Oh Canada - 49 Things to Celebrate About Being Canadian this Canada Day

Two years ago for Canada's 147th Birthday I had a great time compiling a list of 47 reasons why I am proud to be Canadian and last year I did it again.  I'm pretty impressed at  how easy it is to put this list together each year because as I grow older I find I'm becoming more and more patriotic to this amazing country.  So come on it's time to celebrate again as Canada turns 149 years young with my list of 49 reasons why I am proud to be Canadian.

Yes that is the CN Tower in the background (it turned 40 last week)

 

1. A commitment to equality in our national anthem with the gender neutral O Canada Bill
2. Earlier this year Canadians freaked out when Loblaws was going to pull locally produced French's Ketchup (made with tomatoes from Leamington Ontario).  Canadian shoppers were so passionate about keeping the locally made ketchup that the decision was reversed.
3. Amazing Canadian books being turned into television awesomeness.  This summer Sarah Polley is working on an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's unbelievable book Alias Grace that will be available on Netflix and CBC.  
4. There is also going to be a reboot of the beloved classic Anne of Green Gables later this year.
5. New sitcom Letterkenny about small town life in a fictional Ontario town (loosely inspired by creator's experience in Listowel Ontario).
6. The Strumbellas 
7. The CBC Music Festival (made for families - highlight of this year Tokyo Police Club)
8. Victoria BC (North America's second most haunted city, after New Orleans)
9. The Toronto Blue Jays (games have slowly become a family tradition to us)
10. Schitt's Creek and Dan Levy, the next generation of Canadian awesome, including a commitment to hard work (read this great article on Dan Levy and finance here)
11. George Stroumboulopoulos, I know that he wasn't everyone's first choice for Hockey night in Canada, but I can't wait to see what he does next!
12. July Talk
13. Amazing Scouting and Girl Guide programs
14. Donald Sutherland
15. Gender Equal Cabinet, cause it's 2015
16. A super photogenic Prime Minister
17. Blue Rodeo
18. Roots Canada Clothing
19. Pelee Island Wine
20. Most of the world's french fries come from New Brunswick
21. Kelowna produces the majority of water slides in the entire world
22. Jos Lois tasty lunchbox treats
23. Kraft Dinner
24. Coffee Crisp Chocolate Bars
25. Swedish Fish (yeah I know it seems weird they're produced in Canada to me too)
26. Winnipeg mints coins for more than just Canada (60 countries total)
27. Joshua Jackson
28. Jay Barachel (and the fact that they are making Goon 2)
29. Ellen Page
30. Will Arnett
31. Baroness Von Sketch Show
32. Don Cherry's "Amazing" suits
33. Montreal Bagels
34. One year (and possibly 18 months parental leave) to focus on family
35. Toronto ravines (an escape from the city)
36. Gun control
37. Dennis Lee and Alligator Pie
38. Robert Munsch (American born Canadian author)
39. Chinguacousy Park
40. The Sound of Music Festival Burlington
41. Pride Month Toronto
42. The Great Lakes
43. Joel Plaskett 
44. Canadian Tire Money
45. Niagara Falls (Canada side)
46. A real walled city in Quebec
47. Half of the world's polar bears
48. The Canadian Refugee System
49. Local grown farmers markets for all sorts of yummy Canadian grown delish!

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Proud to Be a Canadian

When I was in my late teens/early twenties I was taken aback by all of these people, usually guys, who were branding themselves with very "Canadian" tattoos.  The number of variations of maple leafs, flags and other iconic Canadian imagery blew my mind - particularly since I didn't feel very patriotic: and how "un-goth" is a tattoo that is bright red, white and perky anyway?  As the years passed and I spent more time outside of Canada and over 12 years in jobs that focus on helping both Canadians and internationally trained professionals begin their Canadian careers, my love and patriotism grew.  There is something drawing people to Canada, a lot of it being the warm hearts of a population that welcomes so many. I don't think I'm going to run out and get some red and white ink tomorrow, but my heart is definitely home.

My Canmerican friend's patriotic tattoo.

In Celebration of Canada's 147th Birthday Here are 47 of the reasons why I am proud to be Canadian:

1. I don't care what they say, Size does matter and Canada is huge!  Canada is 9984670 km² and the world's second largest country
2. People call it monopoly money, but they're just jealous of our rainbow coloured bills, don't even get them started on Canadian Tire currency!
3. Ambiguous Spelling.  Sometimes we like to spell the UK way sometimes US, if you call us on it, you're wrong, but we'll be polite about it
4. We name our Adirondack chairs by the province: in Alberta they're called "Camps", in Ontario "Muskoka Chairs"
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. This land is your land, this land is our land: Canada's population density, at 3.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (8.5 /sq mi), is among the lowest in the world. 
6. We're too cool for rhyming...even in the alphabet song, "zed" is a letter I assure you
7. Diverse Population: Today, immigrants represent over 20 percent of the total Canadian population, the highest proportion among G8 countries
8. The way we obsess about weather.  It's as if we are an entire nation of meteorologists

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Openness to culture, religion, sexual orientation and sharing our experiences.  When I look around Molly and Jack's daycare and see flags from all over the world and crafts coordinated by the ECE workers celebrating where they came from and what their traditions are it makes me so happy to know that they are being taught love
10. Landscape Diversity: Canada has 288 mountains, 3 oceans bordering, prairies and 561 lakes to explore
11. Provincial Parks
    
    
    
    
    
12. The insane decadent one upmanship of food offered at the Canadian National Exhibition.  Who is ever going to forget chocolate covered bacon or the Cronut Burger (even if it did make people sick)
13. The documentary Let's All Hate Toronto. 
14. They're called Beaver Tails, not Elephant Ears
15. Degrassi: The Street, The Jr. High, The High and The Next Generation
16. Maple Syrup - I can't wait to take the kids to Pioneer Village to experience this for real
17. Alexander Keiths - Canada's answer to Guinness for "National Beer"
18. Totem Poles
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
19. Terry Fox
20. Douglas Coupland, Mr. Generation X, Mr. Canada.
21. Hockey Night in Canada may have been the only thing that kept us and Molly sane during colic
22. Our love of big things as road side attractions.
23. Montreal Steak Spice
24. Red Rose Tea
25. Patio season
26. The Canoe
    
    
    
    
    
27. Our celebrities make wine: Dan Akroyd, Wayne Gretzky
28. Ketchup Chips
29. Our Health Care System: After having twins via C-section and seeing the care that my father received post-heart attack, I heart Canadian Health Care
30. Parental Leave: Although I'm a little bitter that I didn't get 100 weeks because I had two kids at once, being able to spend 13 months at home when Molly and Jack were first born was amazing
31. Gay Marriage
32. Canadian Music: Feist, Sloan, The Stars, Metric,Tegan and Sara we love you all!
33. Craft Beer: My personal all-time favourite is Moncton's Blueberry Cream Ale
34. Canada has more clean water than any other nation
35. Bryan Adams
36. Poutine
37. Loonies and Toonies (or shrapnel in my pocket as our Welsh friend likes to call it)
38. Kinder Surprises
39. Jedi is an official sanctioned church in Canada
40. The Log Driver's Waltz
41. Canadian Bacon, and regular bacon - we really like bacon
42. Jack Bower is really Canadian (so is his daughter)
43. Our apologetic nature: We are so sorry for Nickelback, Justin Bieber and Rob Ford
44. Anne of Green Gables
45. Narwhal - Unicorn of the Ocean
46. Leonard Cohen
47. The people who live here, want to live here and are proud to be from here!

What makes you most proud to be Canadian - please share!

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