July 1

Happy 153rd birthday to our great country. I am proud to call myself Canadian; today more than ever. We have succeeded in controlling the pandemic within our borders, of ‘flattening the curve’. I don’t always agree with our fuzzy-faced Prime Minister, I am proud of the people of this country for coming together apart and keeping our viral enemy at bay. So a happy birthday to Canada is in order on the grandest scale.

Unfortunately, there would be no grand-scale celebrations today.

We should be in the south of England celebrating with our friends. Travel is only now being permitted again to Europe, yet that is not a reality for most Canadians. Very few could afford to return home and quarantine for fourteen days. Still, things look good for much of the world, except for our friends to the south. They are reaping what they sew and are losing the battle to flatten the curve. In Canada like Europe, we worked together and stayed the course and now we can enjoy the benefits. I could wish for us to be in Europe now, in reality, we will wait a year and hope to celebrate Canada Day in England with our friends in 2021 or even 2022. This year is one to stay home and celebrate in silence.

Canada has much to be proud of. Our healthcare system and belief in helping out the less fortunate have enabled us to survive much better than many others. While we wonder how our government will ever pay back the debt we are accumulating, we are keeping the worst of the problems at bay. This virus is bad and the cure may well be worse, but we only need to look at the chaos and dissension south of us to see what the alternative could have been. As storms of disease and racism rage around us, our country is an island of relative calm.

I watched “The Rant” today. A poignant and hilarious ode to Canada released twenty years ago. It is as relevant now as it was when Molson first released it. It is unfortunate that an iconic brand from a Canadian family is no longer truly one hundred percent Canadian. That is probably the reason the only way we see that commercial is on YouTube. I laughed as I listened to the ramblings of true Canadiana:

Hey, I’m not a lumberjack, or a fur trader…
I don’t live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled…
and I don’t know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada,
although I’m certain they’re really really nice.

I have a Prime Minister, not a president.
I speak English and French, not American.
And I pronounce it ‘about’, not ‘a boot’.
I can proudly sew my country’s flag on my backpack.

I believe in peacekeeping, not policing,
diversity, not assimilation,
and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
A toque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch,
and it is pronounced ‘zed’ not ‘zee’, ‘zed’ !!!!

Canada is the second-largest landmass!
The first nation of hockey!
and the best part of North America
My name is Joe!!
And I am Canadian!!!

Happy Canada to all my fellow Canadians! And to the rest of the world, please give us this one day of the year to pound our chest and shout to the world; “I am Canadian.”