On a vacation with my family in London, we sat down for a meal at Boston Pizza.
By London, I mean the city just two hours outside Toronto, Ontario. By Boston Pizza, I mean the Canadian restaurant chain, which was founded by a Greek man in Edmonton and named after an American city. This is Canada.
As I read the menu, it dawned on me how Canadian culture has changed. The menu was explicit: Boston Pizza is Canadian-owned and serves Canadian food; they are not American. It was emphasized everywhere, alongside Canadian iconography.
They aren’t alone in clarifying their identity. Many restaurants grew off of, in part, the familiarity of an American name, and are now defending their northern status. The list is long: Montana’s Bar & Grill, New York Fries, St. Louis Bar & Grill, Baton Rouge, California Sandwiches, East Side Mario’s, New Orleans Pizza, and Bourbon St. Grill.
If you visit their websites, as I have, you’ll see statements like “100% Canadian” with maple leaves aplenty.
These statements have grown since Donald Trump’s tariffs, both in 2018 and 2025. The “Made in Canada” movement is surging. Our grocery stores are littered with tags like “Product of Canada.” The closest coffee shop to my house no longer sells an “Americano” but a “Canadiano,” which they’ve done across their sixteen locations in Ontario.
How should pastors consider these trends? What does this mean as we try to contextualize our ministries?
I believe pastors should be careful when adopting lessons from marketing. But the language above is a result of people’s behaviour, not government law.
Before drawing some lessons for the Canadian context, I should note regional differences. In Ontario, I’ve heard hesitation in church leaders when considering hiring someone from the States. But when I talked to a pastor in Alberta, he said everyone embraces American pastors, and says there even seems to be a recruiting pipeline. He said there are greater differences regionally than there are nationally. This makes sense. We should not overstate national culture: Whitehorse is not Halifax.
Know your context. Pastors should give more time and attention to their local flock than they do the national discourse.
With this regional caveat aside, we can now reflect on some challenges and responses for the Christian church in Canada.
Challenge: Theologians Made in Canada
Canada was formed, in part, by our resistance to America. They wanted independence; we didn’t. That decision started our trajectory of resisting aspects of American culture, but as Michael Haykin has noted, those differences have seemed to grow in recent years.
Given our cultural instincts, Canadians who imbibe our culture will be resistant to Americanisms from our Christian neighbours, such as celebrity-driven church culture, “God-and-country” rhetoric, or citing American presidents in sermon illustrations. Given our apparent preference for Canadianos, people in Canada will be more likely to receive a quote that begins with, “as a Canadian theologian has said…” than they would be, “as an American theologian has said…”
A complicating factor is whether Canadian pastors are learning from Canadians. Many theologians who work in Canada end up moving to the States, as I’ve written about before. Dr. Jessica Joustra is the latest example, as she will move next year from Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario, to Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids.
I wonder if, as a result of this movement to “buy Canadian,” people will be more willing to invest in Canadian seminaries, schools, and organizations. Perhaps Apologetics Canada will see a bump in their financial support this year? I’m not sure. One can hope. We need to invest in our Canadian organizations, if nothing else than for their survival and flourishing.
Lesson: Learn From All Nationalities
It would be foolish to ignore American news, given that many Canadians know more about their politics than our own. But it is also foolish to apply only American insights to Canadian contexts. For example, the “vibe shift,” which I’ve heard many Americans speak about, has not affected many Canadian organizations, whether that’s libraries, schools, foster care agencies, or businesses.
We must be wise, recognizing both our context and the contexts in which we learn. Canadian pastors must guard against sounding more American than Christian. I believe we are blessed by many free resources from Americans, and we can gladly thank them for that. They are home to a mix of good and bad Bible teachers. Now would be a good time to conduct an audit of the books you read, the podcasts you listen to, and the people you follow on social media. Is it as diverse as Boston Pizza’s founder?
We know the nationality of the eunuch in Acts 8:27 for a reason. The Christian faith crosses national borders because “we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives” (Philippians 3:20). Biblical concepts like exile (e.g. 1 Peter 1) and new humanity (e.g. Ephesians 2:11–20) are especially resonant with multicultural-loving Canadians.
Further, while many American institutions are beneficial, if we are to learn how to better serve in a specifically Canadian context, we would do well to learn broadly. One new pastor to our country has recently begun reading books on Baptist history in Canada. I wonder if Canadian-born Baptists have done the same? It might look different in your context. Given our multiculturalism, diversity will naturally be appreciated. One extreme is to learn only from Americans and apply only American teaching to our context; another extreme is to follow the culture more than Christ in condemning or ignoring Americans altogether. They are our neighbours, not our enemies. We can partner and serve with them, and thank them for their leadership in many areas.
Pushing Back on Canada First
I’ve argued we should be mindful of how Canadians will respond to Americanism given our changing culture, so as not to create a stumbling block. But we should also correct our culture.
I think many Canadians have a smug attitude toward Americans which is self-righteous, like the Pharisee who thanks God he’s not like the sinners in Luke 18:9–14. We need to speak against this and repent of it ourselves.
Is your attitude toward the States based on a comprehensive reflection on how Christian morality should be best applied to politics? There is much to appreciate about America. On issues pertaining to life, many states are more protective than the Canadian legal system, to put it mildly. I am glad to be Canadian, but I am not proud of our nationalistic vanity.
Much more could be said about properly applying Christian ethics to politics. But in conclusion, I want to encourage my fellow Canadians to push back on Canada-first rhetoric. We put Jesus first. We need less “elbows up” and more knees on the ground.
The writer of Hebrews speaks of the heroes of the faith in this way:
“These all died in faith… having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth… If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” (Hebrews 11:13–16)
Canadian identity is often a negative identity, defined more by what we’re not than what we are. We know we’re not American, not a melting pot, and not mean.
Christianity is different. Whether you are reading this as a Canadian or American or Nigerian or Ethiopian, you can recognize that while your earthly citizenship matters, you were not made for your country but for God. You exist for another world, God’s world. And our speech should stem more from God’s Kingdom than our context.
