Independence v. Canada Day
There is also a sense of history prevalent in American festivities. In as much as primarily Americans focus on eating, drinking and making merry, the revelry has a basis of throwing off the chains of tedium in the everyday work life - breaking free as it were. It's more than just a party; the national holiday is rooted in "who we are, how we got here and what that means to us."
Canada's celebration of Confederation - the formal reason for the holiday on July 1st - seems much less rooted in history. Few would argue that Confederation itself wasn't a significant event or worth celebrating, only that it was perhaps less dramatic than American independence.
In fact, the nature of our negotiated autonomy from colonial rule really justifies our somewhat lower key celebration. One could argue that instead of battling and defeating the British, our Confederation and independence grew in progressive steps: from legislative assembly to Dominion; to establishing our own strength in foreign affairs at the Treaty of Versailles to the Statute of Westminster in the 1950's, granting us greater control over our legal system; to the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982 to continued debate and discussion over membership and responsibilities within the Confederation itself.
Rather than looking back, Canada Day seems to celebrate who we are as a country now and how we continue to grow and evolve. Sure we have things we need to work on and issues that we need to solve, but the whole world recognizes that we're trying and we're doing many things better than any other nation on earth.
The truth is we celebrate Canada on the birthday of Confederation out of convenience. The act of Confederation itself isn't the achievement; our fireworks speak to our twentieth century achievements: our world recognition as leaders in the pursuit of peace, justice and development throughout the world.
And no, unlike our most recent famous Canadian caricature, Joe Canadian - he who ranted for beer - our Canada Day celebrations ought not to focus on the fact that we're not American. Canada Day is about celebrating who we are: we're proud of our country, we're pleased with who we are and we don't generally need to shout about it. A little face painting, clowns and balloon animals and a holiday is made.
The best part of having experienced both national holidays is that one really isn't better than the other. That the
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