Blame Canada!–For All These Great Things!

Hey Everyone!  It’s July 1^st and for this Canuk that means Happy Canada Day!  Woot!  143 years old and still an amazing place to live!  Today, all across our country people will be celebrating our independence with barbecues, pool parties, parades and well, of course beer!  It is our national drink eh!

In honour of this special day, I thought I’d share a few things Canadian with all of you.

• We don’t have dollar bills or two dollar bills.  Instead we have loonies and toonies.  Thank god we don’t have a coin for the five dollar bill ‘cause I have no clue what they’d call it!
• Our second most popular drink in this fine country (after beer–see above) is coffee from Tim Horton’s. If you don’t know what “double double” means, you ain’t a Canuk!
• Everybody knows somebody who has a relative, or neighbour, or a sister’s boyfriend, or a friend of a friend…who plays hockey in the NHL.  Yes, Sidney Crosby is a Canuk and so is the Great One, Wayne Gretzky. (I went to school with a dude who made it to the pros.) (Esi adds: so did I! Central New York is almost Canada!)
• Basketball was in fact invented in Canuk land.
• James Cameron…yes, THE James Cameron…director of Titanic and Avatar is indeed a Canadian. 
• We wear touques in the winter and in the summer there are in fact places in Canada that have NO SNOW.  For reals.
• Shania Twain, Pamela Anderson, Nickelback, Bryan Adams, Celine Dion and Avril Lavigne….all proud Canuks.
• Supernatural, Smallville and The X-files are/were filmed in Vancouver.  Guess that is the creepy capital of Canuk land.
• I’ve never met anyone who has lived in an Igloo.
• Kelley Armstrong, Lynsay Sands, Michelle Rowen, Eve Silver, Kayla Perrin, and um, ME, Juliana Stone….we are all Canuks!

I love my country.  I love that I live in a free society where we can read what we want, listen to what we want, and have the freedom to say what we want.  I love that my neighbour is America….that I have so many wonderful American friends who will soon be celebrating their own country’s birthday.  So today I am on my way to the cottage and am going to hang out with my friends and family.  I will look upon a crystal clear lake and I’ll be thankful for what I have.  So my friends what is it we’re all grateful for?  What do we wish to see in the coming year?  I for one am grateful for health and happiness.  I wish for a kinder and gentler treatment of our earth, in the next year and for every one to come.  Peace out and god bless.