Finally, I'm celebrating both CANADA DAY and INDEPENDENCE DAY with a different outlook...

I believe I have the roaming countries in my blood because ironically, in the 1950's, both of my parents came from Europe and became citizens of the U.S. My Dad was from Italy and my Mom was from France. Both settled in New York City, where I was born.

This year, my family and I received our Permanent Residency in Canada, and so on Canada Day, I will have a different outlook on life. I will also be celebrating my native country’s July 4th holiday.

Our Canadian Permanent Residency got me thinking about how the two countries celebrate their "independence".

Four years ago, in 2004, I experienced both national holidays: the U.S. July 4th and Canada's July 1st, having moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada from St. Joseph, Michigan, which was my last U.S. location.

It seems that most U.S. and Canadian communities usually have a fireworks display with family & friends attending barbecues and other events, including running marathons and sports. Canada's national sports are Hockey, Hockey, and more Hockey. Meanwhile, the U.S. has baseball and the anticipation of Football in the coming months.

In the U.S., independence is a bold idea for many citizens: the sense that one's life is affected by a struggle for freedom from an undesirable system of British rule. Thomas Jefferson and his small band of writers crafted their very own constitution from what the colonists wanted for governmental setup, taxation, and other laws - not from leftovers from anyone else's traditions.

The tradition of fireworks displays as a symbolic representation of our freedom stems from the collective memory of the cannon fire on the battlefields against the British in the War of Independence.

Instead, the Fourth of July festivities, like those on Canada Day, have a sense of family - surely a larger one - a national family!
My fellow Americans focus on eating, drinking and being merry; the beginning of summer tends to throw off the chains of the everyday work life and making people feel as though they are breaking free. It's more than just a party; the national holiday is rooted in who we are, how we got here, and what that means to us.

Canada's celebration of Confederation - the formal reason for the holiday on July 1st - seems much less rooted in history. Few would argue that Confederation itself wasn't a significant event or worth celebrating, only that it was perhaps less dramatic than the coming of the American Independence.

In fact, the nature of Canada’s negotiated autonomy from colonial rule really justifies a somewhat lower key celebration. One could argue that instead of battling and defeating the British, Canada’s Confederation and independence grew in progressive steps - from legislative assembly to Dominion to establishing their own strength in foreign affairs at the Treaty of Versailles to the Statute of Westminster in the 1950's - granting them greater control over their legal system - to the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982 to continued debate and discussion over membership and responsibilities within the Confederation itself.

Rather than looking back, Canada Day seems to celebrate who Canadians are as a country now and how they continue to grow and evolve. Sure Canadians have things they need to work on and issues that they need to solve, but the world recognizes that they're trying and doing many things better than any other nation on earth. Canadians are better world negotiators.

The truth is Canadians seem to celebrate Canada on the birthday of Confederation out of convenience. The act of Confederation itself isn't the achievement; their fireworks speak to their twentieth century achievements, including their world recognition as leaders in the pursuit of peace, justice and development throughout the world.

The best part of experiencing both national holidays is that one really isn't better than the other. The American celebration is bigger, bolder and brasher and it reflects the reality of how the United States of America came to be: its brazen beginning merits boisterous commemoration.
Canada, as polite, jovial and good humored as it is, continues to smile good-naturedly at comparisons to its brasher neighbor and wave smaller flags in celebration of what may yet come. It seems to be the most diplomatic of the two countries - and it shows.

That can be just as much reason to be patriotic towards my new country!

So let me know: what do you think about the similarities or differences between the two countries and their independence celebrations???