A soft-hearted man popular with Canadians (5)
I believe the answer is:
maple
'popular with canadians' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'a soft-hearted man' is the wordplay.
'a soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for 'piano', soft).
'hearted' indicates putting letters inside (some letters go to the heart of the word).
'man' becomes 'male' ().
'p' put inside 'male' is 'MAPLE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for maple that I've seen before include "Tree of the sycamore family" , "Tree: its leaf the Canadian emblem" , "Tree whose leaf features on the flag of Canada" , "Tree with syrupy sap" , "Tree; sauce" .)