Happy Canada Day!!

Happy Canada Day, to my homeland, my Canadian friends, and to my non-Canadian friends who can celebrate today in honour of all the richness we Canadians bring into the world.  This includes, but is not limited to, the use of superfluous u's in many words, the popularization of self deprecating humour, loads of irony, Avril Lavigne, Nickelback, Michael J Fox, poutine, and I will even claim Celine Dion today since I have learned how much my non-Canadian friends love her.

Sometimes people ask me "What is Canada Day?"  It is our national holiday, our "birthday," or specifically, it celebrates July 1, 1867 when Canada became an official country under the British North American Act.  Prior to this date, there were 3 British Colonies, called the Province of Quebec, the province of Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada.  Yup, the British were in control of such things until the Constitution Act in 1982.  What about the French?  Well, the country of France has been out of the Canada game officially since the Treaty of Paris in 1763 (you might recall that back in the exploration and trading boom there were both British and French colonies in Canada and the US).  However, while as far as I know, France has no emotional ties to Canada's French community, there are still some descendants who hold on to that ancestry and create a unique flavour within Canada....being Francophone.  There are also Metis, Inuit, and the rest of us who just call ourselves Canadian.  For the most part, everyone in this latter group has ancestors from somewhere else far away, but it isn't common to say, "Russian Canadian," or "Polish Canadian," but rather just "Canadian."  One of the beauties of being Canadian, is that once you are Canadian, you are just simply Canadian, unless you self proclaim to be otherwise.  I have noticed while overseas that people very often ask "Where are you from?" to others, and what they mean is, where are you from, or your parents from, before they were here?  It always strikes me as funny, because in Canada, no matter what ethnicity, if you are from Canada, you are from Canada.

But back to Canada from Bermuda.  I will miss the sunny outdoors celebration of fireworks and BBQ, but Canada Day is celebrated in Bermuda....mostly by the Association of Canadians in Bermuda, who host an annual Beach Party on the Saturday of the holiday.  This year, the celebration took place on the 28th.  But at least it happened.

Canada Day Beach Party

And so, I will give a big shout out to everyone at home, hope you are having a fabulous day!  And to my non-Canadian friends, "Have a good one, eh?"   Yeah, that is the first and last gratuitous eh you are getting from me.  Happy Holidays!