It’s Canada Day
I suspect that my readers today will not be Canadian, so I thought I’d mention it to those of you who do read today [even though I suspect that there will be very few of you today since those of you who found this blog would likely have done so by way of SpendMatters or e-Sourcing Forum, maintained by my southern neighbors in the United States of America where tradition demands that if a major holiday falls on a Tuesday you take Monday off and start partying the Friday before (I know, I lived among you for over 3.5 years and still spend most of my time working with you)].
Now, I know that we sometimes appear as just a blip to our southern neighbors from an economic perspective, since the GDP and population of California are about equal to our own, but we are the world’s second largest country by area (and our Ontario can hold Texas three times with room to spare) and the world’s major peacekeeping force in war time. (We may not always be the first to back up our southern neighbors in their rush to march off to war, but we are usually the first there to help rebuild and keep the peace when the battles are over.)
And even though we are sometimes seen as part of the British Commonwealth, we are completely independent, having severed the last of the symbolic ties back in 1982 with the Canada Act (as part of a lengthy peaceful process that started back with Confederation in 1867, when we first gained independence).
Up here in Canada we have ten provinces and three territories. The province I currently reside in is Nova Scotia and the city where I live is part of the Halifax Regional Municipality, which was formed back on April 01, 1996 (even though some residents thought it was a joke at the time) when four converging cities, including two cities on either side of the main harbour, joined to form the largest city in the Atlantic provinces (which also consist of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, a continuing foundation of our Canadian Comedy).
For more information on Canada, check out the Wikipedia page, and for more information on the origins of Canada day, see our government page. Although we did not celebrate this day much in our early history, when ties with Britain were still strong, it’s a very big celebration these days, especially on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, our nation’s capital. To see what we are up to, check out the NCC site.
On an unrelated note, Saturday posts are going to disappear for most of the summer. If I have something pressing, I’ll post, otherwise, since I’m covering weekends over at e-Sourcing Forum until the fall, I’ll be taking this day off from Sourcing Innovation.
So, happy Canada day and remember … if you’re American, it’s a great excuse to party early!