Something Felt Different This Canada Day
Author: Matthew Shane
Published: July 6, 2025
It feels like something’s shifting in this country.
Canada Day has always carried its share of celebration—barbecues, fireworks, parades. But this year felt different. It wasn’t just patriotic; it was unapologetically patriotic. Canadians weren’t just showing up for the long weekend—they were showing up for Canada. In a way we haven’t seen in years, maybe decades.
Flag and flagpole sales soared. Fireworks lit up neighborhoods, not just cities. Shops selling Canadian-made goods reported booming sales. People weren’t just buying local—they were doing it proudly, deliberately, even defiantly. And what’s striking isn’t just the spending. It’s the mood. Canadians, long known for our modesty and quiet reserve, suddenly seem ready to stand tall. To say: this is our country, and we love it.
Sure, some of this is reactive. We’re under pressure. Trump is needling us from every direction—on trade, on energy, on digital taxes. But pressure does something interesting to Canadians: it unites us. What might have started as defensive economic nationalism is rapidly turning into something more powerful. A new kind of pride. A new kind of solidarity.
That shift is especially striking when viewed against the backdrop of recent years. Not long ago, some schools and institutions scaled back Canada Day celebrations altogether, in response to the long-overdue national reckoning around our treatment of Indigenous peoples. That chapter in our history is real and painful, and it deserves continued attention and accountability. This post is not an attempt to overlook or erase that. If anything, it’s a recognition of how far we’ve come in learning to hold multiple truths at once.
Canadians are increasingly willing to acknowledge the complexities of our past without allowing them to eclipse the value of what we’ve built together. We’re finding space to hold two truths at once: that our country has made mistakes, and that we can still love it deeply. That we can grieve parts of our past, while standing proudly in the present. That reflection and pride are not opposites—they’re part of the same evolution. There is a growing maturity in the way we talk about our country—an ability to critique it without abandoning it, and to love it without denying its flaws. This year’s Canada Day celebrations didn’t ignore our past; they existed alongside it, with a renewed sense of forward-looking conviction.
That’s the turn. What began as a reaction to external threats is becoming a more proactive declaration of identity. We are no longer just defending ourselves—we are affirming who we are and what we value. Quietly, steadily, Canadians are choosing to stand together—not out of nostalgia or nationalism, but out of recognition that this country, for all its imperfections, is worth standing up for.
And maybe, just maybe, this Canada Day marked that line in the sand. That turning point. That moment when Canadians decided not to tuck our pride away, but to carry it—loudly, visibly, without embarrassment.
At The CANADA List, we see that as both a cultural and economic moment. We started this platform to offer clarity—to help consumers understand where their dollars go, and what they’re supporting when they buy a product. That mission will continue (and has a long way to go). But we’re also going to start putting a greater emphasis on spotlighting the great Canadian brands that exemplify the values we want to elevate—not just because they’re local, but because they’re excellent. And because when we’re celebrating these great Canadian brands, we’re also in a way celebrating ourselves.
In our opinion, it’s high time that we did.
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