…yes, Happy Birthday to Canada! It’s the big four-oh (plus one hundred). Lucky us: here in Quebec we’re enjoying our second long weekend in a row, more time to enjoy the Jazz Fest and the strangely cool weather of the last few days. Last weekend was la Saint-Jean, Quebec’s fête nationale. Today, one week later, is Canada’s 140th!

It’s hard to imagine that I’ve been alive for one quarter of my country’s history. If you were from San Marino, you’d have to be well over 400 years old to make that claim. On the other hand, if you were from Montenegro you could be 3 months old and still alive for quarter of your country’s history…

Turns out it’s also Princess Diana’s birthday (and about ten years since her death), and there’s that big Wembley concert her sons are putting on in her memory, that apparently 500 million are watching right now. Ah, Lady Di… I especially love saying her name the way they pronounce it in Spain: there, it sounds like “Laddie D,” which somehow I find very cute.

“Props” also to those in Hong Kong, who today are celebrating ten years since the end of British rule (basically the same thing we’re celebrating here!).

The expression goes: “As American as apple pie.” Well here, we’re so proud of our symbols, oh yes indeed — people today are talking about “the North,” the beaver, hockey, the Mounties…we’ve got our Seven Wonders…and yet a recent survey says that (my italics):

…around 30 per cent of Canadians say part of what makes Canada successful is the lack of a strong national identity.

Well, you know, at least we’ve got a nice personality…

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