Canada Day Musings

There’s nothing worse than the idle, self-indulgent musings of a over-caffeinated procrastinator, but it’s Canada Day and I (Paul) am stuck in Toronto, trying (unsuccessfully) to work in a Queen St. coffee shop, and I can’t help but wonder why the heck I’m not at a cottage, or at least by the water, with friends, engaging in the most ‘Canadian’ of pass-times (if you believe that Molson pitchman at least): drinking and lighting things on fire.

An odd thing, after the wave of multi-nationalistic furor that enveloped this city during the European Cup, to step outside my door and see no flag-waving drunks chanting wildly about the ‘True North Strong and Free’. Odd to think that, despite all of the thinking the three of us have done about “Canada’ and “Canadianness” of late, that this day leaves me feeling little more than an almost torpid calm.

It doesn’t make me think about how few Canadians know their own history any more. Or how too many of us off-handedly dismiss our nation’s potential. Or engage with our own politics. No, those thoughts tend to percolate the ole brain on other days, but not today.

Today, I just want to escape this coffee shop, unshackle myself from this laptop, throw off all thoughts about what needs to be done tomorrow, or the next day, or the next.

Yes, I need to escape this place. What on earth am I doing?

I’m off.

Happy Canada Day everyone.