Isn’t it funny how fast a year can pass.
It was on Canada Day last year that I started working at The Golden Star and what a year it has been.
Canada Day is that rare moment in Canada where people get a little brash and go out and show some pride in our country.
It is not that as Canadians we are not proud but we do have a subtle side which controls the level of bold pride we are willing to throw out there for the rest of the world to see.
It seems appropriate the 2012 Summer Games in London are just around the corner.
After seeing how people responded to the Vancouver Games here is hoping the athletes who compete in London show both their skills and what it truly means to be Canadian.
Of course what it means to be Canadian is a tough question to answer.
It was always an interesting part when travelling to hear what people who had never been to Canada before thought about our country.
The range went from Canada had to really be the happiest place on earth where all people got along to the cry of a socialist playground where no one could succeed.
The truth is being Canadian is much like the geographical nature of the country and the people in it are varied generally depending on where you might be. I personally do not think we would want it any other way.
Part of the greatness of this country is the fact of how people from all over the world have come here with their own sense of culture and how it has mixed to create the web which makes us who we are.
From cities like Toronto to smaller towns like Golden all you have to do is take a stroll and you see the influences which make the country whole.
This does not mean we live in utopia.
Many people have issues and province to province things can be very different.
There are uprisings about many issues.
The environment versus financial gain, where and how money should be spent, collective bargaining could be a thing of the past, taxes, guns, should pot be legal, tuition hikes, treaties, bridges, bears and deer, the battle for small towns to survive and will this be the year for the Canucks. So much to think about and so little time to figure it all out.
The nice part is you can get out and have your say when you agree or do not agree with what is happening around you.
That is a right which we should never take for granted.
I am currently living in my fourth province and I have literally travelled from East to West driving from Newfoundland to British Columbia less than two years ago.
That was a first for me.
I have flown across the country many times but to take a route through the Maritimes, into Quebec, across the vast space which is Northern Ontario which led into a day run across much of the Prairies before heading once again into the Rocky Mountains is something I would advise that if this is something you have not done yet it should be on a list of great things to do in Canada.
You just never know what a day in the car will reveal about the country you are from.
