Oh, Canada.

So often it seems as though we have to define our nation by what it isn't -- how it stacks against a certain noisy neighbour to the south. What we actually are is harder to pin down. As Pierre Eliot Trudeau stated, "There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an 'all-Canadian' boy or girl?" We're a mosaic. We tell a lot of a self-depracating jokes about how much uninhabited land there is in our nation (as though we should be ashamed to have so much pristine wilderness and wildlife). Then we apologize for apologizing for our jokes. We only seem to get really proud when talking about hockey, peacekeepers, or maple syrup.

I'd like to think that many of my values are due to growing up in this particular country, that I have a reasonably broad, open mind. Until I began setting my sights for temporary mission work in Angola I had never considered living anywhere else in the world which was not Canadian soil. I don't believe Canada is perfect, but it's mine, and I love my fellow Canadians. I'm proud to be Canadian.