Oh Canada...

Today is Canada Day, our national holiday -- once known as Dominion Day, which I actually think is a much more poetic & historically based name. (One of the things that drives me nuts about this otherwise great country of ours is that we complain that we have no institutions, no sense of history, no clear identity -- & then go about dismantling or ignoring the few institutions that we have.) Michael Valpy of the Globe & Mail used to lead an annual crusade, "Give us back our Dominion Day" (I even have a T-shirt from that) & the Globe used to reprint an annual editorial on the subject, but I've noticed they have been silent on the issue & seem to have given up that fight over the last few years. Pity.

Anyway, whatever you want to call it, & however you want to celebrate it, it's a day to reflect & give thanks for a wonderful country. I have said it before, & I'll say it again -- when I think about the historical lot of women, and even how some women still live (if you can call it living) in some places in the world today, I am so, so thankful to the Powers That Be that I was born a woman in the latter half of the 20th century in Canada. I think that makes me one of the luckiest creatures on earth.

Happy birthday, Canada!

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I was just over at Ann Douglas's Mother of All Blogs, & she had this fabulous You Tube video posted -- a glorious photo montage set to Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy. Very moving. I have no idea how to embed a video in my blog, but here's the link (& I've linked to Ann's post above as well). I can't imagine any Canadian hearing that music & seeing those images without getting at least a couple of goosebumps. ; )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zjoO170XFI