Stand on Guard for Thee...

I have a tattoo. Back in the day, it wasn't as... hmmmm, trendy as it is now. Lots of people had tattoos, but waitresses named Tiffany did not. It is a tattoo of a maple leaf, which every second -and good- Canadian has somewhere on their bodies and from what I hear now, they're just being branded on arses at birth.

Now, why a maple leaf? Obvious reasons: I am Canadian (tm); I love my country and wanted to display this proudly; the maple leaf is a beautiful thing; upon a year of contemplation to make sure it was something I *really* wanted I had it done.

















Now this leads me into the whole "I love my country, I shall wrap myself in it's flag and die for whatever cause it decides is important". I do love my country, but I do not believe in every thing that I am told what Canada is to be. There are certain things I think this nation needs to rethink and redo. I think there are things that we shouldn't do. Now I don't want to get all political so I'll just leave it at that and let you fill in the blanks yourselves.

AND... there are things that I think as Canadians we need to stand from the rooftops and scream about the nation for which "we stand on guard". Again, decide your own reasons, but here are a few of mine.

Canadians are, generally polite, courteous and have manners. We know how to say "thank you" and "please". I heard a joke one day:

How do you get 200 drunk Canadians out of a swimming pool?

Please get out of the pool."

It is our nature to be obedient and slightly passive. I am not saying this is the case all the time. I don't think that most of us would be passive in all situations. Look at the hockey players that we have raised.

Canadians, although we display much pride for our nation, we are also quite aware that there is a world that lives beyond our borders. We are not ethnocentric. We have an understanding that we are not the only culture in the world. As a very young country we are still defining ourselves in the shadow of a much larger, dominant and overpowering nation.

I think sometimes Canadians are most of proud of the fact that we are NOT American.

People on the outside might look at North America and see two countries that are quite alike and think we are the same kind of people. This isn't true. Living in the US for a while, I came to realize, very quickly, that we are TWO very distinctive nations in thought and action. Intrinsically we are just different. Howso?

Religion: It doesn't dominate Canadian culture.
Spelling: We use the "U" -favourite; honour; colour; neighbour...
Militarily: Canada doesn't *really* have one. Except for the 4 submarines in West Edmonton Mall and the fixer-uppers from the Brits, we really don't have a naval fleet.
Diversity: Canadians do not own the rights to diversity, but we celebrate it with much more vigour.
Gay Marriage: It has been made legal for homosexual couples to marry. The 3rd nation in the world to do so.

Those are just a FEW of the things that I see as different without sounding incredibly arrogant and rude (Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions that are expressed in this blog are solely those of the blogger and are not necessarily those of blogspot.com). I am very proud to be a Canadian! I think all Canadians should be very proud to be Canadian. Celebrating the reasons why we ARE distinctly Canadian.

Here's something that annoys a lot of people, but despite the reason for its creation it holds a lot of truth.

Link--> I AM CANADIAN ©

Canada Rules!

Now, as for the tattoo... Well, at least they'll know where to send the body.