Sunday 1 July 2012

Canada Day 2012


    Happy Canada Day!!!!!!!  To my family Canada Day is almost as big as Christmas.  We really love it!  For the last 14 years I have dressed my kid (s) in red and white, and they have walked in the Tweed Canada Day Parade.  Some years I sew the kids entire Canada Day outfits.  I question my sanity the night before as I frantically sew up shorts, and skirts for the kids, and often for their friends.


    The parade starts on one of the back streets and winds its way down the main street and ends at our park.  At the park are tons of family activities.  There are games for the kids, free cake, free drinks, free boat rides (oh we love the boat rides), it is the highlight of the year.  Last year the municipality purchased fireworks.  It was a great show.


    This year Gracie has been asked to sing the National Anthem.  I am so proud of her, and nervous at the same time.  She has been practicing several times a day.  I have to admit, she's quite good.  I know that I will be blinded by tears as I watch her.


    Canada Day is the day that we express our love for our country.  I am sometimes a little envious of our American neigbours.  Their flag and flag colours better lend themselves to decor.  They shout out their pride in country, while our love and pride are something that we feel, but it seems unseemly to us to shout out.  Stephen Harper had to go to parliment to encourage Canadians before the 2010 Olympics.
 "I know that thoughts of grandeur and boisterous displays of nationalism we tend to associate with others," he said.
"And, over the centuries, things have been done around the world in the name of national pride or love of country that would have been better left undone."
"Yet, we should never cast aside our pride in a country so wonderful, in a land we are so fortunate to call home, merely because the notion has sometimes been abused," said Harper. "We will ask the world to forgive us this uncharacteristic outburst of patriotism, of our pride, to be part of a country that is strong, confident, and tall among the nations."



    From the Olympics also came a beautiful piece about Canada from Tom Brokaw.  Every time I watch it, it brings a proud tear to my eye.



Happy Canada Day!


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