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Canadian, Eh?

It's the little things.

kev · June 28, 2005

This Friday marks the 138th anniversary of the formation of our wee dominion of Canada. It’s known as “Canada Day”, and is usually celebrated by ingesting copious quantities of bottled barley beverages, BBQ’d meat of multiple kinds, and salad that someone else brought beause meat’s expensive these days and hey, we all need the roughage. There are Canadian flags here and there, a fireworks display, and pissed-off St. Jean Baptiste-ers from last week. Oh, and it’s a statutory holiday, which is the really important part.

With all the crappiness going on in the world, it’s nice to remember that no matter how stupid our politicians can be, Canada remains a nice place to live. We have our challenges ahead, not the least of which is preventing being bullied into bringing our society, legal system, intellectial property rules, and FUD-mongering in line with our neighbours to the South. It’s a great place to be, and I can’t think of anywhere else I’d want to call “home”.

Sometimes I forget to show how much I love this place, and I’m pretty sure others do, too. I think just sitting and thinking about how lucky we are is a cop-out, and that you actually have to do something. So, in honour of Canada Day, here’s five things I’d ask you to try to accomplish in the next week or so to reconnect with the Canadian buried within.

• Don’t buy Molson. They’re not Canadian, and haven’t been for a long time. They employ Canadians, but that’s as Canadian as they get these days. While they have nice branding and shiny red maple leafs everywhere, they’ve really been the Australian and American brewery bitches for years. The focus for the last couple of decades has been on making great advertising instead of a product people would want to buy. The “I Am Canadian” tagline is dead because Molson isn’t, and dear old John is most assuredly rolling in his grave. Stick to the smaller breweries, and keep all the coin in our fair country. Your tastebuds will even thank you for it.
• Write a letter to your MP and remind them that they are elected to represent us and protect our interests, and not to be whores for industries whose business model is currently broken. There are plenty of businesses out there that understand the concept of selling product that people want at a price they’re willing to pay or perishing. Ask them to let the big boys figure that out, too, and that we don’t need to change our laws just because some bought flacks in another country think it’s a good idea.
• Support the CFL and see at least one game this summer. It’s really the only pro sport we have that we can still call “ours”. In a bizarre turn of events, some Americans even move here after they discover it’s not so bad. The price is right, the teams are motivated, and the officiating is so bad that you’re guaranteed to have an excuse if your team loses and at least a couple hours of water-cooler talk. Remember that beer sales stop at the end of the third quarter.
• Show the flag inside the country a little. When travelling abroad we all tend to wave the flag and decree our Canadianism, because we’ve heard people like the fact that we can be polite and fun to hang around with. Take the behaviour that you associate with being Canadian, and practice it at home a little more. You don’t actually need to show the red and white while you do this, just keep in mind what it symbolises and wear it on your sleeve literally or figuratively. Wearing Roots doesn’t count. Vacationing at home does.
• Read the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If you can only do one of these five things, this is the important one. The Charter is an incredibly well written legal document. It outlines your rights in plain English, and absolutely every Canadian should understand what those rights are instead of relying on someone else to tell them. People use their ignorance of those rights to excuse their bad behaviour all the time, and there is no excuse why every one of us shouldn’t read and understand what really is the basis of being Canadian.

Ok, flag-waving over. Enjoy the bottled barley beverages, the fireworks, and the BBQ. Make sure you sing along whenever you hear that little ditty about our country, and don’t worry about how slurred the words are when they come out of your mouth. Remember why you’re here (or want to be). Happy Canada Day, and if you happen to run into Jeremy Roenick while you’re celebrating, please punch him for me on behalf of most of the real fans I know.

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