My Home And Native Land | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: My Home And Native Land | Previous Challenge Entry
By Debbie Thorkildsen
02/05/09
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The name Canada comes from an Iroquoian word, “kanata,” meaning “village” or “settlement.”

My four-year-old daughter just learned how to sing “O Canada” at school. She changes the words a little. To her, it isn’t our home and native land; it’s our home and naked land. I guess she didn’t understand the word native, but she knows what naked means.

I love Canada and being Canadian. It’s such a privilege to live in this country. Canada first began in 1867. It has ten provinces and three territories. The provinces are as diverse as the people who live here. Each province has its own capital city, bird, tree, flower and flag.

Canada has two official languages - English and French. The English spoken in Newfoundland is very different from anywhere else in Canada. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province with both English and French spoken there. French is the official language of Quebec.

Canada is home to the Inuit and First Nations peoples, as well as many who fled their countries seeking religious liberty, peace and a new life. It is also home to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada geese and polar bears. I’m proud of our Canadian flag of red and white with the maple leaf in the centre.

During times of war, Canadian soldiers have stepped in, preferring to be peacekeepers, but fighting alongside other countries with similar value systems for the sake of a country overrun by tyrants.

Even Canadian history is interesting with this country being the destination of the underground railroad from the southern United States, a safe place for runaway black slaves. There were also gold rush days in the Yukon with many places there only accessible by dog sled teams.

There is oil produced in Alberta, but the very first oil well in North America was dug in Oil Springs, Ontario where I spent my childhood years. They hit a gusher which took many days to cap and get control of.

In Canadian medical science, insulin was discovered as a treatment for diabetes in Toronto, Ontario in 1922 by Dr. Fredrick Banting, Charles Best (a medical student at the time of the discovery), Professor J. J. R. Macleod and Dr. James Collip.

The Dionne quintuplets, Yvonne, Annette, Emilie, Cecile and Marie, were born in Corbeil, Ontario to Oliva and Elzire Dionne on May 28, 1934. They aroused worldwide attention after their birth because they were identical and they survived with the help of Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe.

Canada has many alleged lake monsters. Ogopogo is reported to live in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. Manipogo, a serpent like sea monster, lives in Lake Manitoba and was first sighted in 1908. The Turtle Lake Monster lives in Saskatchewan. Champ lives in Lake Champlain off the province of Quebec. These cryptids seem to be distant, yet less famous, relatives of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland.

Want a few more interesting Canadian facts? Hockey, basketball and ringette are all sports designed by Canadians. Tobogganing also originated in Canada. Canadians pronounce the last letter of the alphabet "zed" instead of "zee." The Canadian Pacific Railway was built to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts. Canadians add a ‘u’ to words such as these: labour, honour, favour, colour, etc. We, Canadians, are a conservative bunch too, eh?

Some interesting Canadian sight seeing adventures can be taken all across the country: the rising and falling tides and whale and seal watching on either the Pacific or Atlantic coasts; hiking at Lake Louise or riding a Gondola in Banff, the Medicine Hat Rodeo or the Calgary Stampede in Alberta; skiing on the mountains across the country; Niagara Falls, the CN Tower and the multiculturalism of Toronto in Ontario; winter carnivals in Quebec; Peggy’s Cove or sailing on the Bluenose from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; Green Gables in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island and living in the story of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery for a day; the many wonderful museums, castles, art galleries, zoos, botanical gardens, forests, grand old churches, bridges, waterfalls or lighthouses across this beautiful country. Exploring Canada is a grand adventure.

Canada, with its diversity of cultures and landscapes, from the picturesque seaport of Vancouver, through the Rocky Mountains, flat wheat lands of the prairies, bordering on the beautiful great lakes, to the quaint fishing villages in the Atlantic provinces, Canada will always be my home and native land.

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