Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
O Canada! Our home and native land.
O Canada! The true north strong and free rings out far and wide as we celebrate another Canada Day. We are a young country doing our best to offer all who live within our borders a good life.
Canada is our home, some of us were born here, and some of us came here at various ages and stages in life. Canada Day is a day to celebrate our present, our past, and our future. There is no country without the good, the bad, and the ugly. This year, we have only been a country for 158 years.
I was listening to a podcast where the podcaster asked a Canadian what makes us different from the USA. It seems like a strange question to me, would we ask a U.K. citizen what makes them different, or a French citizen, so why would an American think they have the gall to ask a Canadian what makes us Canadian, and why we don’t want to be an American? Should we be insulted when citizens of what they think is the greatest country on earth wonder why we wouldn’t want to join them? They might think it is a compliment to be invited to join the greatest country in the world, and wonder why we are getting our backs up.
Why isn’t an orange an apple? Why isn’t a zebra the same as a horse? What’s the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? It is true that Canada and America are from the same tree, and part of North America. If Canada and the U.S. united into a North American Union, we would not be American. France is part of the EU, but it is still France. America would be part of the North American Union, and Canada would be part of the North American Union, but we would not be a state of America.
True patriot love in all of us command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise, the True North strong and free!
My husband is telling me we are an ungrateful bunch because we don’t realize how good we have it. This might be true, but many of us think we had it better before houses got out of reach for the average Canadian. Are we a victim of success, being priced out of our cities? Visitors talk about Toronto as a special place to visit, but is it good when the residents aren’t as happy as the visitors? I’ve always thought that being attractive to tourists is a trap, because it places tourism above the interests of the common people.
Canada is growing up, we are suffering growing pains, an identity crisis, and the angst of living next to the USA. We need to watch letting America use our inferiority complex against us. We’ve carved a niche for ourselves in the world; we need to continue to build Canada for Canadians, whether they are old or new.
O Canada, we have our difficulties, challenges, and possibilities. Will we deal with the challenges to the best of our abilities? Will our leaders always make the best decision? Will everything always work out as we want, or will there be unintended consequences to our best intentions? Perfection is the enemy of the good, and if we are never willing to make a mistake or fail, we will never do anything.
Canada isn’t perfect, and we’ll never be perfect. We have overcome challenges in the past, and we will overcome challenges now, and some challenges might always be with us as we strive to build a country that offers the best to its citizens and the world.
I’m looking at the lyrics of O Canada, first written in 1880, it was commissioned by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Theodore Robitaille, for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony. The music was composed by Calixa Lavallee, and the words were written by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. O Canada has been our de facto national anthem since 1939, but only became our official national anthem after receiving royal assent, which became effective July 1st, 1980.
Celebrate Canada on Canada Day and every day. We aren’t perfect, we’ll never be perfect, but perfection is the enemy of the good. Being a good country is a worthy ambition; there will be mistakes and missteps, we need to keep moving forward, and continue to be proud of our home and native land.
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
