I hate Canada Day. I have zero faith in Canada, yet everyone around me talks about how "amazing" and "perfect" it is, but I do not see it anymore. I haven't seen it in years and, honestly, I've gotten to the point where I've stopped referring to myself as Canadian.
Some might say, but aren't you Canadian? Legally? Yes. Emotionally or spiritually? The cracks started going on a quarter century ago, though I'd say I fully checked out over 15 years back, and I haven't really kept track since, it was such a slow disconnect from this hell.
I mean, what does Canada have anymore as an identity?
Health care? Yeah, you'll be lucky to get a doctor before dying in the ER.
Music? We haven't had a truly new Canadian cultural export in music since Lights in the 2010s.
Movies? Well, other than the 2023 BlackBerry biopic, I can't really think of any truly Canadian film that came out that was genuinely new.
Hell, TV in Canada is a joke as well. I am sorry, but "North of North" is not a good comedy, yet it somehow got the Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy Series in 2025? What happened? Canada used to give so much in terms of comedy and culture.
In the 2020s, I can only name two good Canadian comedies, and both were not new IP; rather, they were existing content: the band mockumentary "Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story" and Science Saru, the Japanese anime studio that adapted Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley into an anime.
American sci-fi filmed in Canada doesn't even take Canada seriously. Look at Star Trek: Strange New World, which makes a comment about Toronto's Dundas Square [I refuse to call it Sankofa Square].
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [Season 2, Episode 3] makes a joke that by the 23rd century, Canada is long gone, as they say "It's Toronto, the biggest city in what used to be called Canada." While standing in Dundas Square
Hell, Dundas Square could be a whole rant in itself. It was iconic, it was our Piccadilly Circus, our Shibuya Crossing, our Times Square. And what did Toronto under the moronic Olivia Chow do? She and her overpaid leeches at 100 Queen St renamed it and so many other landmarks, but that's for another time.
To be perfectly honest, I am glad they haven't rebuilt 100 Queen St, since that building is beautiful with its neo-expressionist architectural style. But when so much of the rest of Toronto and Canada in general has lost what made it iconic, it's not really a positive, just a consolation prize if anything.
So hey, maybe that's something to look forward to. With leaders like Trump talking about taking over Canada for the past year, we can hope something will change, since with the ongoing trade issues between Canada and the US, it's likely not gonna get much better. To borrow a term from a classic Canadian character, "Mike from Canmore":
"I sew my country flag onto my backpack so when I travel, people won't overcharge me, since they'll know my dollar isn't worth a pinch of loon spit."
While we're on the topic of leaders, I am sorry Mark Carney, I don't respect you as a leader either. You come back to Canada claiming you'd "help us," yet you were the Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020 and oversaw some of the worst recovery in England, but that's not for this rant blog. [that deserves its own post with the numbers to back it up.]
Canada, I am sorry, but in the end I really need to turn away in shame from this country and go grab a few things before the stores close for this useless holiday people call "Canada Day."
We have nothing to be proud of, but we still have this holiday?