What makes Canadian Thanksgiving unique

“Different people bring different things to the table.” Canadian chef, Jonny Lake, of Trivet restaurant in London, UK, is talking turkey. “Not everyone will do Thanksgiving turkey. I don’t have many friends whose grandparents are from Canada. And you put your own touches on tradition depending on where your family originated.”

Canada is a young country by settler standards, and its Thanksgiving table reflects the cultures of its ever-shifting immigrant groups. A 2020 survey of 1,000 ‘new Canadians’ (those in the country for 12 years or less) conducted by Club House, an Ontario spice brand founded in 1883, illustrated the modern holiday menu’s broad flavour palate. It noted that while 81% of new Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving, nearly half blend typical dishes with native favourites. Roast chicken, fried rice and pancit (a Filipino noodle dish) topped menu lists reflecting Canada’s high numbers of new Chinese, South Asian and Southeast Asian immigrants.

Like many Canadians, Jonny was raised in Ontario by English immigrant parents, and his family grew up adopting — and adapting — local food culture. “Our Thanksgiving meal was a kind of Sunday roast,” he says, noting the shared elements of a meat dish with vegetable sides. “But later on, Mum added things like wild rice casserole,” he says of the Canadian Thanksgiving dish that typically includes seasonal veggies and cheese. “In many ways, it’s as much about the gathering of dishes on the table, rather than one central dish. I love fantan dinner rolls,” he says of the buttery, fan-shaped bakes popular along North America’s East Coast. “And of course, pumpkins and squashes — using all that harvest produce.”

Celebrated on the second Monday in October (the fourth Thursday in November in the US), Thanksgiving falls in Canada’s harvest season, when pumpkins and gourds are abundant. “We had store-brought pumpkin pie,” says Jonny of his childhood Thanksgiving dessert. “They’re OK. But when I first began making pies, I thought, Oh right, that’s what a pumpkin pie is supposed to taste like.” Pumpkins, he notes, are naturally sweet. “So, Canadians tend to add savoury spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg, rather than America’s super-sweet pies and candied sides, like marshmallows with sweet potato casserole.”

Where you live in Canada is as influential as your family’s heritage. Fish and wild berries feature on tables in boreal regions; game meat and mushrooms in the peaks and prairies; and shellfish dishes star in the Maritime provinces, perhaps even a show-stopping ‘sea-cuterie’ board of smoked salmon, crab, mussels and oysters.

“I moved from Ontario to Quebec,” says Jonny. Quebec is Canada’s largest French-speaking province, and he notes that Thanksgiving wasn’t such a big thing there. “Whereas in the US, it’s everywhere — it’s a bigger holiday than Christmas,” he says. “In Canada, it’s not so linked to the Pilgrim story, either — it’s much more a harvest festival.”

This is echoed by Lauralee Ledrew, a Newfoundland farmer and guesthouse owner who was born out West in Alberta to a family with East Coast Acadian and Mi'kmaq First Nations heritage. Lauralee grows fruit and veg in her two-acre estate blending permaculture and regenerative farming techniques with knowledge handed down from her mother and grandmother. “When you grow up understanding where food comes from, it means so much more,” she says. “And who taught settlers to live off this land? You don’t survive a Canadian winter very easily — you learn from the people here.”

Thanksgiving, for Lauralee is harvest and hunting time. “Berry season is also upon us — blueberries, strawberries, dewberries, raspberries, partridge berries, which are similar to cranberries, ‘squash berries’ (highbush cranberries), and ‘bakeapples’ (cloudberries). We dry berries, too, to make fruit leather like our ancestors did.”

It’s also about making do with what you have. Lauralee was one of five children raised by a single mum who adapted Newfoundland Thanksgiving dishes including ‘fisherman’s brew’ one-pot stews, steamed bread pudding-like blueberry duff and campfire Bannock bread, which she enlivened by stuffing with onions. And as with many places in Canada, root crops loomed large. “You wouldn’t have Thanksgiving without potato, carrot and turnip. Plus, the greens from cabbage and turnip — although now I prefer kale and Swiss chard because they grow better for us.”

Being globally connected has changed things, too. “So, instead of using a classic summer savoury herb mix for poultry, I just use sage,” says Lauralee. “Which isn’t typical of this area. And it’s in my dressings now, too, whereas my mother would use berries.”

Does Newfoundland’s traditional Jiggs’ dinner — salt beef, turnip, cabbage, potato, carrot and Pease pudding — feature anywhere on her menu? “Sure! Because I always make more than one meal, for family members visiting at different times. Anything from Jiggs’ to baked squash and garden greens. Thanksgiving is simply a time for gathering and being hands on — and food brings people together.”

Where to celebrate

Métis Crossing, Alberta
Learn all about Canada’s Métis people, and their fusion of European and First Nations culture, at this lodge and cultural centre set in 688 acres of prairielands northeast of Edmonton. Guided plant walks reveal the Métis’s connection with nature, for food and medicine, and the menus here speak to the land — hearty bison stews, Saskatoon berry preserves — with festive holiday brunches seated at long communal tables.

Upper Humber Settlement, Newfoundland
Lauralee’s farmstead B&B offers harvesting, foraging and cooking experiences. Gather wild berries, mushrooms and plants on guided forest tours and learn how they’re combined with farm food and wild game.

Notch8, Vancouver
Thanksgiving dinners here feature dishes such as turkey with buttermilk potato puree alongside spiced squash and candied pumpkin seed, plus items that nod to the city’s Asian population, like miso-glazed sablefish with bamboo rice. Pumpkin tiramisu is the star of the autumn harvest afternoon tea menus.