Cyril Doll on Canada Day celebrations in Calgary. Which is today, of course. (Only in Canada do we work on our national holiday, if it means trading it for a long weekend.)
Last Sunday, I was counted among the 30 odd thousand fans who attended the Stampeder-Alouettes football match. In a fit of unbridled patriotism the staff working the doors to McMahon stadium enthusiastically handed out little Canadian flags to the good people in attendance. “Maybe Shelia Copps will be singing the national anthem,” I wondered to myself. Alas, time told that was not the case.
As the game wore on and the Alouettes successfully began to lay the smack down on the Stamps, my attention diverted away from the field to the stands itself. I noticed hundreds of these little flags gracing the cement floor of the bleachers, along with all the spilt beer, chewing gum and excess nacho cheese. Unfortunate, but again I say you would never see such disrespect for a flag in America nor I suspect Mexico nor as say Croatia nor Germany. Maybe because those countries actually fought for their independence, whereas we Canadians were thrown a bone from Great Britain once they figured they had all the fur they needed? Was it not our first Prime Minister who ran with this British style of governance and then gave it to us making so bold as to claim the West will be Canada�s crown colony? Now, as a Westerner it seems to me that these reports of patriotism- gone-bad maybe stem from this laid-back Canadian attitude. Oh well, since nobody else is here this morning maybe I’ll just go and do my Canadian duty and hit the pub, because I… am… Canadian.
Yup.