Well, yes I am. I was going to write about how proud I am to be a Canadian and to live in Canada. I see these travel shows about the exotic places in the world and I thought about what we have here. We are surrounded by three oceans, we have mountains and valleys and lots and lots of water. More than 50% of the world’s fresh water lakes are within our borders. That’s awesome! We have the highest tides in the world. And the best poutine.

I could probably go on and wax philosophical about the inventions Canadians are credited for: light bulbs and zippers, pablum and insulin. And the people that the world loves: Jim Carey, Mike Myers, Donald Sutherland . . .the list is quite extensive. And then, in true Canadian fashion it hit me. I was bragging.

My mother raised me to be a good girl. Mostly. I think Canadians should brag, a little. But we should also be aware of our failings. We’re not perfect. We have a history that we are not always proud of. We mistreated our native peoples. In many ways we still do. But we are trying to change. Our beautiful oceans are not as clean as they should be. We need to take responsibility for them. We are trying.

Our flora and fauna, that is in some cases found only here, don’t always get the recognition and protection they need to continue. Perhaps it’s because we don’t want the rest of the world to know we’re not perfect or because we are ashamed. We don’t need to be ashamed, we just need to fix what is broken and to protect what is not. But isn’t that the same the entire world over?

Canada truly is a beautiful country. And we are a good people, mostly. We seem to spend a lot of time apologizing for a few of us.