A proud, albeit extremely embarrassed, Canadian

by - Wednesday, November 06, 2013

I love being Canadian.

I love that the rest of the world seems to like us.  We're great peacekeepers, great hockey players, and we say "eh" a lot without even realizing it.

We eat maple syrup and poutine (not together though, that would be too much of a good thing), and really - is there any better bacon than Canadian bacon?

When I travel, I love displaying my Canadian flag.  Maybe it's because I'm polite and say "sorry" a lot, maybe it's because I'm not ignorant to the cultures of the world... but when people ask where I'm from, and I say Canada... I never get a dirty look.  Instead, I get - I know Bob... in Halifax... do you know him?

No... I don't know Bob from Halifax, but I'm sure he's a stand up guy.

But lately, I'm rather embarrassed by my country... or specifically high up politicians in my country.

The Mayor of Toronto, who has been denying it for months, admitted yesterday that he has tried crack, probably in the last year, but doesn't really remember because he was probably in a drunken stupor.

Yeah... the mayor of the fourth largest city in North America just admitted that he's smoked crack.

But it's not just that... it's that he's been drunk at public events while on the job.  It's the fact that he's a giant bully and liar.  It's the fact that for months now, the Toronto city council has done a whole lot of nothing except deflect, deflect, deflect.

And yet, he won't step down, because he loves his job and the city.  Apparently he doesn't love his city enough to know that he's done nothing but make it the laughing stock of the international media.

And then we have Senators, representing the upper house of parliament in Canada, who have cheated taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for claiming housing and expense claims for which they were not entitled.

Three Senators were suspended for the rest of the parliamentary sitting yesterday because of this (not to mention one of them is also charged with assault and sex assault)... and they don't think that they've done anything wrong.  Really?

If I claimed even $100 of money that wasn't owed to me rightfully at my place of employment, I'd be fired.  No questions asked.  Fired.  It doesn't matter if I offer to, or even pay back the money... I'm no longer a trustworthy employee.

If I got drunk while representing my place of employment, I'd have been fired.  Maybe with an offer of addictions counselling, but in the end, fired.

There should not be a double standard for elected officials.  You break the law, you break the public's trust, you break the moral code that should just be automatically assumed when in office... you leave.  You do the best thing for your city, country and constituents, and you leave.

I shouldn't be embarrassed to be a Canadian because these people's "issues" are all over the international news... I should be proud, because being a Canadian is pretty cool.

Most of the time.

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