Happy (belated) Canada Day! / Bonne fête (tardive) du Canada! 🇨🇦🍁

On essaie encore un fois!

Sorry for the second post but it seems yesterday that without explanation the mods took down my earlier image to mark Canada Day without a clear reason (I’ve asked but haven’t received any answer as to why my previous post was allowed to remain up, but this similar one about the U.S. was). I was saddened this happened, and I like to believe that it was an honest mistake that won’t repeat again.

At least one mod has apologized for the unjustified takedown of the previous post, and I’ve come back with a version that I hope addresses the feedback I received to better capture the essence of being Canadian.

Shortly after winning the presidential election last November, Donald Trump has made it clear he has no respect to Canada’s sovereignty, independence, or right to self-determination. In belittling our Prime Minister as ‘Governor’, repeatedly calling us the 51st state, and imposing unjustified tariffs on Canada, Donald Trump’s threats have tarnished a relationship between neighbours once anchored in deep trust, close ties, and friendly exchange. In good measure, it’s reignited a sense of patriotism and national pride that Canadians haven’t felt in a long time. It makes something an image like this to me not a way to shitpost or gloat about my country, but to the reflect on the values and ideas that makes Canada stand out across the continent and world as a beacon for stability, tolerance and pluralism.

Top row (L-R)

• Terry Fox doing his Marathon of Hope for cancer research in 1981
• The Monument to Multiculturalism, which stands proudly outside of Toronto’s Union Station
• Louis-Joseph Papineau, leader of the Parti patriote addressing supporters at the Assemblée des six comtés. Some of Papineau’s ideas helped to shape liberalism in Canada as we know it today, as well as the Liberal Party of Canada.

Middle row

• Moraine Lake at Banff National Park in Alberta, situated at the heart of the Canadian Rockies
• Mounties dressed in full ceremonial gear performing the famous Musical Ride
• An inukshuk, a wayfinding monument used by the Inuit people, with the Aurora borealis in the background in northern Manitoba

Bottom row

• Jean Chrétien advocates for ‘No’ at the Unity Rally in Montreal three days before a narrowly unsuccessful Quebec sovereignty referendum in 1995
• Indigenous Canadian Olympic ski jumper Alexandra Loutitt with an Indigenous-patterned Canadian flag
• Canadian soldiers storming Juno Beech in Normandy on D-Day

This country is far from perfect, and we are still a work in progress but every day I am honoured and privileged to call myself a Canadian. I am grateful for the values and principles our country is anchored in and hope that we can realize them together.

May we Canadians continue to live in a free, independent, and sovereign. May there always be a Canada that stands on its own.

Vive le Canada! 🇨🇦🍁