A very Canadian masterclass in public speaking
Public speaking isn’t just a useful professional or personal skill. It also has a profound impact on entire nations. It regularly changes the course of history. And as a Canadian business, we’ve been watching that play out in our country.
Canada’s been…going through some stuff lately. A bit of neighbourhood drama, you might say. The guy next door hasn’t been 100% respectful of the property line, if you catch my drift. And Canadians have been responding to that drama in all sorts of ways. I want to talk about one of those ways today, and what we can learn from it.
Because communication is, at its core, a way that we make sense of our human experiences and share them with others. We make hugely consequential decisions, individually and collectively, based on the ideas that are communicated to us, the way those ideas are communicated, and the emotional responses that we have to them. A skilled communicator is one who is aware of how they’re influenced by the messages they receive, as well as how they influence, and CAN influence, others around them through their communication. And a good human is one who tries to wield that power responsibly, with respect for the autonomy and well-being of other people.
So, even though we don’t usually get overtly political on this platform, today we’re going to talk about living in interesting times, a 25-year-old beer commercial, and how the words of one person can have an impact on an entire nation.
So let’s set the scene.
It’s July of 2025, and Canada is experiencing a period of relative calm after a rocky few months. Since January, the guy in charge of our neighbour to the south has rocked our economy with a trade war, made comments threatening our sovereignty, and had a massive influence on the outcome of our federal election. In the midst of all this, a lot of Canadians have been feeling a sense of instability and fear that is unfamiliar to them. And they’re now thinking, in ways they really hadn’t before, about what it MEANS to be Canadian.
People here are not taking kindly to being pushed around.
Canadians have a reputation around the world for being “nice.” And that is largely true. When you live in a harsh climate that can be difficult to survive, and when you have a relatively small population that depends on foreign allies for safety and economic development, it’s natural that you would develop a culture based around being diplomatic and co-operative.
But here’s the thing that not a lot of people outside our borders realize: you don’t grow up side-by-side with Canada geese without learning a thing or two about spite. And Canadian spite has been on full display: massive boycotts of American products, massive support for Canadian products. Booing the US national anthem at hockey games. Avoiding travel to the States. Switching vacation plans to either stay in Canada or go to Mexico or Europe. People have floated the idea of bringing back a civil defence corps. I spoke with one gentle suburban grandma who was thinking about getting a firearms license.
Something has shifted here.
Which brings us to a beer commercial that went the pre-social media version of viral 25 years ago.
In March 2000, Molson Canadian aired an ad called “I am Canadian” , and it was a massive hit. I wasn’t even old enough to drink at the time, but like everyone else, I had it memorized:
“I can proudly sew my country’s flag on my backpack. I believe in peacekeeping, not policing; diversity, not assimilation; and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal; a toque is a hat; a chesterfield Is a couch, and it is pronounced zed - not zee, ZED! Canada is the second-largest land mass, the first nation of hockey, and the best part of North America! My name is Joe, and I am Canadian!!”
Whenever and wherever this ad came on, rooms full of people would LOSE. THEIR. MINDS.
There is a deep sense of pride in this country for the weird little guys that we are - and to be clear, that isn’t unique to Canadians. The desire to be part of and identify with an in-group is a very human instinct. We gravitate towards ideas of what makes us like the people around us but not like everybody else. Molson made very savvy use of that desire, to sell a product named after this identity that is held so dear by so many of us.
Of course, this whole speech is simplistic. It flattens a national identity to a handful of platitudes and lovable quirks; it avoids any ground that might have been seen as controversial in March of 2000, because it was a beer advertisement. They were just trying to whip up some patriotic enthusiasm so they could sell more of their product
But then something interesting happened. Because “Joe the Canadian” was actually a guy named Jeff Douglas. And this year, in response to the drama shaking up our continent and the anger and frustration felt by many of us, Jeff Douglas reprised that character for a new rant, this one called “We Are Canadian”. This time it wasn’t as a beer salesman at the tail-end of the ‘90s, but as a guy with a point of view at a point in history when we’ve seen massive societal changes, both for better and for worse.
In that context, let’stalk about a few of the creative choices and rhetorical techniques that we see in this video, the reasoning that may have been behind them, and what we can all learn from them about effective communication.
First, let’s talk about the purpose of this video and its target audience. That’s ALWAYS where we want to start when we’re talking about communication strategy: what are we trying to accomplish, and who needs to resonate with our message in order to achieve that?
Making an educated guess, let’s say that his goal was to activate a sense of patriotism in the Canadian public; to motivate the solidarity and collective action that might be needed to defend our country and our economy. Think of it like the speech that a general might give before leading troops into battle, or the locker-room pep talk that a football coach gives to the team when they’re down in the second half.
The target audience isn’t all Canadians. We’re way too diverse for any one message to resonate with all of us, and any attempt to appeal to a group that diverse is going to get so watered down that it doesn’t really appeal to anyone. No, Jeff’s target audience is a lot more specific than that: it’s Canadians who feel a sense of connection with their identity as Canadians and who are old enough to remember the ‘I am Canadian” rant when it first came out in 2000.
Let’s talk about how he tugs at the heart-strings of that audience.
In-group references
In the “We Are Canadian rant, Jeff mentions:
Double-doubles
Poutine
Terry Fox
Gord Downie
Ketchup chips
Hockey brawls
“Gettin’er done”
UN peacekeeping
The Shawinigan Handshake
The line “stand on guard for thee” from our national anthem - the same anthem that’s playing in the background of the video.
All of these things are well-known and instantly recognizable to most people who either grew up in Canada or have been here for a long time - but they’re likely to be meaningless or inscrutable to outsiders. And while universal health care - which is also mentioned - exists around the world, you might be shocked at how living next to the US has made our health care system into a core part of our national identity.
Taken together, these references set up an in-group and an out-group, with the target audience firmly positioned within the in-group. This is key. To all of it.
See, humans have a strong, innate tendency to identify with groups that share some social category, in comparison with others outside of the group. We tend to have more empathy towards others that we perceive as being part of our in-group, and a greater expectation that people within an in-group will help each other.
And national identity is one hell of an in-group, especially in the face of threats by a foreign power. We might live in different regions of this enormous piece of land; we might speak different languages and have different lifestyles and vote differently; but we have a shared history and shared musical traditions and shared foods and shared pop-culture references and shared folk heroes, and these things can be used to activate a shared social identity that will motivate us to work together.
2. The non-verbal shift
It’s not just what he says, it’s also about how he says it.
The structure of this rant echoes the structure of the first one, which is fun! Humans love callbacks! Especially to things that we loved so much back in simpler times.
He builds the excitement and tension by starting in a very measured way. The character comes off as shy, unassuming, even a little awkward. He approaches the mic with a bit of a slouch and speaks hesitantly. Again, we’re tapping into that social identity of the Canadian as the polite one who doesn’t want to step on any toes. Who just wants everyone to get along.
But then it starts to build. His voice gets louder and more assertive, right around the time that he says “They mistake our modesty for meekness.” This is the part of the emotional journey where we decide that no, we’re not going to take it anymore.
He starts forcefully punctuating words and he’s pretty much shouting by the time he reaches the line “We are not the 51st ANYTHING!”
That line, delivered in that cadence, at this point in history, is a call to arms. It’s the Canadian equivalent of “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take OUR FREEDOM!” It’s designed to make you pump your fist in the air and then go out and do a patriotism - you know, meet your neighbours, buy from a local business, spell “colour” with a “u”.
Finally, he ends by coming back to that initial, stereotypical persona, with a timid “thank you” and an awkward thumbs-up. This gives a satisfying bit of symmetry to the whole thing, and provides a release of the emotions that have built up.
Because, see, this isn’t exactly the same as a speech before a battle or a football game. When your audience needs to go RIGHT NOW and do a thing that’s scary or difficult, you want to whip them up into a heightened emotional state, and end on that crescendo. But the person watching the We Are Canadian video isn’t about to jump into a short, intense bust of activity. You’re not going to listen to Joe from Canada shouting “We are Canadian!” and then immediately run to the border wielding a bayonet.
(Please don’t do that)
You might be watching it while you make dinner, in the midst of a prolonged, stressful economic and geopolitical situation. In that context, putting you into fight-or-flight mode and then leaving it unresolved, is actively unhelpful. In order to be effective, this message needs to make you feel powerful but safe. So he gives you the excitement and catharsis of “We are not the 51st anything” and then he brings you gently back to baseline with a little bit of humour, so that you feel empowered to take action - even if that action is just sharing the video with a friend - but you also get to pace yourself and sustain the momentum over the long term.
When you’re presenting, the way you end a speech needs to match the context in which the audience is consuming it, and what you want them to do immediately afterwards. In this case, I think Jeff hit the right note.
3. The use of powerful images
This rant is 1:42 long. Given that the average person speaks between 130 and 150 words per minute, we can estimate that it’s between 185 and 213 words. But following the principle that “a picture speaks a thousand words,” it has a lot more to say than that.
First of all, Jeff never names the individual that he’s talking about. You can probably figure it out using context clues, but just in case, Jeff shows us a picture. And specifically, a picture of that person looking down his nose and smirking. It was chosen to make us angry.
Then we see a collage of that person’s supporters. And it’s in black and white. What does that make you think of? Maybe…something noteworthy that happened in the 1940s, that may or may not be echoed in what we’re seeing today? Are you scared?
(I’m a little scared)
We’ve also got images that reinforce that sense of Canadian identity. Hockey players celebrating a goal. A scene from the Gander airport, where Newfoundlanders welcomed thousands of air passengers who were diverted on 9/11. The RCAF Snowbirds. So many maple leaves; so much red; the flag, the flag, the flag.
It’s all there to reinforce your status within the in-group. You recognize these images; they make you feel things; you are part of something; you want to protect that thing.
But there’s one photo that does a lot of heavy lifting, and it’s worth looking at what Jeff Douglas has done here. Because patriotism is complicated, and in Canada in 2025, saying “rah rah Canada; our country is perfect and amazing” is a pretty hard sell. In the 25 years since “I am Canadian” hit the airwaves, Canadians have done a lot of grappling with the racism woven into the fabric of our country and the deep social divisions that exist between us.
This is where communication gets tricky. Because lots of important messages come with important caveats. So you almost have to choose between doubling down on the vibes that you’re trying to activate - ignoring those important caveats - or getting so bogged down in the caveats that the emotional resonance of your message gets lost.
So here’s what Jeff did, and I’d love to hear in the comments whether you think he struck the right balance.
He says four words: “Are we perfect? No!”
That’s an understatement. But he pairs it with an image that - for this target audience - perfectly encapsulates how very much not perfect we actually are.
It’s a photo taken during the Oka Crisis, also known as the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance, which was a months-long standoff between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec. The Mohawk mounted a resistance against plans to build a golf course and condominiums on lands which included a Mohawk burial ground. This dispute came after centuries of European settlers and their descendants claiming and selling off Mohawk land. For 30 years the Mohawk pursued legal remedies against the construction, and then expansion, of the golf course, and were repeatedly denied. In 1990 it eventually culminated in a protest and multiple barricades by Mohawk land defenders. The situation escalated; the Canadian military got involved; other Indigenous groups went to support the Mohawk; two people lost their lives and dozens more were hospitalized, including a 14-year-old with nearly-fatal injuries. And for those of us who grew up in Canada and are old enough to remember the first “I am Canadian” rant, this particular photo - of a Canadian soldier and an Ojibwe activist staring each other down - is one of the most recognizable and powerful visual symbols we have, of the hurt and the anger and the injustice that simmer beneath our country’s polite facade.
All of this in the seconds it took to utter the words “Are we perfect? No!”
There are people who strongly prefer one of these videos over the other - either the first one because it’s more celebratory and fun, or the second one because it’s more nuanced and speaks to the heavy feelings they’re having right now. For all their surface-level similarities they’re certainly very different videos, because they serve different purposes. But one thing that’s striking is how both of them demonstrate an understanding of human nature and how to guide their target audiences towards certain behaviours.
Canadian or not, we can all learn from that.
So, what do you think - did this rant do it for you? What do you think of the creative choices and rhetorical techniques that Jeff Douglas used? How might you take inspiration from them to use in your own work? Let us know in the comments!
As for us, we’ll say this: our homeland is a beautiful place; All-Dressed is the superior potato chip; and the Canada goose is a proud and terrifying animal. We are Stage Light Communications, and we take the “ick” out of public speaking!
Ready to put these ideas to the test and begin punching up your own public speaking? Get in touch and explore how we can help!