Resident offers a humorous and reflective take on Canadian identity, pride and patriotism on Canada Day<\/p>\n
OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0or via the website<\/a>. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following poem was submitted by\u00a0Alastair MacLeod.<\/p>\n On Being Canadian<\/p>\n Being Canadian, I consider myself eh!-symptomatic. Some claim that anything north of the 49th parallel Truly our ancestors and others more recently YES \u2026 I stand proud of my country \u2026 despite its foibles and faults. But I am proudest to acknowledge that I can savour (\u2018our\u2019 spelling; with the \u2018u\u2019 \u2014 not \u2018savor\u2019 \u2014 American spelling) We have proven time and again that we can stand up to any and all adversity and challenges to our identity\u2026 Though I am aware of our decidedly variegated past, there are current threats from neighbours \u2014 that\u2019s \u201cneighbours\u201d with a \u2018u\u2019 because they are OUR neighbours\u2026not \u2018or\u2019 neighbours \u2014 I know that we will overcome such annoyances, learn from them and grow ever stronger in unity and collective purpose\u2026<\/p>\n Because we are CANADIAN!<\/p>\n (I\u2019m just not so sure about the blackflies and mosquitoes.)<\/p>\n Alastair MacLeod
\nSorry\u2026
\nIt\u2019s just that our national animal is a rodent
\nOur national flower is a tree leaf
\nOur currency is called the \u2018loonie\u2019
\nAlthough a major export is the energy sector,
\nit comes in the form of maple syrup\u2026
\nAnd we dare consider Poutine as a national food\u2026
\nAll that gives us a singular sense of humour.
\nWhere else can you drive 3 hours to experience Arctic air in one direction or tropical breezes in the opposite direction?<\/p>\n
\nis a frozen wasteland.
\nIt\u2019s no wonder others look upon us as having some sort
\nof identity crisis.<\/p>\n
\nhave conducted themselves in a less than humanitarian manner.
\nBecause of it, there is shame and dishonour that continues
\nto permeate our current consciousness.<\/p>\n
\nProud in our diversity: of climate, landscape, traditions & cultures.
\nWe are a nation with more cultures than most science labs.<\/p>\n
\nall this because of the freedoms I cherish.
\nFreedoms granted, earned \u2026 passionately fought for; defended.
\n(Sometimes at the expense of those we have wronged.)<\/p>\n
\nand generally come out more unified than when we went in. That time has come again.<\/p>\n
\nBarrie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Resident offers a humorous and reflective take on Canadian identity, pride and patriotism on Canada Day OrilliaMatters welcomes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,274483,44],"class_list":["post-773461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadiancanadaletter-to-the-editorpoetrypoem","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}