This weekend was bookended by two national holidays: Canada Day and US Independence Day. (I’m Canadian and American, so I celebrate both.) There are some similarities in both the reasons behind the holidays and how they are celebrated. But I’m not going to get into history and what not (you can look that up if you really want to know). I want to talk about national superheroes.

Yes, we all know Captain America, the epitome of all things patriotic. The lesser known Canadian equivalent (in part because he’s not a creation of the big two) is Captain Canuck. He was created in 1975 and, like Captain America, multiple people have worn the costume. A few years later, Marvel got on the bandwagon and created Alpha Flight, led by Guardian who’s costume bears a similarity to Captain Canuck and people often confuse one for the other.

And if you haven’t yet heard, even the Canadian Prime Minister is becoming a super hero, in a way. An upcoming issue of Civil War II: Choosing Sides (with a variant cover depicting the PM in boxing gear) has Alpha Flight consulting with Justin Trudeau on which side to support. Interestingly, the only other PM to appear in a Marvel comic was Justin’s father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

So while there are quite a few patriotic American superheroes, including Miss America, The Shield, Stargirl, Iron Patriot, US Agent and Liberty Belle (sorry, but I’m going with “born and bred” so Superman doesn’t count), there are very few Canadian ones. (Yes, Deadpool is Canadian, but he’s no superhero… even I’ll admit that!) So maybe broaden your horizons and check out a bit of Canadiana (pssst, Marvel is making it easy since Alpha Flight has been more prevalent lately).