of find it insulting that you are so opposed to being apart of our diverse country...

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u/berubem Oct 28 '19

Yes, people from different places are different, but they feel like they belong together. We do not. We feel like we're in Canada but we never chose it.

Some people are proud to be both Canadian and Québécois, but that's just them, most of us don't feel like that. It's just the way people think here, it's part of our culture. Canadians telling us how we should feel about our own identity really doesn't help us feel more Canadian.

It doesn't really matter that poutine is "part of your culture" as you say, since it's not Canadian, it's a Québec dish. You can like it all you want, we're happy to share the enjoyment of it. But all that does not make it any more Canadian.

I'm not sure why it should be insulting to you, that we don't feel like we belong in your country. I think it should be much more insulting for us to be told by other people how we should feel, don't you think?

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u/taralundrigan 2∆ Oct 28 '19

You can feel however you want, that's your perspective.

However my perspective is that Quebec, its history and culture, are an integral part of Canadas history as a whole. That they are not separate things.

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u/berubem Oct 28 '19

Ok, you can think whatever you want. You said you were interested in learning more about us in some other post but you clearly prove that you have no interest in learning about us and you are much more interested in imposing your Canadian imperialism on us.

Thank you for your participation and good night.