Do you really believe in this country? Do you believe in your good fortune to be a Canadian? These questions are asked this July 1 in all seriousness. We should ask them more often. I think there are too many of us who pay lip service to the country on this day and then go back to wondering what the country can do for them.
I think we have too much rhetoric on this day and too little commitment. What we are doing is thinking small. We are looking inward to our own wants—not necessarily our needs. Today and maybe every day, we should set aside our wants and look to what others need. If we all put some energy into the needs of others, we would not have to look so hard and so long for what we might need.
On the world stage, Canada is an underachiever. Oh sure, others think of Canada as nice. They admire the green of our forests and the richness of our land and its resources. Yet we restrict admission to this land of plenty and we build resentments. Canadians can be hypocrites.
Canada has to open its doors much wider. We have to tell those people Donald Trump is keeping out of America that there is room for them in Canada. We have to learn from the Germans how they took in the hordes of the desperate from North Africa and from the Middle East.
The point is that this country has to grow much faster. It has to grow in workforce and in energy and in attitudes. We need more soldiers for aiding the populace in peace and protecting them. We need more navy to patrol what is becoming our northern shores. We need more air force to properly patrol our skies.
Farming is becoming more mechanized, more corporate but it still needs people who can endure, dream, work and achieve to feed a larger population and develop more to feed the world.
We need high-speed transportation in Canada and that will take engineers, and emerging technologies and the workers to build the greater Canada for tomorrow.
But you add to the list. Each and everyone of us shares this responsibility. Each of us to our own ability. Each of us to add to the dream. Each of us to build. Happy Canada Day. Let’s get out there and wave our flag!
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Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
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