Canada d'Eh

Canada Toes!

Today is Canada Day. The nation is older than me but not as old as Julian. Its birthday is also a stat holiday, which makes for a nice long weekend, and while I don’t do anything special to celebrate it, I do use it to take stock of what this country means to me.

What defines Canada, I wonder? Many people say we’re simply not America and that’s good enough for them. Others claim that we’re the 51st state, which may or may not be true in the corporate sense – a lot of US-based businesses occupy space up here and have also bought out iconic Canadian companies like the Hudson’s Bay Co. and Tim Hortons. The worth of our loonie seems connected to the US buckeroo, but don’t ask me how. If economics were my forte, I’d be wealthier, depressed, or both.

Then there’s the cultural stuff. Hockey, beer and doughnuts. I love the first, am repelled by the second, and can’t eat the third unless it’s gluten-free and therefore dense as a curling rock. Imperial measurements were exchanged for metric at a time when it would be hardest for my generation to adapt. Politically, don’t go there – though I admit our system seems far less confusing than the US method of electing everyone all at once. We used to be polite; by today’s appalling standards, perhaps we still are. We adhere to the use of the letter “u” in words like colour, neighbour and favourite. (Spellcheck just flagged them for me. Spellcheck is wrong.) The artistic community is producing really good work in music, art and movies; our professional sports teams generally suck except within the CFL, but I suspect that’s because it’s our own league and only Canadian teams play in it. Our link to the UK has weakened over the years, yet we remain within the Commonwealth. We’re warm, welcoming, helpful, good neighbours both to the house next door and the country next door. At least, that’s what I hear. Truly, I haven’t traveled enough to know the difference between us and everyone else in the world.

I just know that I love it here.