I’m talking about blog posts about Canada being “the greatest country in the world”, or blog posts about “why Canada is the greatest country in the world” - I seem to remember more of them from last year, they seem to be few and far between today though.

I went through my regular reads after getting home from Parliament Hill this evening thinking I’d read at least a few of “the greatest country in the world” posts that had examples of why we are, as opposed to just writing out the words - posts that would give me a bit of a pick up, because to tell ya the truth folks, even after spending the afternoon and evening on the Hill, I just ain’t feeling it.

In retrospect it’s probably just as well I didn’t find the standard posts about “freedom and justice for all” - we don’t have that (did we ever?) and I’d probably have started an argument in the comments section over it.

Ditto for the “equality for all” meme - did we ever really have that one? Or does it just sound good, and if ya say it enough times ya start to think it’s true?

I didn’t see anything about our high standard of living either, probably a good thing - I’ve seen too much Canadian poverty, one picture of people living in a shack on the beach in the Canadian Arctic would dispel that one pdq.

Should we be proud that we’re not living in a society that’s too authoritarian or paranoid, at least not just yet…

– or that while we live in a society where segments of our population live in abject poverty and don’t even have access to decent drinking water, they are small segments and live far enough away that we don’t have to think about it too much?

– or how about being proud that our standard of living is high enough for most of society that only some of our peoples have suicide rates 7 - 10 times higher than that the majority?

– can we be proud that we’ve beaten racism? or sexual/religious intolerance?

No, it appears that they are still on the books as well.

So who is willing to offer me that little kernel of hope, that little spark of light, that just might convince me that while we may not live in “the greatest country in the world”, we do at least live in one that is significantly above mediocre.

UPDATE: Fenris Badwulf seems to be having some difficulty feeling the love as well, such is the state that we have been brought to by a succession of corrupt and greedy governments