I am Canadian. I am part tree and part mountain and part rocky shoreline and part prairie dirt. I am a free range child of the sixties, born to hard working people who dreamed small dreams and worked relentlessly to give all their children bigger hopes than they had.

I have travelled across this country more times that I can count. In cars and buses and trains and boats and float planes, I have watched the glorious landscapes morph and change right before my very eyes. From arid deserts to rain forests to crashing waves and mountains of majestic ice, I have seen Canada and Canada has seen me.

All my words are because of Canada.

All my songs, all my art, my musings, my creations are because of this strong and fierce and free land.

Any courage I have, is Canadian.

Any grace I have acquired over my 6 decades here, is Canadian.

My failures and my triumphs are here in the dirt, forever part of whatever this wonderful place is.

My ability to think and reason is Canadian.

My heart is Canadian.

I can go out farther into the world and be courageous in my career and my art, because I am Canadian.

My gratitude over flows. It never stops.

People that come here from all over the world, to make this place their home, are as Canadian as I am. They are the soul and spirit of what makes us magical. We are all people. All colour. All religion. All beliefs. We see each other, and when we don’t get it right, we keep trying to get it right. We own our mistakes and we carry our misfortunes tenderly. We don’t give up.

We fight for goodness.

We stand for goodness.

We are not weak or timid, we are ferocious and tenacious and steadfast. We may falter, but we pull each other up, sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers.

We are ancient roots, spread across a vast and mysterious place, filled with riches and secrets beyond imagination.

I am this land. We are this glorious place.

Everyday, we show the world what it is to be Canadian.