Being great again

Canada day was yesterday and on Facebook, I posted the following… “I love you Canada, but you could be better.”

Surprisingly, I got a few private messages after posting the status update. Some saying I was being unpatriotic, one saying simply “Canada is the greatest”, while others suggested that Social Media was a poor place to express my political or personal opinions.

I love Canada dearly but you cannot deny that we’ve let the foundations of our country slip through the cracks and the messages that showed up in my inbox outlined one of the biggest problems that our (once) incredible country faces.

Right now, our country is doing a shitty job and people aren’t paying attention.

Remember when we established an environmental precedent the world over and countries all across the globe looked at us with respect and admiration for the standard we had set? When we protected our land?

Remember when the cultural practices and traditions of First Nations people actually meant something to this country? At one point, we were making actual progress in our relationship with Canada’s aboriginal population. Remember?

I miss those times.

I miss holding my head a little higher when I tell people where I’m from. I want people to look to us with wonder and amazement again. I want to be held in high regard when it comes to how careful and considerate we are to our minorities and to our citizens suffering from mental illness. I want to be held in that forgotten reverence that I used to feel when I could brag about how safe I felt living in Canada.

I miss when our government stood for something.

Canadian democracy hinges on our freedom of speech and right now our government is taking that away. It’s taking over public broadcasting right in front of our faces. Just look at the CBC cutbacks. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was once the cultural core of Canada and you might not miss it now, but you will, and by then it may be too late. The “defunding” of the CBC is a huge problem and trust me, the cutbacks gouge much deeper than just losing Hockey Night in Canada.

This is about losing our voice.

Why aren’t we asking questions anymore? Why aren’t we paying attention? For Fuck’s sake, why aren’t we voting?

It’s up to us to make this country great again. If you really love Canada, then start paying more attention to what’s wrong with it.