Oh, Canada....

In light of the recent Canada Day Holiday I thought I would share a few articles I found rather interesting about why its so 'friggin awesome' to be Canadian. I realize that this post is about 4 days late but I was down with what i am convinced was the swine flu and could not post on Wednesday.

I will start with the Canada day article I found on msn...Top 10 reasons to Love Canada:

10. Tim Hortons (Seriously, how an entire nation is united over the love of shitty coffee and day old doughnuts is beyond me...but even I will jones for a T-hos when I return from abroad)

9. The Canadian Rockies (most definately agreed)

8. Fresh Water. They meant everything from lakes and rivers to our drinking water quality. I think they should have included Hot water and baths in this one. I have recently travelled to a few countries where a cool shower is often the only option. Cool showers are fine but it sure made me appreciate my 2 hour sudsy! Don't get me wrong, I agree with water and energy conservation and all that jazz but I do enjoy my extra long hot soak every once in a while. Life without the bathing option is definately not a life for me!!

7. Hockey. Included in "Our Game" are CBC's Hockey Night in Canada -- both the show and its former theme song -- as well as national teams: The Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Montreal Canadiens. We may not have many teams, but the ones we have are well supported!

6. Free Health Care (nuff said)

5. Freedom (I think we should more appropriately call this 'civilized freedom')

4. Our Changing Seasons. I might joke from time to time and say that our four seasons are Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Road Construction, but I do appreciate the diversity. There are places out there that have never actually seen snow, or watched the leaves change colour...

3. The Canadian character (Canadians have been described globally as friendly, polite, generous, warm, open-minded, forgiving, humble, welcoming, caring, curious and honest. I must say this is more than reason enough to sew the maple leaf on my back pack!)

2. The Landscape. From sea to shining sea we have some truely amazing sites. Our home and native land is an asthetically pleasing one!

1. Multiculturalism. I can remember learning this way back in grade school. The USA is a Melting Pot and Canada is a Multiculturalist nation. Canada is one big patchwork quilt...sounds good to me.


Some more interesting facts I found printed in the Calgary sun.

- Toronto is the largest city of Canada. It's home to more than 4 million people and its dwellers are known to hold more university educations than any country in the world.
- The Canadian motto, A Mari Usque ad Mare, means "From sea to sea"
- Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world at 243,042 km
- Population 33,592,686
- The sun shines almost non-stop for three months during the summer in part of the Yukon and Nunavut Territories
- The island of Newfoundland has no snakes, skunks or poison ivy
- Canada has the largest French population that never surrendered to Germany
- We have the largest English population that never ever surrendered or withdrew during any war to anyone, anywhere
- The tuck-away handles on our sacred two-four beer cases where the brainstorm of Canadian Steve Pasjack in 1957
- The Blackberry was invented in Canada
- The Montreal Canadiens have won more Stanley Cups than any other team in the history of hockey
- Poutine originated in rural Quebec in the late 1950s. This fattening dish contains french fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy
- Smarties, Crispy Crunch and Coffee Crisp are products from Canada (Canadian smarties are better than American ones -- ours are made with chocolate)
- We have Canadian Tire money -- and a chain of 457 Canadian tire stores to spend it in
- The Moosehead Brewery in Saint John, New Brunswick, can churn out 1,642 bottles of beer per minute
- Hockey, lacrosse, baseball and basketball are all Canadian invented games

There you have it folks. If that doesn't make you proud to sport the Maple leaf, I don't know what will. I have learned a lot during my travel abroad and one thing is for sure, there is no place like home period.

Bisous,

Jules