Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
Of course it's clear. It's just interesting to see how one provincial identity is constructed to emphasize residency and the other to emphasize language and bloodlines.
I would suspect that English Canada had a similar more exclusion-oriented approach at one time... someone not descended from the British Isles or at the very least Western Europe might have been regarded as an "other", in the days before large scale immigration from outside those areas. The idea that you could be someone from Chandigarh and speak Punjabi most of the time but still be Manitoban (or Nova Scotian or whatever) has to be fairly new, like post-PET.
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I am not sure it is a deliberate construction. It is probably more of a historical accident and fuzzy association that works because it's right most of the time, especially when French speakers are talking to each other. In most of the world you'll find this association and 1 term that has a bunch of meanings about place of residence and origin. The modern concept espoused by say the federal Liberals that there's no difference between Canadians so long as they live here (or are citizens or have PR, or want to live here; I am not sure what the rule is) is the new and somewhat contrived standard. To be clear I think openness and cosmopolitanism is the better course, but it's not necessarily the natural state of most cultures and regions.
I've been gone a while but FWIW I don't really think of "Nova Scotian" as a term meaning "person who moved to NS" that has zero implications as far as the culture of the person goes. To me it means from/of NS. Maritimer is similar, with perhaps a stronger connotation of attachment to the region.
In the Maritimes in the modern era you are not likely to stick out as an outsider due to your appearance but you may due to mannerisms or accent and generally going "against the grain" in a bunch of ways. I don't think this norm is so bad. It pressures people to get along and follow collective goals, something that seems important again during the era of covid. And it is based around intent and participation rather than immutable characteristics.