Before I forget: Canada turned 159 today.
Canada is an improbably country. It is the second largest country in the world, but basically just uniting the leftovers of the North American continent after the United States formed. A country of English, French, not to mention First Nations… smaller in number but living here already for millennia before European settlers arrived. A country that hosts quaint small towns that sometimes resemble the British countryside, but also a characteristic North American metropolis like Toronto, complete with skyscrapers and networks of freeways. Not to mention oddities, such as the downtown walled core of Quebec City, Vieux-Quebec.
A country that, when things mattered most, punched far above its weight. With only 11 million inhabitants at the time, Canada played a nontrivial role in World War 2, among them creating a massive navy: The Royal Canadian Navy became the third largest Allied naval force in the world by 1945. Canada also played a substantial role in the Manhattan project and hosted much of the production facilities of the world’s first nuclear weapons development effort, Tube Alloys.
And last but not least, a country that remained a constitutional monarchy. A country with leaders who remain faithful servants of an institution that, though it appears dated and archaic at times, consistently proves to be the best guarantee of liberal democracy, the best safeguard against democratic backsliding. There is a reason why constitutional monarchies dominate the top of Freedom House’s freedom index, Canada among them. It’s almost as if the country was governed by wise felines as opposed to us, silly hairless apes.
So happy birthday, improbable Canada!