What it Means to be Canadian (Perspectives from a 7-Year--Old)

On this Canada Day, I asked my 7-year-old to share her thoughts on being Canadian. What does it mean to live in Canada? What does it mean to be a Canadian? What makes Canada a special place to live?

Her 10 answers were surprisingly deep. That said, in case you can't quite see the deepness I've added my own "David making sense" commentary to help you get there.

1. My friends and teachers live here. If I wasn't here, I never would have met them.

David making sense... Here our 7-year-old is pointing out the importance of multiculturalism and tolerance in Canada. She also extols our education system. Digging deeper, there's a bit of the if-a-tree-falls-in-a-forest question implied as well: If she didn't live in Canada would her Canadian friends and teachers still be friends and teachers never having met her, or would they just be people? Speaking of fall...

2. Sometimes it's summer and sometimes it's winter. In some places it's cold in summer and in some places it's hot in winter. In Canada, in the summer you can play summer games and in the winter you can play winter games.

David making sense... In Canada, we enjoy an array of seasons - sometimes in a single week. That seasonal variety enables Canadians to be mediocre in all sports, instead of being really good at any one specific sport by focusing on it all year round (the exception, of course, is hockey because Canadians are the only people who have Tim Hortons to drink when their kids are playing it). We do love winning, but we love trying hard just as much. And if (when) we are disappointed with the outcome in a given sport, along comes the next season and we quickly move on. Where else but Canada?

3. I like the food. McDonald's here is better than in other places.

David making sense... Say no more about Canadian food. My 7-year-old thinks McDonald's is the culinary signature of our country. The wife and I were recently talking to some Americans in Stratford Ontario. We passed an Asian restaurant that proclaimed it served "Canadian Food". They asked what that means. We answered that it means the food is bad. McDonald's, on the other hand, is the place to get good, distinctly Canadian food. McDonald's elsewhere can't compare (unless of course you've eaten there, which our 7-year-old has not).

4. I like shoe stores.

David making sense... Shoes matter. Especially with the Canadian seasons changing all the time. You can tell a lot about a country by its footwear. In Canada, we have lots of it and many, many places where you can buy it. With two sisters in their twenties, our 7-year-old has seen her share of shoe stores and clearly she has chosen to like being there. What she doesn't like so much is shoes (and socks for that matter). She routinely spends 30 minutes trying to get her socks just right (so the little toe seam doesn't bother her, which it always does) and then her shoes just right (so that they don't put undue pressure on the socks' toe seam). Needless to say, I don't share her affinity for shoe stores.

5. Talking Canadian is nice.

David making sense... From eh to zed, there's no better language in the world. And Canadians use their language to say lots of nice things. So talking Canadian is synonymous with "nice", not to be confused with Nice (in France) where they speak French, which is not to be confused with the language that Canadians in Quebec speak.

6. We don't have tornadoes or earthquakes.

David making sense... Nothing ground-shaking here, other countries blow, Canada doesn't.

7. There's a spider living in our basement.

David making sense... Ahem. I can't make sense of this one. I don't know what she's talking about. If there was a spider living in our basement, surely it wouldn't be living anymore. Ahem.

8. People have pants. In other places people wear loin cloths (like Tarzan).

David making sense... We wear pants here, but not always and not everyone. For example, in our house, only the spider-killer wears pants. In other countries, loin cloths are a lot more common. And the problem with that is that when you're swinging through trees (like Tarzan) people can see up your loin cloth. When people say "Tarzan has balls" they don't mean he's courageous. But in Canada, where we talk nice, we'd never say something like that.

9. The baseball team has a bluejay, and bluejays are blue, my favourite colour.

David making sense... I'm just glad she didn't say hockey team. That makes her a much bigger sports fan than my other two daughters.

10. People can dye their hair.

David making sense... Clearly the 7 year old is reflecting on the freedom of expression we enjoy in Canada. People aren't persecuted for flamboyance, for looking different, for being different, and for showing who they are on the inside in how they make themselves up when they're out and about. All that said, in my family PEOPLE CANNOT DYE THEIR HAIR. Your hair is beautiful the way God gave it to you and once you change it, you can never go back to how it looks best. My wife has never dyed her hair and look how beautiful and young she still looks. So yes, in Canada people can dye their hair and all that stuff. Just not in this little corner of Canada.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!