{"id":24190,"date":"2019-07-04T18:19:46","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24190"},"modified":"2019-07-04T18:19:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:19:57","slug":"brocks-banter-a-canada-day-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-a-canada-day-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: A Canada Day Resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people start a\nnew day by getting out of bed, throwing open the curtains and looking out with\na smile, excited at all the possibilities that lay ahead over the next 24\nhours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, I am\nnot one of those people. Or, rather, I\u2019m about two-thirds of the way there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most people, I\ndo start the day by getting out of bed. So far so good. Yes, I do stagger over\nto my curtained window and pull it back just a little bit to see what lies\nahead. And yet\u2026the deep breath heralding the excitement of all the\npossibilities ahead is usually replaced by a big, dramatic sigh every time I\nlook out because directly in my sightlines, for the better part of two years,\nis an otherwise lovely redbrick house emblazoned with a rather hackneyed\nlifestyle slogan scrawled in sidewalk chalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, I\u2019ll admit it,\nwhenever I see a sign with this particular phrase in question, particularly in\nthe context of home d\u00e9cor, I wince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can dress it up\nin all sorts of fancy fonts, jazz it up with some funky colours but, at the end\nof the day, there is only so much you can do because, when you get right down\nto it, although the words themselves sound nice together, they really say\nnothing at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, I might be\nranting here, but I promise I have a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada Day was no different. As I looked out the window, despite the lovely weather, I\nsaw the slogan and felt my body do another involuntary wince, but a wince that\nwas slightly less heaving than usual. Aha! Mother Nature had finally checked\nher DMs and gotten to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the last couple\nof years, I have marvelled at the durability of sidewalk chalk. Evidently, the\nquality has markedly improved since I last had a stick of it in my hand,\nbecause no degree of rain, snow, hail or wind had done anything to dull the\nblow these words have to my senses \u2013 but now there was a letter missing. Yes,\njust one letter, but I\u2019ll still count it as a win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joke, of course.\nYes, the phrase is more or less still in place, it only riles me up as far as\nan eyeroll, but I\u2019ve nevertheless set myself a Canada Day resolution for the\nvery first time: get the hell over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This neighbourly\nspirit was inspired in no small part by the tone set by Governor General Julie\nPayette in her traditional message to Canadians on the 152nd<\/sup> anniversary of Confederation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the backdrop of\na canoe and kayak club on the banks of Ottawa\u2019s Rideau River, she used the\nflowing water as an illustration of the ties that bind this country together,\nspecifically referencing the National Film Board of Canada\u2019s 1966 picture\nPaddle to the Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt tells the tale of\nan Indigenous boy who carved a man in a wooden canoe and set it out on a\njourney into the sea,\u201d the Queen\u2019s representative explained. \u201cWe follow the\ncanoe as it makes its way from Lake Superior to the great Atlantic Ocean, an\nodyssey that shows how we, the people of Canada, are connected by our stunning\ngeography and our love of the land. More than half-a-century later, the story\nof Paddle to the Sea\u2019s adventures still resonates because we are indeed all\nconnected. We share values, cultures, interests, and we are so fortunate to be\ntied together by such a diverse, beautiful, bountiful country. And there is no\nshortage of opportunities in Canada, in the towns and cities, in the\ncountryside, everywhere; opportunities to explore, to discover and to learn \u2013\nlearn about ourselves and learn from each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where\nyou will be in Canada as we celebrate the country\u2019s 152nd<\/sup> birthday. I hope you will be somewhere unique and special to you.\nPerhaps you will be by a campfire in one of our great parks, or walking the trails\non the west coast or the east coast, watching a game or the fireworks in\nToronto, sitting with a friend at a caf\u00e9 in Montreal or Saskatoon, or enjoying\none of the countless lakes and rivers that knit our country together. I just\nhope you are out and about regardless of what Mother Nature sends our way\u2026\nWhether you were born here or chose to come and live here, wherever you happen\nto be, Canada Day is your celebration. It is about coming together in our\ncommunities, with friends, neighbours and family to celebrate this life that we\nshare, to celebrate who we are, rain or shine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how did you\ncelebrate? If you were like me, you were able to find a balance between some of\nthe many Canada Day activities that the Town and other local groups and clubs\nhad to offer and a bit of quieter personal time; but how many of you decided to\nknock on your neighbour\u2019s door, invite them to share in the celebration and, by\nthe time fireworks lit up the night sky, learn from the lives and stories of\nthe individuals around you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone has a\ndifferent idea of what it means to be Canadian. If you ask that question of\nsomeone who was born here and contrast it with someone who made the conscious\nchoice to emigrate to Canada from a country with a generally similar way of\nlife, such as the United States or Australia, chances are you will get very\ndifferent answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you did the same\nwith newcomer Canadians, whether they came to this country simply to provide\nmore opportunities for their children or fleeing violence and persecution in\ntheir homeland seeking refuge in our fair dominion, chances are it will offer\nan invaluable and contrasting education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, my personal\nCanada Day resolution is to make the effort to get to know my own neighbourhood\nbetter, something I realise might be taken for granted, to find out what makes\nmy fellow residents tick and what being Canadian means to them \u2013 even if I have\nto avert my eyes from particular slogans on my way to the doorbell \u2013 and see\nhow my perspectives change by the time Canada\u2019s 153rd<\/sup> birthday rolls around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you celebrate the day?<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Some people start a new day by getting out of bed, throwing open the curtains and looking out with a smile, excited at all the possibilities that lay ahead over the next 24 hours. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. Or, rather, I\u2019m about two-thirds of the way there. Like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6ia","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 00:22:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}