Friday, October 24, 2008

Oh Canada!

Most of the time I think of myself as an Internationalist rather than a Nationalist. It's true that I'm proud of Canada in that, Oh so Canadian modest way, I'd never actually admit that I love the old country.... but then that wouldn't be really too Canadian, eh?

But this week I've found myself actually tearing up, several times actually, over things so truly Canadian that I'm almost ashamed of myself for being so boosterish... if that's actually a word these days.

The first time was when the World Economic Forum said that Canada had the best banks in the world. Hmmm... and I thought all along that our banks were too conservative, and without glamour at all. None of those fancy derivatives for our banks, oh no! Canadians should have known better all along, and it turns out we did. Boring is good, which means that Canada is REALLY GOOD!

So much for the serious stuff.

On Sunday I watched Paul Gross' Passchendale, a movie about one of the pivotal battles in the First World War. People who think that the Canadian military tradition is about peacemaking rather than about war should watch this movie. Canadians kicked ass over there, even while feeling ambigious about the whole damn thing, and being sympathetic to our enemies. We never could RAH RAH very well, but we should can fucking fight! The German invented the words Storm Trooper to describe our forces.

And talk about amazing movies. This is the best movie I've seen in years. And I love the fact you don't get to see one damn Yankee in the whole thing.

Then on Tuesday I went to hear and see Celine Dion sing at GM Place in Vancouver. She's a national treasure the likes of which no other nation can claim. With pipes like hers who needs anything else? Even more amazing she's still like a real person who shows signs of fatigue, yet soldiers on and delivers song after brilliant song. Holy shit. Another Canadian superstar! For real. OMG.

Which got me thinking about being Canadian and all that.... Maybe we should allow ourselves, just once in a while, to be unabashed about just how great a country this is, and just how great so many Canadians are.

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