June 15, 2026

A place where we can be Canadian with each other

When I’m travelling in another country and meet a fellow Canadian, there is a feeling like we can relax and relate. With anyone else, there is a bit of barrier, even if we’re trying hard to be friendly.

Now that I’ve had a chance to spend a few days on Gander, a Canadian social media app just out of private testing, I have that same feeling of being with my peeps.

We can all just sort of chill with each other.

Gander isn’t restricted to Canadians, but it would be tricky for a non-Canadian to join. For one thing you have to prove you’re human before you can post. I did that by downloading Canada Post’s Identity+ app and, among other things, scanning in my passport.

This process was more complicated that I expected, but if it keeps the bots out, I’m all for it.

You have the option of going international by federating your account with Bluesky using the AT protocol. I won’t be doing that. Bluesky has a good reputation, but I fear there are way too many posts about U.S. politics, which I can do without.