Yet, we are not a doormat. Our neighbour to the South, filled with many good people, has a reputation around the world as a country which sometimes sticks its nose where it doesn't belong. It is unfair to judge the people who live in that country by the people governing it, and that's all I'll say about that for now.
Back to us for a moment.
As a Canadian, you can travel the world, and just about everywhere you go, you will be welcomed and well-liked. Many Canadians for many generations before us made that possible.
Here, we celebrate the differences of other cultures, rather than advise those other cultures to conform to the culture of the country they're now living in. As a matter of fact, the culture of the country that people from around the world are now living in, when they live here in Canada, is the culture which celebrates diverse cultures.
It can be the way to peace and harmony, to accept all other cultures as they are, but it has its flaws, this system. People with no intention of ever learning either of our country's languages move here, and then complain that they can't find work, and live off of some kind of social assistance program, and those who work hard and pay taxes here support that system, and those freeloaders.
No plan is perfect, and there will always be people who will try to take advantage. But the alternative - to have people from other nations kept out to avoid this problem, might have meant that all the hard workers from around the world who came to Canada and helped build this country and make it what it is today, might not have come. They might have gone somewhere else, and the few of us who came early would be envious of whatever that other country became.
Luckily, we created the model, and so far, we have not given up on it.
My mother came from Scotland at the age of five with her family. Her father was a shipwright, and came to build ships at Davey's Shipyards in Quebec on the St. Lawrence River.
My father's family emigrated from Ireland to British Columbia, and his father was in the Merchant Marines.
My wife's family followed her father to Canada from Denmark, and he ran
the Canadian division of a Danish food company from Toronto.
I do not mean to sound disparaging toward the U.S. when I say that we in Canada are not a "love it or leave it" kind of place. We just aren't.
I fear, though, with the wrong kind of government - one which panders to our powerful neighbour to the South, not unlike the way Mr. Harper has begun to pander to Mr. Bush - we might become one, and that would strip away much of the good that's been done to make this country what it is today. If we cannot remain friends with the U.S. without agreeing to fight in every war that their governments start, then maybe we were never friends with the U.S. to begin with.
We need to keep celebrating our differences in Canada, and welcoming people from around the world to come here as a place of refuge from repression, and a place where you can make an honest living to feed your family.
Would I like to see a few more Canadian flags flown during the World Cup of Soccer along with the flags of the countries that are competing?
Of course I would. I was born here, and my children were born here.
But everyone needs to remember their roots, regardless of their reasons for leaving their homelands. It's as natural as honoring your parents.
Thank you, Canada, for being the cool country you are, and Happy 139th birthday, albeit a little belated.
I'm proud to have been born here, and to call you my home.
Here are the flags we fly in our house.
