canada day

it’s canada day here in canada - a national holiday to celebrate our becoming canada, more-or-less as we know it today. parades, fireworks, music shows, special sporting events, and many other similarly celebratory events take place today. in my own family’s experiencing of this day we have always attended the local parade - a hodge-podge of marching bands, local organizations, trucks, cars, bicycles, street dancers and what have you pieced together inside a cheering throng waving little canadian flags.
canada day was originally declared dominion day in 1879 by then governor-general lord monck who wished to celebrate our declaration as a dominion when the british north america act was officially brought into being in 1867. it wasn’t until 1982 that the name was officially changed to canada day.

the day has been used as the date for the inauguration of several nationally significant events including the cbc's first cross-country television broadcast (1958), the flooding of the saint lawrence seaway (1958), the first colour television transmission in canada (1966), the inauguration of the order of canada (1967), and the establishment of o canada as our national anthem (1980).

i am very proud to carry both british and canadian passports but i am especially proud to live in such an amazing, beautiful, and essentially good country as canada and to be able to call myself canadian. the move that my family made from england to canada some 42 years ago was without a doubt one of the more traumatic yet absolutely rewarding decisions my parents made, and from which myself and my own family have received extraordinary benefit.

here’s canada from space . . .
here’s my own little part of the world from space . . .