Hey there BTribbers, long time no see. Sorry I’ve been gone so long, I know you all must have missed me 🙂 but I’ve been quite sick & not capable of staring at a computer screen, let alone typing. But never fear, I’m feeling much better and am inspired on this lovely Canuckian Day to venture back onto the net and share some thoughts before I head outside to enjoy the sunshine, some Alexander Keith’s Pale Ale & fireworks…
I’ve already spread some snark on the site this morning so really, what’s left but a diary and beer? 😉
What does it mean to be Canadian? Tribe34 posted a wonderful diary expressing an opinion that I share, but that’s never stopped me from being redundent and wasting precious diary space before… 😉
so here goes nothing (sorry, no refunds, I can’t be held accountable if you happen to disagree…):
Peace. Justice. Equality. Tolerance. Education. Health. Environment. Diversity.
Those words say it all for me. It is at the core of every Canadian’s being; right, left or centre. When you start with those words as a given, the attitudes and policies naturally flow from there.
Kyoto, conservation, recycling… Hell yes… we have all been into the wilderness (i.e. at least going to someone’s cottage for a long weekend or to an apple farm on a school trip 🙂 & we want to keep our trees, lakes and animals in a nice state. We only inhabit about 80% of the second largest country in the world & driving 30 mins in any direction from our cities gets you into nature. Our cities also have plenty of green space and parks… we bitch and moan in winter, but come summer we are all off to the outdoors 🙂
As an example of this our Crime Stopper alerts for cripes sake in the Maritimes are about Moose hunting & Saturday morning news on the CBC isn’t complete without a cute animal story.
In terms of diversity.. we are so inter-married, pluralistic and diverse in the big cities (i.e. T-dot, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa) that it would be literally mentally painful to maintain a hostile or bigotted world view.
Which leads us to separation of church and state… we actually still have an official government holiday on Good Friday, but we are firmly against the church or religion inserting itself into state affairs. We have so many different religions and ethnicities in our country that who’s would we pick? It would be madness to allow religion into our political and moral process! Madness I tell you!
Hence.. same sex marriage.
We oppose war. Our military is trained for peacekeeping. We proudly wear the blue berets of the UN & get upset when we don’t live up to our obligations to foreign aid and stabilization. We as a country were firmly against the Iraq war, yet we saw Afghanistan as a rightly fought war and are committed to bringing peace to a country so ravaged by conflict for decades.
Do you remember the scene in Bowling for Columbine where Moore asks the teenagers in Windsor if people should have automatic government health care if they are sick & her look and answer was one of pure bewilderment as to why on earth someone would even ask that question… that pretty much sums it up for me… of course everyone should be provided health care as a basic human right.
I could go on and on, but I’m really itching to go outside so I won’t. But I wish everyone on earth a Happy Canada Day today and I hope you are all as lucky as we are to live in a wonderful, diverse & progressive country.
Peace & a Happy Independence Day to my hubby and all the other Yanks on the site… hopefully you can re-take your country from the imperialists again soon!