First of all, don’t use the maple leaf. The maple leaf is an artificial symbol of Canada. It is not really a national symbol; it is a regional symbol of parts of eastern Canada.

Secondly, don’t use the Maple Leaf Flag. That as well is not a real national symbol of our country.

Some good things to use could be caribou, beavers, conifer trees, rivers, snow, native totem poles, scenes from Canada’s big cities, and anything about hockey.

There are so many cool options. One interesting one might be an examination of (hold yourself) – beer commercials. Canadian beer advertisements are classics for delineating the elusive ideology of the “Canadian Identity”. I think this would be fun and interesting for such a project.

Or – a more general examination of the advertisements of Canadian industry. Tim Hortons and other corporations of Canada (like those beer companies) yearn to capture the essence of Canada in their marketing campaigns.

What’s really nice about these sorts of topics are their richness in visuals.

I hope this helps!