Just a week before Canada Day, a couple of famous Canadians passed through the hometown of The Western Producer.
Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings started their concert with what else but Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon.
When they returned for an encore after rousing renditions of Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive and Cummings solo hits, they carried a Canadian flag between them.
At one point in the show, Cummings observed that 10 minutes of watching CNN can make any Canadian want to kiss the soil of this country from sheer gratitude, and he spoke like one who knew it first-hand.
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He didn’t articulate but all Canadians, with the possible exception of Michael Ignatieff, could take a good stab at listing the reasons.
CNN isn’t known to Break It To Them Gently when it comes to reports of murder, mayhem and financial meltdown that seem rife in the United States. Whether it’s tales about the transgressions of an American Woman or the takedown of a Bus Rider, there’s seamy stuff on American newscasts.
In Canada, you might run across the occasional report of an Albert (Street) Flasher in Regina or some rowdiness when people Clap for the Wolfman, but mostly the populace is just Taking Care of Business.
Among Producer readers, a fair number have No Time to even watch television because they’re too busy thinking about a Rain Dance that could prevent them from having to Share the Land with their bankers.
These Eyes, like yours, have seen the beauty and peace of this country and we can Stand Tall in the knowledge that we’re part of it. We hope you spent Canada Day Laughing and enjoying the New Mother Nature, which has got to be similar, if not identical, to the old one.
We often define ourselves as Canadians by what we are not.
Not American, mainly.
Not 233 years old, as the United States will be on July 4, but rather a youthful and evolving just-turned 142 year old that celebrates its people, its land, its multiculturalism, its tolerance, its peace and its stability.
May none of that ever come Undone. Even in Canada’s hard times, when there’s No Sugar Tonight and we have to concentrate on Lookin Out For Number One, we’re working to ensure that our part of this Hand Me Down World is fit to hand down.
Hey You, sometimes I’m Scared that too many of our citizens don’t realize what a great country this is. Let It Ride, they say, in a lackadaisical way.
Good thing there are many others who know that when it comes to the greatness that Canada can achieve and produce and become, You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.
