As a primarily soft-spoken person, Canada
dialogues with himself more than he does with others. By that, I mean that he
keeps to himself, and yet, ruminates too much on what others think about him.
He desperately wants to be noticed throughout the series, but nonetheless
struggles to do so by forming his own unique identity.

A lot of
his invisibility can be attributed to how he lurks in the largely influential shadows
of America and England.

Canada
served as England’s watchdog during both wars. A lot of the battles that
Canadians fought in were generally attributed to British victory. In other
words, they didn’t receive the credit they deserved. That said, this lacking
and undeveloped identity caused Canada to remain behind the scenes.

Likewise,
until about the 1930s, Canadians consumed a lot of American media, pop culture,
and literature (we still do, but before we virtually had none). There wasn’t
anything distinctively Canadian for citizens to relate their shared experiences to other than the wilderness and agricultural life.

It wasn’t
until the 1970s-1980s when Canada’s reputation as a middle-power, peace-maker,
and most importantly, multicultural nation, took off. I say ‘reputation’ mainly
because we still have our fair share of racial issues (especially with the
Indigenous populations), but please remember that this series is predicated on
generalizations of what a nation is known
for.

Anyways, it
was America who served as Canada’s inspiration in forming a new national
identity by also becoming culturally diverse. There’s a long-standing joke in
Canadian academia that we’re always 100 years late to developments the US has
already undergone.

I mention
all this because you’ll see that the basis of Canada’s insecurities is formulated around how he’s not well-known, especially
in comparison to America, whom he’s often mistaken for.

It’s not
that Canada doesn’t attempt to stand out either, because he does.

In fact,
America picks up on this and tells Canada that he doesn’t need to change who he
is – his identity.

Jealously,
Canada then tells America that he hates his [blunt honesty]. Clearly, this is
merely a result of Canada projecting his frustrations onto America, given that
the latter has such a strong national presence in the world.

It’s
important to mention that they don’t actually hate each other, despite going
through many ups and downs in their relationship as they were growing up.

Being
constantly forgotten has eaten away at Canada’s confidence. His expectations
are so low that he cried when Seychelles remembered that he’s part of the G8.

It’s not
just being noticed that Canada worries about either. He doesn’t have a high
sense of self-esteem, and truly believes that he’s not good looking.

Here, he
worries about others not wanting to have anything to do with him.

He also
clearly fears rejection, having once used England to communicate with and relay
messages to America. How I see it is that Canada internalized his invisibility
as part of his self-concept, equated it to a low sense of self-worth, and then
actually began to believe that he wasn’t worth
the time of others.

Despite
these obvious insecurities, it’s important to end on the note that while Canada
may be soft-spoken, he’ll still assert himself if necessary. He’s a pushover,
yes, but not to the extent that he’ll lay down and willingly let himself get
completely run over.