Being Canadian

Driving home from Florida this year was a little different as I was alone with my GPS partner who kept me on the correct road. I had time to think and talk to myself and I ended up thinking about being a Canadian. As I crossed the border at Buffalo there was a certain feeling about being home. I felt safer, and relieved to be travelling on our roads with our security.

I was coming home to a federal election. NHL playoffs, some health issues in our family and a garden to be nurtured back to the standard I like. All this is part of being a Canadian. Without a conscious effort I compare events outside Canada with how it would be in Canada. Without exception I feel the strength of our way of life and our connection to our institutions are far and away superior to those found abroad.

Although we have become closer in some ways to our American counterparts we are distinct in a clear way when it comes to how we perceive our responsibility for our fellow Canadians. We feel for our poor, our sick, our disadvantaged because of education or circumstances beyond their control and we share like no other country in partnering to come to the aid of people in need around the world.

Our Canada must always be wary of leaders who would attempt to lead us away from this blue chip way of life and into circumstances that would make us less sensitive to the global community and our responsibility to be a leader in securing a better way of life for those less fortunate. Several issues come to mind where Canada made commitments to end the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the world move to control negative environmental issues.

We are major contributors to the problem of producing green house gasses in our desire to produce oil to meet the hungry world needs. These Canadian natural resources are being gobbled up by foreign interests without receiving much benefit except some jobs.

The third issue is clean water. There should be a clear national policy on fresh water and soon,  as water will be more precious than oil in the near future. We are sewards of a large portion of this resource and it should be shared in a meaningful way to benefit Canadians and the whole world.

Being Canadian is very exciting as we can be big players in the global scheme of things. Our young people have a challenge and a share in this great future.