Why Canadians drink Canadian: Our patriotic drinking habits

THE CANADA PROJECT How Canadians see our country at 150

Second, as a category, beverage alcohol has a more nuanced social language than most. Very few of us drink one kind of booze to the exclusion of all others. Instead, we choose from a menu of personal preferences based on the option that best suits our mood and the situation. That selection usually has a lot to do with declaring our intentions for what will follow. To see the truth in this, just imagine you’re having a first lunch with a new boss or someone you met on OKCupid. The message you might send ordering a glass of pinot grigio is starkly different—and less uncomfortable—than the one you’d send ordering a margarita. Socially, choosing your booze is like the first move in a chess game. Which brings us back to the White House Rose Garden. Obama was thinking like a Canadian that day, deliberately trading on the particular social signal that beer sends (and the photo opportunity it would create) to prove that “what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart”. That’s exactly why Canadians claim beer as part of our cultural heritage. Beer is a leveler. It declares class distinctions moot and invites easy dialogue, even between a black Harvard professor and a white cop. Like donning blue jeans or a Roots sweatshirt, choosing beer specifically repudiates status and promotes inclusion. Most of Canada’s beverage alcohol brands swim in beer’s cultural wake. They’re liquid symbols of the quality we admire most about ourselves as a nation. And maybe, these days, the one we’d most like to see exported to the rest of the world.