On Monday Osoyoos will celebrate Cherry Fiesta, one of the biggest events of the year in this town.
This event that also marks the arrival of the cherry and fruit season coincides with Canada Day nationwide.
Canadians from Tofino to Torbay and Toronto to Tuktoyaktuk will be celebrating their pride for Canada in parades, barbecues, concerts, fireworks displays and in hundreds of other events unique to each community.
We’re lucky in this community because Osoyoos puts on one of the Canada Day celebrations in the country, especially for a community this size. Wherever you are though, the view of children with red painted faces and a sea of maple leaf flags reinforces the pride we have for our country.
Those who live here year round and never venture outside Canada sometimes fail to appreciate how good things are here compared to so many other parts of the globe.
No place is perfect and it’s easy to become negative about Canada’s shortcomings.
Our climate isn’t as nice in winter as more southerly locations, although Osoyoos doesn’t do badly in that department.
Our prices for consumer products and gasoline are higher than across the border. Our stars have to move to Hollywood to make it big. Etc. Etc.
But on matters that are truly important, Canada is at or near the top and many Canadians rightly believe that on balance, this country is the best place to live in the world.
Many of us are critical of our governments at the federal, provincial and municipal levels – sometimes with good reason.
But what country with this level of regional complexity has a perfect system of government?
We do very well compared to the gridlock of the American system, where members of Congress are routinely bought off by special interests and legislation is frequently held to ransom by those with narrow agendas.
Of course many countries of the world have completely dysfunctional governments and some are currently engaged in civil wars. Despots, theocrats, warlords and corrupt rulers govern many countries of the world.
Most developed countries were shaken by the economic downturn of 2008, but Canada’s diversified economy fared better than most. This is in part due to our solid banking system that resisted some of the wild speculative activity seen south of the border and in parts of Europe.
Currently our unemployment rate sits at just over seven per cent, which is not bad considering the double-digit figures in many other countries.
In Greece and Spain, for example, unemployment is currently around 26 per cent. Youth unemployment for people under age 24 is more than 40 per cent in Italy.
One of our greatest achievements as a country is to absorb such a mix of immigrants from all corners of the globe.
That’s not to suggest there’s no tension as people of different cultures and backgrounds learn to live with one another. But compared with tense racial relations south of the border, or the immigrant ghettos of many European countries, we do very well.
When Canadians celebrate Canada Day, some of the most enthusiastic ones waving the maple leaf are recent immigrants. We often take our safety for granted, but in most of Canada we can walk the streets at night without fear of being confronted by armed gangs or militias.
Our murder rate of 1.6 per 100,000 of population is at the low end internationally. The U.S. rate, by comparison, is 4.8 – more than three times as high. Many other countries fare far worse. Consider Honduras at 91.6 or Venezuela at 45.1 to name just two among the worst.
We are a country with a well educated population, stability and rich resources. We stand by one another in times of need, as seen most recently in the Calgary floods. Our technology sector is innovative. On Monday, let’s show our pride in Canada – and have lots of fun and enjoy the cherries too.
