This past Canada Day, I joined the parade to show what I appreciate so much about this country.
I helped carry a banner that said “I love a Canada that…”. Others held up signs that completed that phrase with what they valued about our country.
As I carried the large banner along the parade route, many options kept running through my head about what I would have liked to put on a sign:
I love a Canada that makes evidence-based decisions and respects scientific and community knowledge.
I love a Canada that focuses on how to get rid of jails, not build more.
I love a Canada that values opposing views and doesn’t demonize people with different opinions and values.
I love a Canada that takes a lead locally and internationally on human rights, environmental protection and peace.
These were just some of the options I came up with. Happily, the signs carried by many other community participants in the parade also shared many of the important things on my list (about fisheries, national parks, health care, libraries and archives, transparent and ethical leadership, social programs, education, CBC and more).
If you have something you would have liked to put on a sign, consider sharing your thoughts by writing to the editor, and to our MP, Ryan Leef. How would you complete this sentence: “I love a Canada that…”?
Jennifer Ellis
Whitehorse/Body