Happy Birthday Canada!

martian · Jul 1, 2014

Today is Canada Day. We celebrate being Canadian with fireworks and cookouts.

Colonel Chris Hadfield is fast becoming a Canadian icon. Apparently his brother is also pretty rad. They made this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuVsHt3rBnc

GeneticShift · Jul 1, 2014

I've been listening to this on repeat all day in celebration.

I'm gonna rock your body till Canada day!

martian · Jul 1, 2014

Steam is also having a Canada Day sale, which is new.

Canada Day New

Charlatan · Jul 1, 2014

Unlike other nations, they don't do Canada Day in Singapore.

I suppose I can go to the 4th of July celebrations. They usually give a shout out to Canada... But that's just not right.

snowy · Jul 1, 2014

Charlatan said: ↑

Unlike other nations, they don't do Canada Day in Singapore.

I suppose I can go to the 4th of July celebrations. They usually give a shout out to Canada... But that's just not right.
Click to expand...

No, that isn't.

Even in the PacNW, they're separate holidays. Close, but separate. In NW Washington, there are usually mad fireworks (unofficially) on Canada Day. Since my birthday is tomorrow, and then there's 4th of July, I was always convinced that my birthday was special (fuck yeah it is).

Hooray to one of my favorite countries.

Charlatan · Jul 1, 2014

Fremen · Jul 2, 2014

If I'd have known it was Canada Day, I would've eaten a cake.

Charlatan · Jul 2, 2014

Don't wait! Eat cake now.

Fremen · Jul 2, 2014

Wait, I feel like this is a trap. Is there a guillotine involved?

Speed_Gibson · Jul 2, 2014

Fremen said: ↑

Wait, I feel like this is a trap. Is there a guillotine involved?
Click to expand...

At least they will say"Sorry!" after the blade drops.

Fremen · Jul 2, 2014

Speed_Gibson said: ↑

At least they will say"Sorry!" after the blade drops.
Click to expand...

Before, as well.

Charlatan · Jul 2, 2014

Sorry.

snowy · Jul 2, 2014

Fremen said: ↑

If I'd have known it was Canada Day, I would've eaten a cake.
Click to expand...

You can still eat cake in honor of my birthday.

Charlatan · Jul 2, 2014

paddyjoe · Jul 3, 2014

I like cake

Baraka_Guru · Jul 3, 2014

But seriously:

To live in Canada in 2014 is to be among the luckiest people alive
BARBARA MCDOUGALL
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jul. 01 2014, 12:00 PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Jul. 01 2014, 12:00 PM EDT

This year on Canada Day, between the picnic and the fireworks and the rock concert and the ice cream cone and walking the dog, I intend to get down on my knees and thank God I live in this country. I live here not because I deserve it or because I am smarter than anyone else, but because I am lucky enough to have ancestors who came here a couple of hundred years ago, from not-desperate backgrounds, and whose descendants have lived in modest comfort and incredible freedom ever since.

In the morning I do not wake up on the border of Syria, trying to push my way across into a refugee camp in Lebanon, where a million people have preceded me, desperately hoping there will be enough United Nations-supplied water and food to get me through the day. I do not wake up in the Central African Republic, consumed by fear of my machete-wielding neighbour, or worse still, wielding a machete myself, out to slash my neighbour in the name of some trumped-up religious quarrel, before he slashes me. I do not wake up in Israel, where every country in the region is committed to my destruction. I do not wake up in North Korea, where my brain is washed away by fear and propaganda. I do not wake up in northern Nigeria where my niece can be kidnapped for going to school.

I wake up here, to the smell of morning coffee. I complain about the traffic, and shake my fist at the construction. I worry about the effects of last winter’s ice storm on my boxwood hedge. I discuss with my husband the possibility of going to the country this weekend. I tsk-tsk at the price of imported mangoes. I telephone my city councillor to rail against the Chorley Park switchback. I chuckle with friends at the trouble a politician is in over remarks he made over Mothers Day – or was it Fathers Day? – of such importance that it was the lead item on the national news. We decide we shouldn’t even have greeting card holidays. We watch tennis matches on television. We vigorously disagree on the results of the provincial election. I decide to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario for a long-postponed browse.

What did I, and so many of us, do to deserve this incredible good fortune? To live in a country where no wars have been fought for two hundred years. A country with big freedoms – freedom of movement, freedom of political choice, freedom of religion, freedom from arbitrary persecution. But equally important a country of small freedoms: where we don’t have to think about politics every day, where the idea of armies marching up our streets is unthinkable, where daily life is secure and can consist of innumerable small decisions made freely and safely.

Yes, I am aware that Canada is no Utopia. I know about poverty and racism and workplace safety and the environment and all the other problems people wrestle with – including, sometimes, even me. On July 2 I will get back on to doing something about those issues where I can.

But on Canada Day, although I will laugh and celebrate, more important, I will utter a fervent thank you.
Click to expand...

To live in Canada in 2014 is to be among the luckiest people alive - The Globe and Mail

I'll often complain about the politics here, and I do tend to criticize the central manifestations of nationalism, but that doesn't mean I'm not grateful for living here.

Glorious and free.

Charlatan · Jul 5, 2014

Martian said: ↑

Today is Canada Day. We celebrate being Canadian with fireworks and cookouts.

Colonel Chris Hadfield is fast becoming a Canadian icon. Apparently his brother is also pretty rad. They made this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuVsHt3rBnc
Click to expand...

Bloody hell. I finally had a look at this video. Could it be anymore Canadian?

Made me a little misty. But I get this way when I am preparing to visit.

(Less than a week to go)

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Happy Birthday Canada!

martian Server Monkey Staff Member

GeneticShift Show me your everything is okay face.

martian Server Monkey Staff Member

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

snowy so kawaii Staff Member

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

Speed_Gibson Hacking the Gibson

Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

snowy so kawaii Staff Member

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

paddyjoe curious

Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

Log in or Sign up

Happy Birthday Canada!

martian Server Monkey Staff Member

GeneticShift Show me your everything is okay face.

martian Server Monkey Staff Member

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

snowy so kawaii Staff Member

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

Speed_Gibson Hacking the Gibson

Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

snowy so kawaii Staff Member

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

paddyjoe curious

Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

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