National, Political and Cultural

National, Political, and Cultural. What are we? Where do we belong? All three of these identities are evident in our daily lives, and although we may not be aware of it, they affect our lifestyles in a large way. We as Canadians have great national pride. Walking through Abbott's halls I tried to count the number of Canadian flags on other student's backpacks and ended up losing count. We drink Molson Canadian and worship the dreadful Montreal Canadiens. This is national identity, we do these things because we love our home, this is where we belong, and we are proud to call ourselves Canadian's.

The general public's knowledge or interest in political functions is minimal, and I fit that category. Politics, especially in this country, are quite boring. This is more than evident when one looks at the low voter turn out at the last national election. No one really cares, but this however it a mistake as there are many issues which must be closely looked at, particularly in Quebec, where the French population seems to believe that they "belong" in their own country, but I won't get into that, or this paper will never end.

Canada is a very young country, and therefore much of its population immigrated here not so long ago. Due to this, Canadian culture is very diverse. It incorporates many traditions from other countries, and brings them all together to form the Canadian culture. Humans cherish their culture and heritage; take a ride around downtown Montreal and you'll find China town and little Italy. The people who live in these areas still have strong beliefs in the culture they were raised in, despite being thousands of miles from their homeland. There is however one tradition which is purely Canadian, one which is known worldwide as "Canada's Game", that's hockey, and we as proud Canadians hope this remains an integral part of our lives. Let's just see if our government helps out.