As Canadian as possible, under the circumstances.
“As Canadian as possible, under the circumstances.”
A wry, self-deprecating description of the Canadian character: doing your best and accepting the outcome without drama.
— Traditional Canada Wisdom, Canada
Source: Coined by contest entrant Heather Scott on CBC Radio's 'This Country in the Morning' (host Peter Gzowski), 1972; has since entered common Canadian usage as a popular national aphorism.
More Proverbs from Canada
Keep your stick on the ice.
Stay alert, stay ready, and keep doing the right thing even when nothing is happening.
Tie up your toque!
Brace yourself — things are about to get intense or exciting.
To speak through one's hat.
To talk about something you know nothing about, or to speak nonsense.
To have a fir tree slipped to you.
To be cheated or swindled in a deal.
Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, and the last river poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.
Material wealth is worthless if we destroy the natural world that sustains us.
It's cold out.
An emphatic Québécois way of saying it is bitterly, painfully cold.