Today is Independence Day and Tuesday, July 1st was Canada Day or, as I still call it, Dominion Day. The former celebrates our birth as a nation and the latter celebrates the British North America Act of 1867 which united the provinces of Canada (Ontario and Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia into the Dominion of Canada within the British Empire.
Roberta X makes the very sensible suggestion of celebrating the days between July 2nd and 3rd, as Co-Dependence Days.
I'll be excoriated for this, but the inhabitants of U.S. and Canada ought to celebrate July 2 and 3, the days between Canada Day and Independence Day, as "Co-dependence Days," in which we consider all that we love and loathe about our neighbor. We share the longest border in the world without armies watching one another over it, about 2/3 of a common language and all manner of customs, habits and entertainments -- and we share them about the same way fraternal twins between the ages of seven and twelve share the back seat of car over the course of a day-long excursion.I've always liked Canada and Canadians. The country has a spectacular beauty in many places. As to the Canadian people, they are a likeable people with perhaps the sometimes exception of the Francophones in La Belle Province. Perhaps I hold a rosier view of Canadians as my first girlfriend was Canadian.
Still, I could see this joint holiday working.
Lived in New Brunswick for two years, on an exchange program with the Canadian army. Transitioning from El Paso to Atlantic Canada was rather harsh on my psyche, to put it mildly.
ReplyDeleteWhen I asked what the 8' poles were along the roads, and they responded that they were markers to allow the snowplows to find the roads...I knew I was a long way from home. After surviving two serious New Brunswick winters, I am pretty much inoculated against any winter my current home can throw at me. I still don't like it, but I can always honestly say, "Well...I've been colder!"
But my Canadian friends were good to me...I am pretty sure there was more than a little pity for this very seriously out-of-element Southern boy. It was a hell of an experience.
As the living embodiment of NAFTA (a Canadian living in the US who speaks Spanish), I'm all in favour of this idea. Canadians could learn about personal freedom and breakfast food technology (specifically biscuits and gravy) from their southern neighbours, and Americans could learn a little more politeness and wean yourselves off your obsession with corn-fed beef.
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