A Celebration Migrates South

Assimilated Expatriates Will Raise a Molson Today

Amit Saha of Silver Spring worries about having "sold out" by moving to the United States. At left is wife Lisa Ingall. (Photos By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

With the arrival of July comes the patriotic fury, when citizens renew their ties with an anthem in their hearts and a flag in their hands. Around town, the colors are already going up, that glorious red, white and . . . red.

In the midst of Independence Day preparations, a hidden minority of well-meaning and largely indistinguishable people will have a patriotic celebration of its own today: Canada Day.

At the embassy in downtown Washington, there will be a pancake party. Along the Mall will be exhibits from the province of Alberta. And in the hearts of many expatriates, there will be pride mixed with a quiet sadness -- the conflicted feelings of strangers living in a not-so-strange land.

Like most expatriates, Canadians in Washington talk about the foods they miss, the people, the culture and, of course, the beer. But they also mention the twilight-zone quality of life in the United States.

"It would almost be easier if it were a place with a whole different language," said Jaime Lavallee, a Northern Virginia transplant from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. "Sometimes you'll go for weeks with everything just normal, and then something hits you -- like getting mail on Saturday or seeing the temperature in Fahrenheit -- and you remember."

Suddenly from within emerges the angst, the existential questions, the whole love/hate relationship fostered from centuries of cohabitation along the world's longest undefended border, an 8,893-kilometer divide (or 5,526 miles, for the metrically challenged).

A transformation occurs upon crossing this line. Canadians who spent their lives complaining about taxes and parliament find themselves wrapped in their maple leaf flag. They sport patriotic slogans on their cars and T-shirts. Maple leaves sprout everywhere.

Some recount crying upon hearing their national anthem at hockey games. Many speak of a strange compulsion to point out Canadian celebrities who, like them, have infiltrated American society. Mostly, however, they just blend in.

"You learn to avoid words that will blow your cover, like 'processed' and 'out' and 'about,' " said Lavallee, a contractor at the National Park Service. "And when that doesn't work, you try to pass off as Minnesotan."

It's easier that way to avoid the inevitable questions, the messy issues of identity. Unlike Asian Americans or African Americans, there is no questionnaire box for Canadian Americans to check.

Officially, the embassy has no position on expatriate angst. But there was such a longing for home that the government last year launched an online program to help expats find each other and has arranged meetings for drinks, hockey games and the Canadian election.

There are 821,000 residents in the United States from Canada, more than 10,000 in the Washington area.