Dare's Canada 150 Experience

Canada Day is the year celebration of the day Canada became a full country, uniting the once separate colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick to create one dominion under British Rule. Since then, we’ve become a mostly-independent country from England; while our history is imperfect and marred, we stand proud on this day for we can take pride in our nation and enjoy the freedoms and rights we have here.

My original plan to celebrate Canada Day was to go to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and take advantage of their free admission between 10:00 am and 5:30 pm. However, about 500 other people got the same idea and the line was around the block to get in. Not wishing to subject my physically disabled partner to standing in the 27-degree heat for well over an hour, we walked over to the Eaton Center to do some shopping and have lunch.

I would have liked to attend the events going on in Queen’s Park and Yonge-Dundas Square, but in a city with 3 million people in it and surrounding cities and towns totalling close to another million, it was very crowded and chaotic. The Eaton Center was nice but also mildly crowded, but we did some like shopping and got Mexican for lunch (we didn’t even get poutine).

After leaving the Eaton Center, we grabbed ice cream at Marble Slab and grabbed the GO train back home. I sort of wanted to attend the fireworks at the waterfront here in Pickering, but due to the holiday bus schedule, it would have made the trek home difficult, and we were very tired from our day out.

While my Canada Day did not go according to plan or was very Canadian, I still can appreciate all my country has given to me and others who live here. While we are far from perfect and equal, we strive to improve and move forward, however long or in whatever ways we can. I am proud to be Canadian, and I hope you are too.