Happy Birthday! -Gregory Shamus/Getty
HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY, CANADA!
(Also 35th - 150th - 14,000th)
Today, the complete and only slightly confused nation of Canada as she’s known and beloved by so many – including the indigenous-governed territory of Nunavut – is a precocious 18 years old!
The country whose Constitution was repatriated from not-so-jolly olde England by Prime Minister Trudeau #1 (ending the Queen’s right of approval over amendments to Canada’s charter) – is a feisty 35-years-old!
(I celebrated this iteration of Canada’s 1st birthday by hoisting a bedsheet-size Maple Leaf ensign from Celerity’s spreaders in Tonga Vava’u – much to the amazement and consternation onboard the American yachts there.)
by West coast cartoonist Graham Harrop
Just four provinces, about one-third of present-day Canada, merged to form the Dominion of Canada (disenfranchising Canada's original inhabitants, while remaining part of the British Commonwealth) – a full 150 years ago.
Scooping the U.S. birthday by three full days, Canada celebrates the founding today of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick – and the Dominion they formed.
(First Nations are not celebrating.)
Wooden tool from 1st N. American settlement off Vancouver Island -Angela Dyck
What about Canada's very first birthday? Confirming the oral traditions of the Heiltsuk people, recent finds of spears, fishing hooks and fire-making tools on the present-day island of Triquet off northern Vancouver Island confirm the home of North America’s first paleo-seafaring people – 14,000 years ago.
On behalf of all B.C. paddlers and ex-pat American (and other) refugees like myself:
Thank You, Canada!
Immigrants fleeing the U.S. are welcomed into Quebec, Canada -Christinne Muschi/Reuters
by West coast cartoonist Graham Harrop