How To Be A Canadian

2002
Will Ferguson & Ian Ferguson

How To Be A Canadian is a satirical look at late 90s Canadian culture. What we love, why we hate Americans, why we’re so apologetic, etc. It’s a light, easy read that is entertaining at times and at other times sort of meh.

The meh parts:

• Maybe it’s just me, but it felt to politically correct at times
• The brothers bantering back and forth felt contrived
• The writers making side comments towards publishing didn’t really amuse me
• It felt a bit dated and was only published a few years ago

The good parts:

• The writing was light and witty.
• There was a liberal use of useless footnotes
• Since this book was written at the end of 3 straight Liberal majority governments, it whined a lot about the Liberals. It was funny because I wonder what their take on a new minority government every year would be.
• I like a book that’s honest about making up facts when it suits their needs.

Overall, it was a fun quick read. I don’t know if I would pass it on to anybody else, but I definitely wouldn’t put it next to our TekWars books or the last four Empire books.

And, since there was a chapter on the 12 ways Canadians must be able to say they are sorry, here’s the Doctor demonstrating all twelve.

from io9

Which I guess makes the Doctor Canadian. Which is great.