canada day winnipeg
Another Canada day. A day to sit in the sun, swat mosquitoes, drink beer, take the kids to a street festival, ooh and ahh at fireworks or curl up in front of the TV and watch the celebrations from Parliament Hill featuring acts that no one outside Quebec City jazz clubs or seedy Toronto bars has ever heard of. Basically ‘Up with People’ only more bland and inane.
It’s a day to celebrate all things Canadian…the great Canadian smug fest where we all reflect on how lucky we are to live in the world’s greatest country with the world’s greatest and friendliest and bestest and most giving people and how its all just so special and great that we all get along so well.
Canadians can over do it a bit.
But why not have a bit of pride in your country? And it could be worse. We could be in Afghanistan. I bet they don’t have face painting, beaver tails, folk festivals and fireworks on their day. The only enjoyment you get there is adulterer stoning and deep fried cave rat on a stick.
Canada Day is typically Canadian. Cheap, a bit slapdash, all about the children, strenuously multi-cultural and generally dull. And Quebec doesn’t take part.
Britain doesn’t have a ‘day.’ What would you celebrate? Magna Carta Day? Well, that wouldn’t work as no one know when that it is and it’s probably in February. Victory over the Boche day…well, Britain is all very European and let bygones be bygones and all that. Agincourt/Crecy/Poitiers/Waterloo/Blenheim/Trafalgar Day then…sorry sorry. The Queen’s birthday? Well she has two and frankly both are pretty dull. Lots of trooping and marching and riding around in open top coaches or addresses from the shooting room at Balmoral.
And you have the Scots to think about too. Perhaps they want a day. Act of Union day sounds kind of naughty so maybe not. Ireland has St Patrick’s day and I have commented on how St George’s Day (and St Andrew’s and St. David’s come to think of it) is ignored.
The Last Night at the Proms always seemed a little over the top to me and vaguely vulgar in its patriotic display and so I think until Britain becomes a republic and creates a constitution there will be no real holiday…just the strangely named Bank Holidays. Which was a bloody laugh as every day was a holiday for the banks.
Well I am going to enjoy a beer on my deck, enjoy the sun and actually reflect on how lucky I am to live in this fine land and how really wonderful my neighbours are and…oh god I’m becoming one of them.
