“Everyone with who works hard enough can have a well paying job with a pension at the end of it and paid holidays in between. Everyone can own a nice home, have a nice family, and live happily ever after.” The American Dream.
That’s pretty well the Canadian Dream too. It’s out of reach for too many and others have different ideas of success, but all things considered, Canadians have a better chance of achieving their dreams, whatever they may be, than people living in most other countries. As we celebrate our 150th birthday, I believe Canada is a good, if not the best, country to live in. If all the world’s problems were put in a pile for us to pick from, I’m sure we’d take our own back.
My perspective on good places to live is limited because I’ve spent all my life in BC. However, modern technology brings the world into our living rooms and nothing I see or hear about other countries changes my mind about ours. No doubt we could have done, and should be doing some things better.
For instance we conveniently forget Canada was built on land stolen from the indigenous people who have been treated shamefully. Recent governments have been trying to make amends but there’s still a long way to go.
I don’t know if it counts as a problem, but the current situation with our provincial government is, well, bizarre.
The media are having a field day with Premier Christy Clark’s sudden — and somewhat astonishing — veer to the left. However it turns out we’ll deal with it. That’s the Canadian way isn’t it?
In the meantime we have this birthday to celebrate. There’s enough happening here on Saturday to keep everyone busy, so Happy Birthday to us, and enjoy.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian and book author.