Our Home and Native Land...

Canada is a great country to live in, and I feel very blessed to have been born into such a society. While not perfect, we have a good system of social welfare, and universal health care. We are largely conscious of our diplomatic relations to other nations, and strive for peace, both within our borders and on a global level. We offer relatively equal opportunity to everyone, so that it doesn't matter what your background is, you can make something of yourself. We have a diverse population, and get along peacefully with each other. We are taught to respect and embrace differences in culture, religion, and opinion. We also have a diverse terrain that is rich with natural resources.

Northern Lights

However, there are aspects of our culture and nation that trouble me. One of these aspects is our dependence on oil. It is one of our major natural resources, and it brings in such high profit, so we are hesitant to seek alternatives. This puts us at a disadvantage in the Kyoto Protocol. We are not changing our ways fast enough to meet the goals we set for ourselves. Another negative aspect of our culture is our lack of nationalism. We have a lot to be proud of! Yet we yield. Canada also tends to sweep aside long standing issues, and pretend they aren't present, such as the potential separation of Quebec, and other important issues. We are overly hesitant to change laws, so we pretend we don’t have to until the very last minute. We also have a strange relationship to the US. We claim moral superiority, and distinctness from them, yet we have an inferiority complex in areas such as culture and entertainment and world prominence. The US is basically the only country we compare ourselves to, and we compare the two countries almost constantly.