Oh, Canada and the Anniversary of the Confederation


July 1 is the Anniversary of the Canadian Confederation.  Congratulations good friends.
The histories of Canada and the United States are intertwined.  And it is not just our Anglo-ancestors, but out Native Americans (First Nation’s people in Canada) and paleo-selves who are all part of one historical tapestry.  Canada and the United States share a common geography, geology and pre-history.  In modern times Canadians and Americans are frequently like cousins.  We can fight among ourselves all we want but nobody else gets to pick on one without the other stepping in.  The truth is, Canada is not just our closest neighbor, it is our best friend. 
Canadians have added their wit, wisdom and talent to the pool of people throughout North America, and all our lives would be the less without their contributions.  No less than 13 Canadians have won Nobel Prizes in science.  Some of our favorite authors (Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow and Lucy Maud Montgomery) are Canadians.  The list of singers, actors, comedians and entertainers goes on for pages. Even one of our American heroes of the old west, William “Bat” Masterson was Canadian.  The man who invented basketball, the only entirely “American” sport is James Naismith, a Canadian.  There is no field, business or industry that you could name that you could also not find a Canadian that played a key role.
But, in Canada as in the United States, the people to whom we owe tremendous debts are frequently those whom we never know at all.  I learned about some of those men when I was visiting some friend on Vancouver Island.  We were visiting a memorial to Korean War Veterans on Radar Hill in the interior mountains.  What I read there was inspiring. 
These Canadians were the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (2 PPCLI) and their moment of exceptional valor occurred during the Battle of Kapyong, April 22-25, 1951.  The Korean War is frequently referred to as the, “forgotten” war.   It certainly isn’t by those who fought there, much less the heroic Canadians who, outnumbered 7 to 1 by battled hardened Communist Chinese troops, called in air strikes against their own position to avoid being overrun.  Choosing to face, “friendly fire” rather than allow a Chinese victory, Captain J. G. W. Mills, called for a withering artillery barrage against the enemy.  It succeeded.  His men, disciplined, prepared, well led and determined, survived the shelling and inflicted their own intense damage on the hordes of infantry coming towards them. 
I was awed by the courage of these men.  To be willing to absorb the hit of your own artillery in the hope of victory is an act of tremendous courage.  Add to this the fact that they weren’t even defending their own land or people.  They were on that miserable hill in Korea to protect the retreat of the South Korean soldiers.  Those Canadian men were there because they were fighting for something more abstract than, “God, Queen and Canada.”  They were fighting for freedom.   You need only look now at the difference between North and South Korea today to see how important that is.
Canadians have fought beside us.  They have enriched our lives.  They have been more than our friends, they have been our family.  God bless them on this, their special day.
Oh, Canada, you keep the faith.

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