Posted on 07/02/2007 3:52:15 AM PDT by Clive
Birthday wishes for Canada
Pay as much attention to your community as you do to yourself and this country will be better
By MOIRA MACDONALD
I am a Centennial baby. Which always makes me feel extra patriotic on the Canada Day long weekend (the parents for a long time insisted it was still "Dominion Day"). I've got the special baby blanket pin Centennial babies got that year with that oh-so-'60s, tanagram-style maple leaf on it. I've got plenty of Centennial year pennies. I even learned how to swim at Scarborough's Centennial Arena.
My mother's only regret was I couldn't hold off being born by about 26 hours, which would have made me one of the first babes of Canada's second century.
My date of birth has still managed to plant my own annual celebration right around the festivities for our nation's birthday. When I was a kid, it turned my birthday parties into Polish weddings, going on for three days. I'd turn five, Canada turned 105. I turned 10, Canada turned 110. These days though it's almost too much of a good thing. Canada just turned 140. You barely need to do the math to guess what that makes me.
Forty years in the life of a nation marks only a blip on the radar screen of history. Forty years of human life though is, well, potentially the best 40 years you'll know. Then again, when you hit 40, you've got a slightly better handle on how things work. At 20, you haven't a clue. However at 40 you are also starting to sense your brain cells' depletion rate is rapidly accelerating. A nation at 40, on the other hand, is only just beginning to create a memory of itself.
I was born right into the era of Trudeau-mania and the kindly, if bland, smile of Bill Davis. As the daughter of one of the most anti-Trudeau journalists in the country, I learned to distrust Pierre Elliott Trudeau and all Liberals (except for most of our neighbours and quite a few of our friends). I got the Trudeau "fuddle duddle" dollars to prove it.
I also learned not to say bad things about Premier Davis, though not necessarily good things either -- he was still a "red Tory."
I was born into the era of sex, drugs and rock and roll, which meant once in a while the teenager across the street would stand outside and talk to his tree with a huge smile on his face while we younger kids trotted home from school for lunch.
So on this 140th birthday of Canada what do I wish for?
I wish this country's spirit of tolerance, acceptance and support for human rights continues to spread -- to the newcomers to this country and the oldcomers. We've all got more to learn no matter how long we've been here, the colour of our skin or the shape of our beliefs. Fear of difference crosses all boundaries.
I wish we would put as much importance on the concept of self-responsibility -- to our communities and our country -- as we do on rights. Interesting, isn't it, that we have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms but no similar recognition of our responsibilities to each other.
As for rights, I wish freedom of speech existed for everybody in this country. The increasing discussion of "whistleblower" protections and the code of silence in some of our neighbourhoods and even public institutions shows we are not as different from non-democracies as we puff ourselves up to think.
I wish every Canadian would experience one of our rivers or lakes in a canoe. No matter what Pierre Berton said, you don't have to make love in one to be Canadian. Just paddle and discover all those great animals you might only have ever seen on your pocket change.
And, I hope we never learn to not say "sorry." There are worse traits to make up a national identity. Politeness isn't such a bad one.
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AND I will wish Mexico a Happy Birthday too (I believe on Sept 16), as well as the US tomorrow.
May ALL THREE continue to have their own "Happy Birthday's" for many years to come!
Happy birthday, Canada. I wish the Flames a better season next year.
Americas wish for Canada. Could you please send us more Canadian beer.
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