Canada Day

Tommorrow is Canada Day.

This is a piece I wrote for my journal on Canada Day in 2005. I looked it up today to steal the Robertson Davies quote from it, but in reading it I decide that it still speaks for what I feel about my country, so I decided to just rerun the whole thing (slightly edited). I hope you all enjoy.

July 1, 2005 -
It's funny how we come around in our thinking as we grow older. 
I remember my brother, Jim and I cringing each July 1 (Canada Day) when Dad flew his largest Canada flag off the peak of our garage. No one else in the neighbourhood did that, and gosh, Jim and I were just darn embarrassed.  This morning, July 1 2005, I strolled outside with Kara on our morning walk, there by our NorthWapiti Kennel sign is a large flag pole with a Canada flag flying from it. I can blame Mark for some of it, after all he build the pole and was the one that actually put up the flag, however the truth of the matter is that it was completely at my urging that it was done. 
Just a few weeks ago I turned 41, so I could make a story for my getting older and more sentimental, but the reality of the matter is that, despite the protests to my father, I've always been very proud to be a Canadian. Maybe it is all the time I spend outside of Canada that makes me more patriotic as the years go by or maybe it is the fact that the more I read, learn and see of the rest of the world, the more I have learned to appreciate what we have here. Don't get me wrong, despite the moose jokes, I love the US and Americans, it is a terrific place. I love visiting and I adore my American friends - but it isn't my home. So to all my fellow Canadian readers, I wish you a Happy Canada Day today - and leave you with this quote from Robertson Davies. It is one I read at my father's funeral and now that I've grown up, can admit speaks for the way I view my country. 

“Because I am a Canadian, I couldn’t really live anywhere else. I have had chances to do so and have never given it serious consideration. I belong here. To divorce yourself from your roots is spiritual suicide….I just am a Canadian. It is not a thing which you can escape from - it is like having blue eyes.”

-Robertson Davies

******
And because I think one of the best 'traits' of Canadians is our ability to laugh at ourselves, here is one of my very favorite YouTube videos - Canadian Please