Dear Editor:
(In response to last weeks letter to the editor, I want my country back.)
I am so very grateful to have been born a Canadian and to have enjoyed the privilege of living in a country with one of the highest standards of living on the planet. I do, however, take issue with the notion that we are somehow special in the eyes of anyone in the world but ourselves.
Much like a spoiled and entitled child, we cling to a self-inflated ideal of our place on the world stage. For those of us who yearn to be seen as the worlds polite, peacekeeping little darling keep dreaming. While I agree that Mr. Harper is quite the wanker, he is far from responsible for the way we are currently perceived around the globe.
When you say I want my country back, what country is that? Is it the one that rejected thousands of Jews fleeing Hitler during the Second World War, and continues to turn away many refugees today?
Is it the one that betrayed its First Nations people and forced Chinese slaves to toil and die working on its railroads? Or is it the one that has committed its fair share of war crimes in the past and not so distant past?
How about the one that still exports asbestos? I wonder how much longer we will believe this mindless, nationalistic garbage that passes for patriotism.
Canadians must wake up and notice that if we are a world leader, it is in rampant consumerism, waste on a hideous level, and self-importance. I would love to be seen as a country with a backbone. Maybe if we can accept some hard truths about ourselves and our country, the world around us might just respect us for being real and ready to acknowledge that we have our good and bad aspects, just like every other nation on earth.
Kim Baker
Invermere
