A Not So Happy Canada Day, Eh?

Tomorrow is Canada Day – July 1 – 143 years of our confederation. We’re not as old nor do we have the history of our big brother to the south – the US of eh, eh?

But we Canadians have a lot to be proud of.

Or we did.

Once upon a time.

Our population continues to grow – Statistics Canada, the federal government agency which keeps track of such things, tells us we’re now a country of over 34 million people. They also tell us that now 50 percent of our population wasn’t born here, and just over half of those people don’t speak either of our two official languages.

Wait a sec . . .

How can you go into someone’s home, take up roots there, and re-arrange the furniture without anyone minding?

That’s what has been going on in our home and native land, mostly in our large urban areas. There are streets in Toronto and Vancouver where if you don’t speak Chinese or Hindu, you won’t get very far – in fact you are made to feel uncomfortable intentionally.

If you ask the residents or business owners on those streets for directions, you’ll be told: “sorry, I don’t speak any English.” Funny though, they always speak perfect English when they tell you they don’t.

Newly settled parents to our great land even tell their kids not to play with anyone who’s not like them after school – they send them to special schools where all the kids are from families of their homeland, so during school they are free to do as they wish.

How unCanadian is that?

We warmly welcome newcomers to our great land, only to be given the shaft.
If and when we humble and polite Canadians mumble something about that being wrong, how it is best for all the kids in the neighbourhood to play together, the newcomers join forces upon us, using our own Human Rights and Freedoms laws against us, claiming we are in the wrong for discriminating against them.

Being the peace-loving, good natured and overly polite Canadians we are, we go back and sit on the bench, keeping it warm, hoping that one day the newcomers to our land will feel comfortable enough to break bread with and be our friends.

Problem is, the newcomers to our once great land are already quite comfortable, living their lives just as they did back in their native land, without you or me.

Essentially, they have already established their own country within our country.
They have setup their own culturally-specific schools, so that their kids will never have to mix and mingle with anyone outside their race or creed. They create their own restaurants, shops and businesses, hiring only others from their homeland, so they don’t have any misunderstandings with you or me. They read newspapers written for them, in their native languages, listen to music and radio stations in their native tongues – hell even good old CBC – Canada’s national broadcaster – is televising Hockey Night In Canada in Hindu so the newcomers can watch our game, without learning English or French.

You know something is amiss when Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry is replaced – period.

It isn’t just our national broadcaster, all government institutions and many big businesses are feeding the storm, making it one nasty beast.

The running joke used to be, in order to work for the Government of Canada, you had to like poutine on your hockey puck. In other words, you had to be fully bilingual, in both our official languages of English or French.

Not so any more – oh the federal government still hires fully bilingual people, but so long as you speak English OR French AND another language, they’ll almost certainly take you. Government brass love to brag about how they offer their services in over 120 different languages.

Not that those who come to this great land don’t deserve the same benefits as those who were born here. I’m sure whatever civil servant or politician came up with the notion of offering government services in a multitude of languages had the noblest of intentions.

However noble the initial intentions were, the trends and statistics clearly show that was one of many errors of judgement.

We’re being kicked out of our own country, slowly and silently by newcomers that just don’t want anything to do with Canadians.

Oh they’ll cry racism, and proudly hold up their citizenship cards – we give those things to anyone these days – another fault of our governmental policy.

But they are the ones being racist.

We aren’t the ones telling our kids not to play with their kids. We aren’t the ones not hiring people because they don’t look and sound like us. We aren’t the ones intentionally making others that don’t look like us or sound like us feel awkward or uncomfortable.

We’re just being typically Canadian, politically correct, peaceful, welcoming anyone into our homes, our schools, our workplaces – our lives.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so damn welcoming?

Happy Canada Day.

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World Cup an Indication of a Canada Lost

As the World Cup continues in South Africa, celebrations of games lost and won continue worldwide.

That’s certainly evident to passersby in Canada’s largest city – you’ll see Toronto drivers proudly flying their country’s pick for support from their homes, their balconies and their cars.

Not since the Toronto Blue Jays first won the World Series in 1992 have I seen so many flags flying across the city.

It’s a joy to see the energy and support driven by loyal fans.

That got me thinking – how come we don’t see that many Canadian Flags come our nation’s birthday?

Canada Day – the day we became a nation – is just over three-weeks away, yet I don’t see a sea of red and white Canadian Flags.

And it isn’t that the World Cup is overshadowing Canada’s day, it appears every year for as long as I can remember, there are fewer and fewer Canadian Flags period.

When I was a kid, I remember celebrating Canada Day up at the family cottage a long time ago. My cousins and I made the five-mile trek up a dusty gravel road to the local tennis club, which also doubled as the center for group activities in the sleepy summer-resort town.

The weeks leading up to the proudly Canadian moment were obvious everywhere. Whenever we went into town for supplies, or to catch a movie on a rainy day, all the streets – not just the main street – ALL the streets – were dotted with red and white Canadian Flags hanging from street lamps, store fronts, and people’s homes.

I remember one store window which had taken every Canadian icon, and created a fun and colourful display to honour our nation’s birth. It was a scene of a beaver chomping on the CNTower, while being scolded for doing so by a Mountie. A flock of Canadian Geese hanging on wires was shown flying overhead.

Everyone was talking about this one event the weeks leading up to it. The other kids and I were excited to munch on red and white coloured floss candy, while watching fireworks. The adults were looking forward to the BBQ and beer, and I remember hearing rumours of a skinny dip party, but what do I know, I was just a kid.

I remember wearing a red shirt, white shorts and being handed a mini Canadian Flag as I flied out the door to meet up with my cousins and the local kids, the night of Canada’s birth. There must have been about 20 of us, as we excitedly hopped and skipped along that dusty gravel road, to watch the fireworks.

We’d meet up with the rest of the kids in the area, and later the adults would pop on by too – as the sun darted into darkness, setting the stage for the fireworks.

Everywhere you looked there were signs of Canada. People dressed in red and white, waving Canadian Flags, people with red maple leafs painted on their faces. Someone had gone so far as to die half their head red, the other white!

There was red and white cotton candy, maple fudge – in the shape of maple leaves no doubt – they even were handing out red and white popcorn!

It was a great time to show our home town pride, in our home and native land.
I remember other past Canada Day celebrations too, but with each passing year, they got smaller and smaller.

Even in the big city of Toronto, I remembered they used to have Canadian Flags overflowing up and down University Avenue, along Yonge Street, and even along some of the main streets of the suburbs such as Markham, Unionville and Stouffville – just northeast of Toronto.

There used to be a giant Canada Day fireworks celebration at the Markham Fair, a growing suburb just north of Toronto.

Fireworks still ignite the night’s sky, but the weeks, days and even hours before seem a lot less patriotic than years past.

What happened Canada?

I’ll tell ya what happened –we’ve lost touch with what it means to be Canadian.

It used to be a privilege to be a Canadian. People from other countries who came here had to really want to be here to settle down and have a Canadian life.
Becoming Canadian wasn’t just a rubber stamp, you had to really want it bad.

But over the years, our overly politically correct governments have lessened the requirements to joining this once great land, so much so, those coming here don’t respect Canadian values.

Our once proud land, a smorgasbord of cultures from all over the world worked together, making Canada great.

These days, those who come here want nothing to do with you or me, unless you look like others from their cultural group, speak in their home tongue, or participate in their culture.

Instead of continuing to share, develop and grow as a country embracing different cultures and beliefs, we have become a country with hostile pockets of other countries embedded within.

Unless you want to be mistaken as the white cleaner, don’t go to the Chinese megamall. Don’t walk down that street after dark, you’ll get beat up or worse – shot – by the Jamaican gangs, because you don’t fit in. You can’t get a job there – you don’t speak Punjabi.

Oh how I miss the Canada of days gone by, where it doesn’t matter where you originated from, we all got along under the proud glow of red and white.

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