Canada Day.

Yes. I guess I have to mention this is Canada Day, because I am an Australian born Canadian.

The Canadian Flag and Other National Symbols

The Canadian Flag	National Symbols
The Canadian National Anthem	The Canadian Citizenship Oath

The Canadian Flag

What does Canada mean to Canucks? Well it means we are not Americans, sort of. We are kind of different, maybe. We say zed instead of zee and house the right way, not like the Americans who get the ou sound wrong except maybe in New England. Our religions are hockey and health care and our dollar is sometimes a bit higher than the U.S. dollar. (not too high or the tourists won't come across the border.) We don't like President Bush much and we tend to side with the Democrats. We like American T.V. over Canadian. Same for movies.

We are a country that has all those troublesome people in Quebec we treat as spoiled younger siblings, so we have to suffer French on the labels of all our goods. How ennuiant! They pretend to speak French (though people from France double up with mirth when they hear them. That is why Quebecois take vacations in Florida instead of France.)

Anyway we love them and not just because they have the prettiest girls. They are the Canadiens originaux. They say they were here first and started Le Canada. Indigenous people will beat the war drum to that statement.

Last of all, Canada is less exciting than the United States. In fact, if you were rude, you could say it is bloody boring, eh? Ric

Ah, KANATA! I stand on Guard for thee!

I've read quite a lot of early Canadian history. This story crops up from time to time.

It seems early Spanish (or was it Portuguese) in the early fifteen hundreds were following the coastline north of where Maine is now.

It apparently was winter and there was a great deal of ice, snow, icebergs, fog and drizzle and inhospitable -looking cliffs and rocks. Some navigator wrote down in Spanish (or was it Portuguese?) "NOTHING WORTHWHILE." (Ay Que Nada). Subsequently the map fell into French hands and the land was proclaimed as "Quenada" or "Canada." So when we proud Canadians assemble to sing "O Canada!" we are actually singing "NOTHING WORTHWHILE, here."

If you have spent hours in the frigid Arctic air on the corner of Portage and Main, Winnipeg waiting for a girl who never showed herself, or clambered through a fog, almost sliding off rocks on a cliff at Trinity Bay, Newfoundland....you would surely agree "There is nothing worthwhile here."......................................................................................................... In the supplied, official history of Canada we are told that Jacques Cartier asked a local Indian in 1642 "What's the name of this country, my man?" The Indian replied "Come back to my village of Kanata and let's try some of that French firewater you have." Since neither spoke the other's language, there was only one word word that stuck, "Kanata". That story seems less likely to me than the Spanish/Portuguese one. Ric