It is okay to be patriotic. It is especially alright for Canadians. There is a lot to cheer about across our country. There is much to love about this strikingly beautiful and richly endowed land. And there are some very good people here. Many are smart. Most are very pleasant. A few are angry about something or other but luckily they are the exception. After all, if there were not a few assholes around, how could we recognize and appreciate the nice people.
And we certainly appreciate those nice ones. We smile at the person who holds a door for us. We thank people who are pleasant to deal with in business. We wave at a motorist who lets us in to a line of traffic. We greet people we know well with appropriate hugs or kisses. Canadians are, in the main, warm-hearted, friendly people. They are also mostly tolerant. They do not all go into shock to find out someone is gay. They generally accept the facts that not everybody has the same birth language, the same religion or no religion.
If we were asked for just one word to describe Canadians, our vote is for tolerance. We are known around the world for that. People respect us as a nation for our tolerance. Americans envy it. Brits see it as part of our youthful exuberance as a country. The French deride it. The Germans do not understand it. The Scandinavians want us to pay them royalties for it. In other countries, the struggle to simply survive leaves little time to contemplate it. Canadians should enjoy it.
But first, we have to deal with some of those aforementioned assholes. One, we would push to the front of the line, is Mr. Stephen Harper. Some think the Prime Minister is a wolf in boring clothing. One thing we know for sure, he lacks tolerance. He appears to us to be a chauvinist, a careless laissez faire economist, an egotist and he has proved he has no compunction about lying to the Canadian people. He is a warmonger. He is mean spirited. And he has damaged our international reputation. We should all feel sorry for the people whom he gulled into voting for his party. Boy, will they regret it!
But, obviously, his government will run its course. That gives Canadians a window of about four years to plan a better way to run our wonderful country. That is not much time for the makeover of a country.
What we need is a larger and more vocal movement to endorse a constitutional conference for the country. The conference would need to be followed up with a referendum. There is no other peaceful way that we can effect change in how we are governed. If you think we should wait for the federal and provincial governments to agree on changes, you should live so long! These governments will not agree to a constitutional conference unless we as citizens force the issue. We have to cut across party boundaries, political boundaries and cultural boundaries and make politicians pay attention.
Today is Canada Day, 2011. In 2017, our country will be 150 years old. Is it not about time that you get off your ass and care? Is it not time to wave that beautiful flag and say enough is enough? Let’s grow up Canada.
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