True Patriot Love... But by whom?

After reading the article "Everybody Loves Us" I couldn't help but laugh at how completely accurate the article really is. Canada is one of the most (if not the most) popular country in the world, but it is only seen that way by people who dont consider it to be their home and native land. Canada prides itself in being a country of freedom, security, beauty, and racial diversity, and these qualities is how other countries see us, but very few people pride themselves in simply being a Canadian citizen.

According to the artice, Canadians don't like our lack of independance from America's influence. As we are a very new country, of course we will have taken the influences of other countries to build what is our National Identity. While we have learned a lot from American influence, we are still our own country, with our own seperate identity. Another criticism Canadians had was the lack of integrity of our government systems. Sure there have been instances where our governments integrity has been questioned, but we are still a democratic country, which is in my opinion, a step above countries living under the rule of tyrants, and dictators. While our government has made some mistakes, they are still elected by us, and so their mistakes are also partially our mistakes. The last major criticism the article pointed out was our limited impact on world affairs. In my opinion, this is just another area that i take pride in as a Canadian citizen. Canada is a country known as a peace keeping country. We have no enemies, and have rarely participated in wars over the course of our history. The fact that we have limited impact on world affairs is not accurate in my opinion, i think that we just don't hear about Canada's impact, because it is one based on peace, and building relationships with other nations.

All of these "flaws" people of Canada are said to have seem to have no impact on the people who aspire to immagrate to Canada however, as the two main areas listed as Canada's most appealing features were our beautiful natural environment, and the quality of life here in Canada. As a Canadian citizen, I think it would be fairly accurate to say that these two areas are among the most taken advantage of aspects of our great country. There are many wonderful attributes of Canada that are ignored by her own people, but as long as there are people who continue to see her beauty, and remind us what a great country we are taking advantage of.