We Stand On Guard For Tweet

@Canada Joins Twitter

Isn't that the cutest Twitter image ever? Now you can "Tweet to Canada." It's as if with a click of a button you can connect to all 35 million of us overly polite, soft-stepping, not-very-boastful folk. Because that's what people think of Canadians, right? 

If we want to be true to our roots, "Canada" was the actually the home of Aboriginal people in all their diverse languages and cultures for some 13,000 years up until recently (relatively speaking). The country is named for the Iroquoian word kanata (or canada), which means settlement, village, or land.

Now that it's official that Canada is now on Twitter, the site had the first few awkward tweets that we all have when we try to mark out our digital space.

This new account is a chance to get a national conversation going online, right? Wrong. That conversation has been happening since Twitter started taking off as a forum for commentary—both trenchant and snarky—and a forum for revolution. What the @Canada account has done, so far, is to generate a few laughs and trot out some old tropes about Canada and Canadians. A few of our favourite replies are below. Still, we must applaud the government folks who have staked their place in the digital space. We applaud efforts at social reach and at having conversations from far and wide. O, Canada, indeed!

Let's hope the feed develops into a conversation on Canada that goes beyond officialdom. Oh, wait, we already have @RickMercer for that.

@Canada hopefully this account will Take Off Eh? #BobandDoug

— Pat Borders' Chew (@PatBordersChew) November 26, 2014

.@Canada please stop. its embarrassing. this twitter account is like going clothes shopping at the mall with your mom when ur a teenager

— Paul Saulnier (@psiloveyouband) November 26, 2014

.@Canada If you *ever* tweet about Nickelback, I swear to God, I will hunt you down ...

— CC (@canadiancynic) November 26, 2014

 @Canada really,? Why don't you follow the example of @sweden or @ireland and let citizens curate. We don't need more government.

— Adam Drake (@AdamandPeeve) November 26, 2014