I'm going to celebrate Canada Day. I love it here.

That's not to say Canada is perfect. There is nothing that is unimproveable. I can't agree with the "love it or leave it" attitude - if you think it can be better, work to make it so.

Here's to all the Canadians, from those who have been here for 20,000 years to those who get off the plane today to start a new life in a new home [^].

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Wine stirs the spring, happiness bursts through the earth like a plant, walls crumble, and rocky cliffs, chasms close, as song is born.

Very well said it Dru!

Something to think about:
"We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate...thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising"
Maya Angelou

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Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.

Really? And does this involve climbing something? Cause I want to celebrate too... []

Agreed. We also should not forget the Jews slaughtered under Hitler, or how the Chinese clamped down on their own student protesters, etc, etc. The list could go on and on. The point is to remember these events and learn and grow from it so it won't be repeated. Forgiving it the key to healing. Bitterness will fester and only make the unforgiving miserable.
Canada is great!

Modern Canadians should not have to pay for what happened a hundred years ago...

Carmen, before you turn your back on Canada in a self-righteous huff, you should ask yourself if Chinese people haven't been treated better overall in *Canada* than they have been by their own government. The head tax was racist and insulting and we apologized for it, but at least Canada doesn't have to apologize for Tiananmen Square (3000 dead), ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, political prisons, and capital punishment for everything (3400 executions per year).

If you can think of a nation on this earth that is more worth celebrating than Canada, perhaps you should move there. (Don't let the door hit you on the way out....)

Don't forget the evil emoticon.

Don't go anywhere Carmen, You opened a can of worms and that is the freedom we have in Canada to discuss and disagree with what happens around us. Celebrate the good parts and reject the bad.

I love my country, but I also am prepared to question everything it does and stands for. The whole love it or leave thing is a bit too black and white, you're either with us or against us. Unquestioning loyalty to anything, anyone, is always a dangerous thing in my humble opinion... but you know what they say about opinions!

Well said Frenchie! Over the years I have talked to a huge amount of immigrants to Canada and it is little wonder that it is rated one of the best places in the world to live. Yes Canada had a dark past but unfortunately there are groups who refuse to look to the future and only live in the past.

Perhaps you should look at world history or check out what has happened in Rwanda , Zimbabwe , Afghanistan ( you only hear about that because of the oil and that's all ) . Jews like to remind us constantly about the six million killed . Talk to someone from Russia and they will tell you about the atrocities Stalin Committed , which made Hitler look like an amateur. We have Brazilian Death Squads killing street children . I heard about this first hand from one who escaped . Another acquaintance of mine watched in horror as his entire family was put to death in El Salvatore.
So you don't want to celebrate Canada day ? Too bad, at least you are free to make that choice.
Frankly Carmen I'm a bit surprised at you.

The rest of you will have to forgive me . I tend to get a bit touchy when people forget just how lucky they really are

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Vancouver Hiking

My take on this is that Canada is a free and just society. It is that sense of justice and fairness that pushes us to compensate for past wrongs.

Certainly people today aren't responsible for past wrongs, but the society we live in was built to some extent on exploiting them. (Native issues, Chinese head tax, Japanese internment and property seizure in WW2 etc) People's lives were and are affected by these issues and we as a society have a responsibility for redress.

Is Canada perfect, no but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else...well maybe Australia. (I like kangaroos)

I'm done ranting now.

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Nature is my inspiration

I love where I live and wouldn't want to be known as anything other than "canadian". Celebrate canada day? Probably not but I don't celebrate many other holidays either except a chance to be out doing something fun. Which I suspect many of you do as well.

That being said there are two issues here - past and present. Our past is who we have become and yes some of it is pretty bad but we have made some changes, made apologies and have acceptance of some peoples. One of the things I enjoy most being a Canadian is our politeness and allowance of differing opionions.

However, the next issue is our present - looking at our 1st Nation policies, immigration policies etc, seeing first hand of deep seated racial prejudices, intolerance of ethnic/cultural diversities and the need for a homogenous state particularily in small town Northern BC means we still have a long way to go.

But I think as Canadians we'll try.
End of rant.

Right on Telkwa.

Carmen. Good for you for saying what is on your mind.

The people that say don't let the door hit you on the way out are the same kind of people that blindly support whoever is in charge...no matter what.

Go independant thinking!! F!_!ck group mentality. Question authority.

I will be at the Canada day parade. I do however respect your decision to not celebrate. It is your right to (not) do so. If people want to think lower of you for not doing so then they are the asshat...not you.

I think the main problem here is the title of he post.I can truly say that it pissed me of when I read it.The intelligence of many of the thread replies definately took the burn out of the title though.And I don't see anybody blindly supporting anybody.Long live the opinion.

The title might do it. I just kind of jump around into threads without reading titles and talk smack.