For the first time in my life, I will be celebrating Canada Day outside of my beloved nation. Do not worry fellow Canadians, I am not abandoning us on our day of independence. I assure you, it was purely coincidental. My love for Canada runs deeper than hockey and maple syrup and beavers. It's about waking up every morning with the inhalation of freedom and safety that exists never having to live in war and oppression. I am proud that we have Syrian refugees plotted across Canada to be as far as possible from war, but with a silver lining, also as far as possible away from their home. I like knowing that I was provided with an education that has given me an advantage, skills, and knowledge to fulfill my dreams. I have faith that our healthcare system, which is essentially free and imperfect, will give me doctors and nurses that will do the best they can to fix me. I like that my government actually cares, even if many disagree, because they are formed of Canadians whose intentions are to grow and move this country forward on many social issues, including LGBT rights, minority rights, and environmental protection. I proudly call Canada home.
For the first time in my life, I will be celebrating Independence Day in the United States of America. USA, our biggest ally. I'm sorry, as Canadian as an apology may be, for never attending your birthday until now. I hope you put on a wonderful show for me and my boys. But there are some things that upset me about your country and it's deeper than football and apple pie and bald eagles. I don't like waking up here knowing that there could be a mall in lock-down a few blocks away. I don't like your inability to realize that Syrian refugees are people looking to be plotted across your country in shelter as far as possible from war. I don't like knowing that your country, the richest nation in the world, cannot provide its children with top-notch education and as a result, it has put your people without an advantage over cheap labour, with a lack of skills, and with a lack of knowledge to pursue their own dreams. I do not have faith that if I am injured while on vacation that your healthcare has my interest at heart because I am in a position where it will cost me an arm and a leg to fix my arm and my leg. I don't like that your government has no energy to focus on social issues, including LGBT rights, minority rights, and environmental protection, because you spend most of the debates arguing about gun control. I proudly call Canada home.
To put this into perspective, in Canada, we're currently arguing about the carbon tax issue and why Parliament is wasting time and resources debating over a gender neutral national anthem which was the dying wish of a Member of Parliament. But in America, you continue to have a decade-long argument about gun control which is brought up every time there is a mass shooting, which is literally everyday. Yet, you continue to make little strides in protecting your own citizens. It makes my nation's squabbles and political debates seem so petty. And all Canadians should feel so grateful that our nation is peaceful enough that our debates at all levels of governments are so "meaningless."
Nobody I know talks about going to America to be a doctor or a movie star anymore. Nobody wants to deal with a country that makes people contemplate if they should go to a hospital or save a few thousand dollars. In Canada, I drive to work knowing that the school behind my house won't go into lock-down and the only guns at the gym are the biceps on those buff guys.
And to my American friends that are against gun control, it works. It has worked in your country and it works everywhere else. Ask us, Japan, Australia, Sweden, Norway, England, France, Italy, Hong Kong, China, Germany, Switzerland, Iceland, Cyprus, Finland, and Czech Republic, just to name a few. Because here's the thing, by the end of today, whatever day you have chosen to read this, there probably has been more mass shootings in America than the combined amount of mass shootings in all of the nations I listed above.
I come to visit America because your nation has great cities and monuments, but these are all symbols from your rich past. Those skyscrapers, those cities, those statues were all made decades ago. When I walked into America, I didn't get that same 20th century feel that once existed in the streets. People's eyes do no light up with fire and passion and wanderlust. They walk with sorrow because they have no job and they cannot afford to cure their ailments and their child has just died in a school shooting. This is what has happened to America and it's a complete shame.
Canada, you have continued to rise in my heart and I am grateful for everyone and everything that makes our country so wonderful and the envy of so many. It is not a perfect country and it never will be through the eyes of thirty some odd million, but it's my home. Happy Canada Day, and yes, to our neighbours, with a "u", Happy Independence Day. I truly hope as our biggest friend that you can be the country that once was because it will make the world a whole lot better.
