My wonderful staff selected two books for their grateful employer for a Christmas present. The books are 1) The Darwin Awards volume II, and 2) The Penguin Book of Canadian Jokes. The former is a compilation of the well known Internet site but the second does a pretty good job of capturing, albeit in a rather provincial fashion, the gist of Canadianism.

Which brings me to a partial answer to your question… but not just yet… there was a contest, so reports the book, a few years ago which asked people to complete the sentence, “As Canadian as…”. A lady, Ms. Scott, won the contest with, “…as possible under the circumstances.”.

IMHO you may well be simply following the “Scott Doctrine”.

Wait for an evening with light snowfall, dress warmly, and go for a walk downtown.

Makes spring and summer feel like a miracle. [I am working on fall emotionally.]

Winter in December seems just about sustainable. January is pushing it. Having it continue into Feb, Mar, Apr and most of May seems excessive and therefore — in terms of the Scott Doctrine — positively unCanadian. Autumn, despite Alan’s emotional distance from it, is surely the most quintessentially Canadian season — tentative, blows hot and cold, regretful of the fleeting past yet looking forward to bone-acheing misery and welcoming the first fall of snow. Brrr — warded it off with a little glass of kirsch.