Happy Canada Day!

It's that day again. The day where our "Fair Dominion Bless" became no longer just a Dominion, but an independent nation from the Commonwealth!

Huzzah!

I have a mini-rant at the end of this post about Canada Day--but first I need to bombard you with shameless promotion of Canadian artists!

The Sheepdogs are a band from Saskatoon, SK, which also happens to be the same city I'm from, which means they are totally rad. Well, they might be totally rad regardles of the fact that I am also from Saskatoon. In fact, I am sure that they are. They played in Saskatoon for Jazzfest, and because I fail, I definitely did not get tickets to see them. I tried! But hey, they sold out! And that's great! They were also competing to be on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, which is this magazine that's apparently kind of a big deal. That's sarcasm from me, by the way. I have to explain because apparently some people don't understand my sense of humour. Probably because I'm not that funny; I'm just really sarcastic.

But I'm sincere about this! Click and listen to their music! Then be a fan! I am force-fanning you! Like force-feeding, but with less food and more me dictating what you like and don't like. Although I doubt there will be much forcing on my part--they're pretty fantastic.



That is all. Happy Canada Day!

Mini-rant below.

* * *

* * *
Now for the second part of the phrase "Art and Culture", which seems appropriate for Canada Day...

Due to the fact I am overly patriotic, I personally love Canada Day. A friend recently pointed out that there is a massive under-representation of the First Nations People of Canada on Canada Day...and I would have to agree. I'm not here to post an overly political rant (today), but I would like to mention that the name Canada originates from the Iriquois word kanata meaning "village" or "settlement." There's huge dispute about "Canadian identity", but after having left the country for several others--I now identify a lot more strongly with what a Canadian "culture" is. I argue that we have a very strong identity, and I can only hope it improves and becomes more tolerant and welcoming by working toward a Canada that celebrates our melange of people, and honours and celebrates our ancient cultures. Despite skin colour, race, age, gender, sexual orientation...you know, all that good stuff the Charter of Rights and Freedoms mentions. The Cree Nation dreamt the four colours of man (Black, White, Red, Yellow) looong ago, after all, and I feel it best represents my perception of Canadian culture as I have experienced it (keeping in mind, I was raised in rural Saskatchewan):

Just some examples. I like it because Canada, to me, is a meeting of cultures and races from all parts of the world, and ideally, where those four meet, we can live in harmony in the centre of the circle. I also like the one that designates the animals to each colour (taken from a band near Medicine Hat, Alberta, by the way) because our land is such a vital part of our identity. Canada is HUGE, and -- my personal philosophy--we need to live off the land and respect it for all it has given us. It's a huge blessing that we have all these beautiful resources. ANYWAY. I can (and will) lecture more about that in another blog far away somewhere. Well, not too far away. More like here. But it is in desperate need of updating as well.