July 1, 1999

Celebrating our Nationhood - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

Surely we celebrate the First of July with the same gusto and chutzpah as our neighbors down South when they celebrate the Fourth of July. But alas, we do not. Why? Didn’t Shelia Copps hand out enough Canadian flags for everyone to have a couple of years ago? Don’t we have an interesting history to celebrate? Don’t we have legends passed down onto us by our elders, worth celebrating?

It’s a shame really, that we can’t work up the enthusiasm to really ring in the First of July with any sort of blind patriotism. Perhaps it’s the fact that we are so unique, that takes away from any sort of hoopla we display? Maybe we Canadians are so proud of being Canadian, the First of July is just another day of the year, and we celebrate all year round? Perhaps I’m being too optimistic.

This year, a week directly ahead of Canada Day is Quebec’s biggest day of the year, St. Jean Baptise Day. Maybe after all that celebrating across Quebec last week, it makes the average Quebecker too tired to celebrate Canada Day? The only people to celebrate the uniqueness of our nation’s bilingualism, will probably be the only people in Canada who are bilingual. The only people to celebrate Canada’s newest territory Nunuvat, will be the actual people living in Nunuvat. The only people to celebrate the great prairie land of Canada will be those settlers who actually live in the Praries. Whether your an anglophone or a francophone, a Native Indian or an East Indian, a Chinese Canadian or a Spanish Canadian, we all take the briefest of moments, sometimes not on Canada Day, and think of how lucky we are to be living in such a mixed up, crazy, wacky, unique, challenging, different and interesting country, Canada.

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