Canada Day

It's Canada Day here in the great white north.

It wasn't always called Canada Day; it used to be Dominion Day. In 1967, a friend and I visited Ottawa and the parliament buildings when they were debating the name change. At least that's what my memory tells me, but Google searches say otherwise: that the name didn't officially change until 1982. I can't explain the discrepancy between my memory and actual fact, but I'm pretty certain that my memory isn't faulty. Perhaps it was a bill that didn't get passed at the time?

Cuppa and I sort of got together on Canada Day, also in 1967, but since I have already told that story, albeit briefly, I won't rehash it, but I will say that it always crosses my mind on this day.

I am still besotted with this lady, 43 years later

What I will tell you is that in 1998 Cuppa and I spent Canada Day, at least the hours that remained after the rain had ceased, downtown in the nation's capital. Our two girls had just moved here the previous January, so we had cheap accommodation and public transit to downtown. We milled about in the festive atmosphere on and near Parliament Hill for several hours before taking in the free show and fireworks in the evening.

We stood by the Eternal Flame during the concert, and much of the time Cuppa stood upon the rim of the cauldron and danced along to the music. Neither of us can recall the musicians that we heard that night, but it was quite the thrill to celebrate our nation's birthday right on the lawn of the parliament buildings. Every Canadian should be so fortunate as to be there at least once on July 01, but I know it's not possible.

We've been living near Ottawa for five years now, but we have yet to get back to The Hill for this special event. Living so far out of town, we have no access to public transit and prefer not to drive in and try to find parking on such a day.

I'm not exactly an ardent monarchist, so I won't grieve over missing the appearance of Queen Elizabeth this year (first time in a long time), but it would be nice to take in the general event once more.

I'm proud of this country. We aren't perfect by any means, but we do a lot of things right and generally hold good intentions toward the world. For the most part, we have shunned recent wars while volunteering for many peace keeping missions.

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All credit is due to Cuppa for thinking to take portraits of the grands decked out in some patriotic regalia.

Nikki Dee has become much more cooperative about pictures lately.

Zach has always been a ham.

What a pair!