Canada's Birthday Weekend

It's that time of the year again, Ms J. It's Canada Day. Officially, it'll be on Sunday. July 1. Yup. That's our day. That's our big, happy, festive, sunny summer day when some thirty million Canadians celebrate the birth of our nation. The original event occurred on July 1st, 1867 in the Atlantic city of Charlottetown in Canada's tiniest province, Prince Edward Island.

By most standards, we're a young nation. One hundred and forty years old. Compared to European countries, I reckon we're still adolescent. And we're still experiencing growing pains as we mature: multi-culturalism, legal reform, foreign affairs policies, and a thousand special interest groups with the French separatists leading the charge. Apparently, the French have never quite recognised their military defeat at the hands of the British on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. Get over it, people. Is it so terrible to be a hyphenated-Canadian? Every other nationality in the world seems OK with it.

This weekend, the big news story is the travel disruption caused by Canada's First Nations people. I call them Indians, Ms J. But I suppose that's not acceptable anymore. The government calls them Aboriginals. The media call them First Nations. They call themselves poor, downtrodden, disadvantaged, ignored, and by now, fed up. They've set up blockades to prevent rail and road traffic on the country's busiest corridors. They want to "educate" Canadians, and induce us to "hear their stories." Travellers on this first, and busiest long weekend of the summer, will be in no mood to listen.

VIA Rail has cancelled train service between Toronto and Montreal. There will be a lot of disappointed people, Ms J. A lot. And those whose travel plans involve major roads will incur lengthy delays as well. On the bright side though, my malevolent, and fiercely hated employer will be unable to operate their highly profitable freight trains in that region. And that leaves me smiling.

So, all things considered, it'll be a good weekend for me. I spent yesterday with Dan and Meagan. And I have no plans to travel this weekend. I'm off to work on a GO train this afternoon and, if the police don't force the Injuns to remove their rail blockade, I may get some time off this weekend.

Ahhh, summer. Life's good, Ms J. God bless those Natives.

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